CHICAGO – The Detroit Lions’ 24-20 win Sunday placed them third in the NFC North and helped to set their 2016 home and away opponents. The dates of each game will be determined in April when the full regular-season schedule is released.

Home opponents (*playoff team): Green Bay Packers*, Minnesota Vikings*, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins*, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, St. Louis Rams.

Away opponents (*playoff team): Green Bay Packers*, Minnesota Vikings*, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Houston Texans*, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints.

My take: This should be a more manageable schedule for the Lions than what they ended up dealing with this year. Instead of the high-powered NFC West and the AFC West, both with two playoff teams among them, the Lions will face two divisions -- AFC South, NFC East -- with no 10-win teams and only the division champs (Houston and Washington) over .500. The travel will be much easier as well. There are no West Coast trips and no game in London. Of course, there are so many questions with the Lions franchise as the 2015 concludes that any real determination of the schedule can’t be made until those situations are resolved.