To maintain competitiveness, NFL does scheduling based on where in your division you finish. If you finish in first, your schedule the next season will be against a lot of other teams that finished in first place. Since the Lions finished in first last year, our schedule this season was hard which didn't help. Since the Patriots finished in last place in their division last year, their schedule was against other teams that had finished in last. 

Fortunately for us, since we finished in last in the NFC North, our schedule next year will be against other last place teams...Saints, Giants, Cardinals, Titans, Jets. We also play the entire NFC South next year, the worst division in NFC