Monday open thread: What will the Detroit Lions’ record be over the next 7 games?

It’s officially game week again for the Detroit Lions as Week 6 is here. The bye week was much needed in terms of a mental break from this team, but even as the team still looks like a huge work in progress, they have potential to turn around things quickly, thanks to a soft schedule starting this week.

Five of their next seven opponents (Jaguars, Falcons, Vikings, Washington, Texans) all have just one or fewer wins through Week 5. The other two—the Colts and the Panthers—don’t exactly look like world beaters, either. Two of those teams have already fired their head coaches (Texans, Falcons), and four of those teams (Texans, Jaguars, Falcons, Washington) are among the bottom seven when it comes to overall point differential.

In other words, if Matt Patricia is going to save his job, this is the time he absolutely has to do it. Of course, each of these other seven teams are looking back at Detroit as an opportunity to right their own ship. So today’s Question of the Day is:

What will the Lions’ record be over the next seven games?

Here’s a look at the schedule:

• @ Jaguars (1-4)
• @ Falcons (0-5)
• vs. Colts (3-2)
• @ Vikings (1-4)
• vs. Washington (1-4)
• @ Panthers (3-2)
• vs. Texans (1-4)

My answer: We talk about this a little on our latest mailbag podcast, but I expect pretty much all of these games to be 50/50 propositions. None of these matchups look particularly lopsided on paper, which means anything could happen on gameday.

The Lions will start out this streak of games as slight road favorites over the Jaguars, and that may be their best chance at a win over all these teams. But unless Detroit’s defense comes out of the bye looking like a completely different unit, I’m not looking at any of these games as a gimme.

Given that four of these next seven are on the road, and that two of them (Colts, Panthers) have winning records, I still see Detroit losing more than they win over this stretch. I say the Lions will go 3-4 over the next seven, leaving the team with just a 4-7 record going into the final month of the season.

Your turn.