In his postgame comments after Detroit’s 13-7 loss to Chicago on Monday night, coach Jim Schwartz acknowledged that the Lions’ defensive effort kept them in the game while the offense struggled to find its form.

Schwartz would have fit in nicely as a member of Detroit's defensive unit Tuesday as he tried to fend off challenges to the way the Lions have started the 2012 season and convince reporters and fans alike that the team can still contend for a playoff berth.

“We’re 2-4, but we certainly can’t overreact to [the loss],” Schwartz said. “We can’t dwell too long on this one. We have to put it in a spot and move on to Seattle. We have a home game coming up and we’re a team that needs a win.”

Schwartz’s belief that his team can bounce back from its lackluster beginning doesn’t mean that the fourth-year head coach is ignorant of the fact that Detroit has serious issues to correct if it wants to be relevant to the 2012 playoff discussion.

No. 1 on Schwartz’s list of priorities is finding a way for an offensive unit that has been absolutely stagnant in the first half of games to put points on the board early. The Lions were shut out in the first half Monday and haven’t held a lead at the half all year.

While some might call Detroit's first-half scoring issues a lack of urgency, Schwartz said the reason for the dip in production may lie at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum.

“I don’t think [a lack of urgency is] a problem at all,” he said. "We certainly want to score, and I think you could even flip it over the other way, maybe being a little over, pressing isn’t the right word, but being over whatever… You can press a little too much to make plays and end up putting yourself in bad positions. We certainly want to be aggressive [early], but we also don’t want to turn the ball over early and you don’t want to make mistakes early.”

Schwartz also placed an emphasis on the ball-security issues that have plagued his team in recent weeks. The Lions had four turnovers Monday -- three inside the red zone -- and Schwartz acknowledged that his coaching staff must do a better job of ensuring that players protect the ball.

“You never want to tell a guy 'Don’t fight for yardage,' but you have to be ball-secure,” he said. "Joique [Bell] was second-and-goal, I think it was. That’s not fourth-and-goal. I think that there is a fine line there. You certainly don’t want to slow guys down from being aggressive in a play, particularly in the red zone, but ball security is more important than that extra half yard.”

Schwartz also defended quarterback Matthew Stafford’s performance. Stafford completed 28 of 46 passes Monday, but several of his throws were far less precise than they were in similar situations last season. Schwartz dismissed questions about whether Stafford has regressed, saying instead that the offense as a whole wasn’t clicking.

While Detroit’s players deserve a significant portion of the blame for the team’s below-average start, Schwartz closed his press conference Tuesday by saying that Detroit's coaches were also to blame. Schwartz said his staff must do a better job of putting players in a position to be successful.

“A coach’s role is [to] emphasize guys’ roles, accentuate their positives, [and] try to minimize negatives,” he said. “That’s our job on a weekly basis. We do that and we’re doing that today. “We did it last week and we’ll have to continue to do it, but we can do a better job of that just as the players can do a better job of executing physically.”

Suh not likely to be fined for Cutler hit: Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has been fined once in his career for a hit on Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, but a league official told the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday that Suh would probably not be fined for his sack of Cutler on Monday. Cutler said that Suh’s play, while extremely rough, was clean. Teammate Brandon Marshall, however, took issue with the physical nature of the play. “What U did to Jay wasn’t cool,” Marshall told Suh via Twitter. “Great players don’t have to do that. Something I’ve learned and now passing down to you. Succeed with character.”

Injury watch: WR Nate Burleson will need surgery to repair the broken leg he suffered early in the third quarter Monday. He could miss as many as eight months, which would rule him out of most of Detroit’s 2013 offseason program. Schwartz confirmed that punter Nick Harris suffered a minor knee injury during Sunday’s game. The injury wasn’t serious enough for Harris to miss a punt. Schwartz also confirmed that safety Amari Spievey will need to pass concussion protocols before he can return to practice. The concussion is Spievey’s second in as many seasons, and Schwartz said that he would be evaluated very carefully before being allowed to return to action.

Follow Lions reporter John Kreger on Twitter at @CBSLions and @JohnKreger