Detroit Lions season starts to heat up: Forecasting the next 4 games

Coming off their bye week, here’s a quick look at what the next month has in store for the Detroit Lions as they gear up for divisional play.

So much for all of the talk about the Detroit Lions being “for real” this year by virtue of the close loss to Kansas City. The jury is still out regarding how real the Lions are, but following a stunningly bad performance by the Chiefs offense in the Sunday night game against Indy, we can’t exactly claim much more from the KC game besides just another close loss.

It’s not only the Chiefs’ fault either. The opening part of the Lions’ 2019 schedule looked quite a bit more formidable until events of the past few weeks. While a month ago, many looked at the first four games as some sort of gauntlet to overcome, when you look at the combined records of those teams (10-9-1 currently), it’s revealed as just an average stretch of an average schedule.

Conversely, the next four games looked a lot easier until recently as well. With a 12-8 combined record, the schedule leading into early November is more difficult, and with two division games, more important than the first month. Weren’t things supposed to ease up at some point?

Since every team in the NFC North currently has a winning record (along with a whopping seven other NFC teams), the Lions can’t really afford much of a slump if we want to continue hearing their name called as a playoff contender.

I don’t think Detroit is good enough to win out or bad enough to lose out for the next four games, but anywhere from 1-3 to 3-1 is very much in play during this stretch from my perspective. 3-1 (if that win is against Green Bay) and we’re partying like it’s 1993; 1-3 and the front office might as well trade Golden Tate away again.

By the way, the fact that the Lions’ biggest media skeptic predicted an 11-4-1 record and the NFC North title last week sort of terrifies me.