The Detroit Lions are essentially a team that must win the remainder of the games on their schedule to guarantee a spot in the postseason.

While Dan Campbell’s squad could go 4-1 and still have a chance to earn a spot, relying upon other NFL teams for help is never a guarantee.

No question, Detroit must kick off the month of December with a victory against the Dallas Cowboys at Ford Field.

According to most playoff simulators, the Lions would increase their odds of making the playoffs from 30% currently to 45% with a win on Thursday Night Football. A defeat sinks the playoff odds to only 13%.

Head coach Dan Campbell discussed this week if wins could start the snowball the other way and assist the team to stack some victories.

“Well, the wins are always going to set you in the right direction. I mean that’s what it’s about. And you can’t look beyond the ones that are in front of you and that’s what we have right now. It’s Dallas. That’s got to be the sole focus and it’s everything that we have,” Campbell said. “We’ve got to digest this plan, understand the opponent, understand who you’re getting ready to face. You’ve got to be ready to win those one-on-ones, what’s he going to try to do to you, what are you going to do to him. And everybody’s got to be on point and that’s all you worry about. And then you worry about the next one after that.”

Detroit’s fifth-year head coach does not spend any time looking at conference standings. He did discuss the playoff chase at the bye week, but now chooses to focus on what he and the team can control.

“I don’t even look at it because, the one time we did one of those was I talked about it at the bye, I just showed where everything was at, at that point coming right out of the bye,” Campbell explained. “And that, I haven’t looked at it, I haven’t thought about it because it does no good. I mean that does you no good.

You could sit there and hope and whatever and it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to take care of our business, it doesn’t matter what happens,” Campbell commented further. “All the right things could happen and if you lose it doesn’t matter. So you’ve got to win. You’ve got to win.”

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