The Lions may have been better, but the Thanksgiving disappointment of losing to the Packers was too much to handle.
If you hadn’t been paying attention to the NFL leading up to Thanksgiving, the Lions’ loss on Thursday wouldn’t have seemed out of place. A Green Bay Packers quarterback shooting downfield for 53 yards on the first play? Yeah, I’d seen that. The Lions scored right away but missed the extra point. A quarterback fumbling and then fumbling again? Yeah, that’s Lions football. A fake punt that didn’t fool anyone and got stuffed at the Packers’ own 23? Yeah, that would be Lions football on Thanksgiving, too.
This was going to be a better Thanksgiving in Detroit, though. The Lions are good. They had an 8-2 record coming into Thursday, the best in the NFL. It didn’t look that good on Thursday.
Jordan Love accounted for three touchdowns and a hobbled Packers defense harassed Rams quarterback Jared Goff all day, leading Green Bay to a 29-22 victory over the Lions. The difference in the final score came down to a Lions touchdown in the closing seconds.
It’s not going to be a fun Thanksgiving in Detroit, but then again, Lions fans aren’t used to it. The Lions’ annual Thanksgiving game is supposed to be a tribute to the best team the Lions have had since 1957, if you’re in the mood to reminisce about Bobby Layne’s crew. It couldn’t get off to a great start, though. On the first snap of the second half, Love found Christian Watson wide open for an easy 53-yard gain, giving the Packers some much-needed confidence.
Love completed a tight-window pass to Jayden Reed for Green Bay’s final score. The Lions answered right away on a one-yard Sam LaPorta TD, and although the extra point was off the mark, it looked like Detroit was going to be okay.
But Green Bay didn’t give up. Tight end Travis Kelsey caught a pass for his first career score, and the defense forced a fumble that was recovered by LaPorta and returned for a score. Suddenly, the lead was 20-6.
It was the biggest Thanksgiving game the Lions had played in years. Most years, NFL fans complain that the Lions are always the bad team to host the first Thanksgiving and that Detroit should not automatically be the permanent host.
It seemed like the moment belonged to the Lions. They were down 23-6 in the first half. In most years, this would have been the year to turn the lights out and start the turkey cooking.
But then came the fake. Lions coach Dan Campbell, who has been very aggressive on fourth downs this season, called a fake. The Packers were not fooled. The ballcarrier was tackled well short of first down and the Lions took over on their own 23.
It looked like things were going to get better for the Lions as they entered the second half. They hit a couple big plays to open the half, got off to a slow start thanks to a dubious holding penalty that cost them a touchdown, and then scored on David Montgomery’s 2-point convert.
A few plays later, Watson scored again and the Packers led again by 15 points. The Lions had benefitted from Campbell’s approach all season, but it didn’t work in this situation. “That’s a terrible call on me, I shouldn’t have done that,” Campbell said after the game.
It wasn’t over until it was over, but the Lions didn’t convert key fourth downs late in the fourth quarter that they desperately needed after digging a 20-point hole. Detroit couldn’t protect Goff, and that was a major factor in the game, as was the defense’s inability to contain Love, who continued his torrid second-half play.
This Thanksgiving didn’t look much different than most thanksgivings in the Lions’ history. They’re on the brink of clinching their first division championship since 1993. It’s been an incredible season for a team that hasn’t experienced what it’s like to have one of the best teams in the NFL.
