The Lions 2012 regular season schedule (along with the rest of the NFL schedule) was released Tuesday evening and like any early schedule release it’s time to make the early 2012 Lions regular season predictions.
Week One vs. St. Louis Rams – Win: The Lions are almost finished rebuilding, the St. Louis Rams are still in the middle of it. Easy victory for the Lions here.
Week Two @ San Francisco 49ers – Loss: What is being dubbed the Handshake Bowl see the 49ers winning by two possessions.
Week Three @ Tennessee Titans – Win: Jim Schwartz makes his return to Tennessee and comfortably beats his old team.
Week Four vs. Minnesota Vikings – Win: The Vikings are still going to be bad and the Lions should have no problems at home against them.
Week Five – Bye
Week Six @ Philadelphia Eagles – Win: Matt Stafford out duels Mike Vick and Calvin Johnson out duels Nnamdi Asomugha. It will be another disappointing season for the Dream Team.
Week Seven @ Chicago Bears – Loss: Whats unfortunate about this game aside the from the Lions losing is I can see the rolls being reversed from last season’s Monday night game from Ford Field.
Week Eight vs. Seattle Seahawks – Win: No way Matt Flynn beats the Lions two years in the row.
Week Nine @ Jacksonville Jaguars – Win: Even if Maurice Jones-Drew runs all over the places the Lions still win this game.
Week Ten @ Minnesota Vikings – Win: Once again the Lions sweep the season series against a bad Vikings team.
Week Eleven vs. Green Bay Packers – Win: I probably should be picking Green Bay here but I don’t care the Lions have to win at least once against the Pack this season. Not to mention this will be one of those stepping stone games.
Week Twelve vs. Houston Texans – Win: In the annual Thanksgiving Day game we find out who is the best receiver in the NFL, Andre Johnson or Calvin Johnson. Megatron will put that debate to rest by the end of this game.
Week Thirteen vs. Indianapolis Colts – Win: The defensive line gets their first crack at welcoming Andrew Luck or RGIII but probably Andrew Luck to the NFL.
Week Fourteen @ Green Bay Packers – Loss: I’d love to have the streak at Lambeau come to an end during such a good season but unfortunately the losing there will continue.
Week Fifteen @ Arizona Cardinals – Win: The Lions close out the road schedule on a positive note.
Week Sixteen vs. Atlanta Falcons – Loss: Unfortunately the Lions drop their first home game of the season and go 0-4 in prime time.
Week Seventeen vs. Chicago Bears – Win: Who knows where the Lions’ heads will be at this point in the year but I can’t see Chicago taking both games this season.
Overall: 12-4
Home: 7-1
Road: 5-3
Playoffs: At 12-4 the Lions enter the playoffs as a Wild Card team when the Green Bay Packers narrowly edge them out for the NFC North Title. Things go a little better for Detroit in the postseason though as they win their opening round playoff game but fall in the divisional round. More progress made setting themselves up to be Super Bowl contenders in 2013.
The past few seasons I’ve always thought that the Lions were a better team than what their overall record portrayed them as. Even when they went 0-16 there were a few games in there that I thought they got the raw end of the deal on and probably should’ve won. The past couple season though a lot of losses could’ve been attributed immaturity, player development and a lack of depth in the secondary.
This upcoming season though there’s a few things that you’ll need to look at which will greatly attribute to Detroit’s success in 2012. First the team is returning a lot of players from last season’s 10-6 team including linebacker Stephen Tulloch and defensive end Cliff Avril. This is vital given a large of part of the success in the NFL is based on familiarity among good players and consistency, something we’re starting to see with the Lions.
Second, even though the NFL has moved to more of a passing league the past few seasons the running game is still very important to the offense. Now something the Lions have going for them is depth at the running back position. Jahvid Best has shown he can be elusive, Mikel Leshoure was a second round pick and has a very exclusive role on the team as a short yardage back who can block while Kevin Smith had a nice season in his return to the team last season (aside from the injuries). The big question concerning the running game is whether or not the backs are going to stay healthy which I have faith they can do.
Finally Jim Schwartz has proven to us that he can be a head coach in the NFL and a pretty good on at that. Like the consistency among the players, consistency among the coaches goes a long way.
Follow Adam Hernandez on Twitter @adamhernandezx
