Looking At Newly Released Schedule, Glover Quin Envisions 7-1 Start For Lions
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK - After the NFL released the 2015 schedule Tuesday night, Detroit Lions safety Glover Quin did just what many Lions fans did. He analyzed the schedule one game at a time and predicted which games the Lions would win.
"I try to be as realistic about the NFL as possible, and granted, I know any team can beat you on any given day, but at this point in time is when you get to look at the schedule and have fun and say, 'Okay, hey, man, I'm going to assume that everybody's playing their best game," Quin said Wednesday. "So based off them playing their best and we playing our best, we should beat this team, so that's kind of how I look at it."
Quin did not reveal his overall season prediction, but he has Detroit with a record of 7-1 at the midway point.
The Lions play their first two games on the road. They travel first to San Diego and then to Minnesota. The Chargers went 9-7 last season, while the Vikings went 7-9. Quin believes Detroit will emerge from the first road stretch 2-0.
The following week the Lions host the Denver Broncos, who were 12-4 last season. Quin is optimistic for that game, too.
"They're a good team, playoff team, great quarterback, great weapons, great defense, but that's going to be our home opener, our fans are going to be rowdy, it's going to be Sunday night, it's going to be primetime, and we're going to have some good momentum," Quin said. "We're going to be 2-0 coming back home, I just feel like we can beat Denver at home on Sunday night. So that gives us 3 and 0.
"And it sets up for a perfect trip to Seattle," Quin added, "and you'll have to see how that one plays out."
The Seahawks have played in the Super Bowl each of the last two seasons and have one of the most heralded home field advantages of any team in the NFL. Their defense was the only one better than Detroit's was last season. Quin has that game, which will be in Seattle, marked as a loss, but not because he thinks the Lions cannot win.
"I'm not going to say that we're going to go 4-0, I'm not going to say that we're going to lose, but I look at Seattle, playing in Seattle, and I look at us as the Detroit Lions as, okay, if we're playing our best and they're playing their best, it's going to come down to one or two big plays in the game," Quin said. "Whoever makes those plays is who's going to win. That's kind of how I look at it. Now obviously if we go up there and don't play a good game, then they'll probably blow us out. If we go up there and they don't play a good game, we'll probably blow them out.
"But if they play a good game and we play our good game, it could come down to like the Green Bay game in the NFC championship game," Quin continued. "It could come down to one or two plays."
The next three games for the Lions will be at home against the Arizona Cardinals (11-5 last season), Chicago Bears (5-11) and Minnesota Vikings (7-9).
Quin foresees wins in all those games, too, which would put Detroit at 6-1 going into their game in London.
"You never know how that plays out, it's a neutral field, Kansas City's a great team, great running back, you just never know," Quin said. "I will say we could go to London and beat Kansas City, so that puts us at 7-1 at the bye."
Plenty of people will dismiss Quin's kind of prediction as crazy, and it may turn out to be exactly that. For what it is worth, however, anyone predicting an 11-win season for the Lions last year would have been called crazy, too.