The last quarter of the regular season is here. The Lions have four games left, two of which are against teams from the NFC North and two of which are against teams from the AFC West.
As evidenced by the opponents' records, only one game seems overly difficult -- at Green Bay on New Year's Day. The other three games are against a bad Vikings team, an average Raiders team and a struggling Chargers team. This obviously doesn't mean the Lions will win the next three games, but they are certainly winnable. What's more, if Green Bay were to slip up before Week 17, it's possible they could opt to rest their starters. If that happened, the homestretch could end up being a lot less difficult than we thought it would be a couple months ago.
Here's a look at how the Lions' final four opponents did in Week 13:
Vikings (2-10) - at Lions on Dec. 11 - lost to Broncos at home, 35-32
Raiders (7-5) - vs. Lions on Dec. 18 - lost to Dolphins on road, 34-14
Chargers (5-7) - at Lions on Dec. 24 - beat Jaguars on road, 38-14
Packers (12-0) - vs. Lions on Jan. 1 - beat Giants on road, 38-35