ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- With the Detroit Lions having lost five of their past six games and falling from first place in the NFC North to out of the playoff picture with a game remaining, embattled coach Jim Schwartz expressed disappointment on Monday.

He wouldn't, however, deem the team's season a failure.

"We didn't make the playoffs and it's obviously anybody's goal when they go in, so we didn't achieve that goal," Schwartz said. "But I don't know if I'd be as strong as to call it a failure. That was the word you used. I don't know if I'd be as strong to call it that.

"I think I said -- maybe at the halfway point, maybe even after four games, I think -- that the tale of this team would be in the second half of the season, and we haven't done a good enough job. It's been the quintessential close but no cigar."

Schwartz said he looks at the word "failure" as "abject failure," when everything goes wrong, not just enough to see a team drop five of six games, with all the losses coming after the Lions led in the fourth quarter.

In Detroit's 23-20 overtime loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, Schwartz turned and spoke indirectly to fans at Ford Field after the Lions (7-8) ran a trap play and then took a knee to head to overtime instead of taking a shot downfield with 23 seconds left in regulation.