The Harrington Family Foundation

By Mike O'Hara / The Detroit News

ALLEN PARK -- Joey Harrington is experiencing the luxury of being a veteran quarterback with job security.

And because of that, his focus for Thursday night's final exhibition at Buffalo will be on getting ready for the Lions' regular-season opener against Arizona.

Playing the Bills is a tuneup.

It was different last year, when Harrington was a rookie and there was no established timetable for when he would take charge.

This year, Harrington has known from Day 1 that he would be the starter.

Although the Lions still have some issues to resolve on offense against the Bills, finding their starting quarterback is not one of them.

Now, it's a matter of Harrington getting his game, and the offense, in shape to play the ones that count.

"Polish," Harrington said after practice Monday. "We do a really good job of improving week to week. By our third game, we put things together. We felt comfortable. We felt pretty good out there. This last week is polishing things up as we go into the regular season.

"Things are becoming more consistent. We know who's going to be in there each play. I really benefit from that. I'm starting to get the feel of how everybody runs their routes. I'm starting to pick up on how Billy (Schroeder) runs his routes and how Charles (Rogers) runs his routes. That's something we didn't have last year. We didn't have that consistency."

Harrington performance in Saturday's 38-17 victory over the Browns appears to have put him at ease somewhat.

He played well, finishing 15-for-20 for 184 yards. He threw a touchdown on a fourth-down play, when Coach Steve Mariucci bypassed a short field goal to see how Harrington would react under pressure. On his last possession of the half, Harrington completed three passes to move the offense 56 yards in three plays in only 20 seconds.

Harrington has insisted throughout training camp and the exhibition season that he was not concerned that his completion percentage wasn't as high as he wanted it to be.

He was right at 50 percent before the Cleveland game, and it soared to 58.9 percent.

"It solidifies things more," he said. "Like I said the whole time, we've been doing it in practice. Things have been clicking in practice. If I feel it out here, I know I can translate it onto the field. It's just a matter of when it happened.

"I feel a lot more comfortable now than I did last year, which is a tremendous confidence-builder for me."

The Lions have avoided big mistakes on offense. In three games, they've had two turnovers -- an interception and a lost fumble -- and have allowed two sacks.

But it hasn't been by accident.

"Attention to detail," Harrington said. "Coach has been very, very emphatic about attention to detail. No stone unturned. Everything is prepared for. Everything is taken care of.

"When we get up there, we're not second-guessing. We're not antsy. We're very comfortable."

You can reach Mike O'Hara at (313) 982-3810, (313) 222-1488 or mohara@detnews.com.