ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Jim Caldwell’s only goal is to win the Super Bowl. The problem for him and the Detroit Lions right now is they might be further away than they think.

“We’re a ways away right now,” Caldwell said Monday at his season-ending news conference. “Obviously we got into the tournament, that’s the number one thing you have to be able to do. Get in first. We had as good a chance as anybody else, 12 teams in it. As good a chance.

“And we just didn’t make it another step so that’s what we have to keep doing, giving ourselves opportunity. That’s the key.”

The Lions had no answers against the Seahawks. Steven Bisig/USA TODAY Sports

The Lions gave themselves a chance this season by making the playoffs at 9-7, while losing the last three games of the regular season. And Caldwell said Detroit is far away from a Super Bowl title after Detroit lost its fourth-straight game to a playoff team, 26-6, to Seattle in the wild-card round Saturday night.

Caldwell won Super Bowls twice as an assistant coach. He has reached the final game of the season once as a head coach, in Indianapolis following the 2009 season, and now he has reached the playoffs twice in his first three seasons with the Lions.

But the Lions have won only one playoff game in the Super Bowl era, let alone actually making a Super Bowl or winning one. Detroit hasn’t won an NFL championship since the 1957 season.

Detroit went 0-6 this year against teams that made the postseason, with two losses to Green Bay and one loss each to Dallas, Seattle, the New York Giants and Houston.

Caldwell, though, believes the Lions have a nucleus to be a team that makes the next steps in the future. He pointed to the resiliency of his team, with their eight fourth-quarter comeback wins, as a good building block for the future. He said his team has a “belief” now and an understanding how to operate, particularly late in games. So Caldwell said he’s “encouraged by this team, the way they fight and scratch.”

That said, Caldwell said this team did not exceed his expectations despite being a playoff team. That’s because of what his expectations are every season: Super Bowl or bust.

“Never exceed mine. Never,” Caldwell said. “Number one, my only goal is to win the Super Bowl, plain and simple. Nothing else other than that. That’s what we set out to do every single year and if we fall short of that I’m disappointed. Extremely.

“And not only did they not exceed my expectations. They didn’t exceed theirs, either, because they feel exactly the same way. And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to do it again.”