Detroit Lions: Game-by-game predictions for the 2017 season
By Zac Snyder
Predicting how the Detroit Lions’ 2017 season will play out by picking each game on the team’s schedule as a win or a loss.
“The schedule game” is played as soon as the NFL releases the schedule each year. Even before the draft, offseason injuries, training camp and 53-man rosters, fans and media pick games as wins and losses to predict how a team’s season will go. Now on the other side of all that offseason activity and regular season game week finally here, it’s time for me to play the schedule game for the Detroit Lions.
Week 1: vs. Arizona Cardinals
Slow starts to the season have been an issue for the Lions in each of the last two seasons, in part because of a road-heavy early schedule. Rod Wood voiced put in a request for a more balanced start to the season for the 2017 season. The Lions got two home games and two road games in their first four but get the benefit of starting at home.
Starting at home hasn’t been the norm of late, but the Lions have made the most of it when given the opportunity, winning their last three home games in week one.
The Cardinals have been a team with high hopes but took a step back with a 7-8-1 season last year after winning 24 games over the prior two seasons. They’ll hope for a bounce-back season in 2017 but traveling East to get things started against a team coming off a playoff appearance is a tough task. The Cardinals feature some exciting young players on both sides of the ball but have questions to answer that will determine whether they are more like the NFC contenders they looked like in 2015 or the team that missed the playoffs entirely in 2016.
Teams around .500 or worse are the kind of teams the Lions have been able to handle at home. Until the Cardinals prove last season was a fluke, week one goes down as a win for the home team.
Prediction: Win (1-0)