Jim Schwartz backs Detroit Lions to improve next season

Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz has refused to label his side's 2013 season as a "failure", despite the fact that they did not qualify for the playoffs.

Schwartz said that he was pleased with the effort that his players put in this season, and was confident that they will turn things around next year.

"When I hear the word failure, I hear abject failure," he told the club's official website. "Like nothing goes right. That's the connotation I get from it. Maybe you feel a little bit different, but I don't feel that about our team.

"I'm still proud of our team. Our team comes to battle and they play though the game, we just come up and play short. If somebody else wants to term that being a failure, that's certainly their right to. I'm still a half-full guy."

The narrow defeat to the New York Giants ended the Lions' hopes of a playoff berth.