Good evening, everyone. On Thanksgiving Day, the Green Bay Packers took on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Entering this game, the Packers haven’t played on Thanksgiving Day in 8 years (which was a very ugly 17-13 loss to the Bears at Lambeau Field). The last time they played against the Lions on Thanksgiving Day was in 2013, when the Packers were blown out by a score of 40-10. Even though the Packers had 17 players on the injury list, including Aaron Jones, Jaire Alexander, Luke Musgrave, and Dontayvion Wicks (who all missed the game on Thursday), they were able to win the game and get to 5-6 on the season. Here is how the game went down.
The Packers won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball. After the kickoff resulted in a touchback, the Packers started their first drive at their own 25 yard line. On the first play, Jordan Love found Christian Watson for a 53-yard pass completion that got Green Bay into scoring range. That big pass play helped set up a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed in which the ball was thrown in a tight window and was somehow caught by Reed. The extra point kick by Anders Carlson was good, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead with 12:16 left in the first quarter. The Lions answered right back on their first possession with a touchdown of their own. During the drive, Quay Walker was called for a questionable pass interference penalty that gave the Lions a free first down at the Green Bay 38 yard line. On the next play, Jared Goff found Sam LaPorta for a 31-yard pass completion that got the Lions to the 7 yard line. 2 plays later, LaPorta caught a touchdown pass from Goff that would have tied the game at 7-7 had the extra point kick been made. The PAT attempt went wide right, keeping the Packers in the lead at 7-6 with 8:30 left in the quarter. After the kickoff resulted in another touchback, the Packers started their next drive at their own 25 yard line. This drive was a bit longer than the first touchdown drive, clocking in at 5 minutes and 22 seconds. They were able to move the ball down the field thanks to a mix of run and pass plays. The drive ended with a great play designed for Tucker Kraft, who caught the pass from Jordan Love and got into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown. The extra point kick by Carlson was good, increasing Green Bay’s lead to 14-6 with 3:08 left in the first quarter. That lead increased quickly when Rashan Gary stripped Jared Goff of the ball just before Goff’s arm was going forward. The play was not ruled dead by the officials, allowing Jonathan Owens to pick up the ball and return it for a touchdown. The officials reviewed the play and kept it as called. The bummer was that the extra point kick was missed to the left, keeping the score at 20-6 with 2:12 remaining in the quarter. The Packers got the ball quickly once again after Jared Goff was stripped of the ball during a scramble. Karl Brooks, who stripped Goff of the ball, recovered the fumble at the Detroit 23 yard line, setting the offense for another scoring opportunity. They were not able to score any points on this drive. Green Bay faced a fourth and one from the Detroit 14 yard line to start the second quarter. Instead of doing a QB sneak, they did a regular handoff to AJ Dillon that got nothing due to a mess-up in communication. Dillon was stuffed for no gain, turning the ball over on downs in the process. Thankfully, the Packers defense was able to force the Lions to punt on the ensuing possession. The punt was fair caught at the 14-yard line of Green Bay by Jayden Reed. From there, the Packers moved the ball down the field to potentially score more points. The first play was a short pass to AJ Dillon, who took the pass for a 22-yard gain. The Packers managed to make it to the Detroit 24 yard line before they had to settle for a field goal. On the third down pass, Jordan Love threw to Christian Watson for a potential touchdown. Watson got tripped up by a defender, yet no pass interference penalty was called. Due to this, the field goal unit was sent to attempt a 43-yard kick. Carlson made the kick, increasing the Packers’ lead to 23-6 with 5:56 left in the first half. The Lions attempted to score on their ensuing drive, but they were unable to due to the drive resulting in a turnover on downs. On fourth and 4 from the Green Bay 35 yard line, Jared Goff threw an incomplete pass intended for Josh Reynolds, giving the Packers a chance to increase their lead even more before halftime. The Packers were unable to do that on their next drive and punted back to Detroit with 35 seconds left. However, the Lions went three and out and the Packers got the ball back at the Green Bay 44 with 5 seconds left. After an 11-yard catch by Jayden Reed, they were in position to either do a Hail Mary or a 63-yard field goal. They decided to let Carlson kick the field goal, which ended up being short and returned by Kalif Raymond to the Detroit 41 yard line. With that failed field goal attempt, the score remained at 23-6 at halftime.
The Lions were able to score a touchdown on their first drive of the second half. A couple of big plays helped set the Lions up for a 6-yard touchdown run by David Montgomery, who also scored the two-point conversion to decrease the Packers’ lead to 23-14 with 11:46 left in the third quarter. After the Packers’ first second half drive ended in a punt (Romeo Doubs let a ball bounce off of his hands on a third down pass play), the Lions had to start at their own 1 yard line. Their ensuing drive ended when a fake punt run was stuffed by the Packers defense, giving Green Bay’s offense the ball at the Lions 23 yard line. 3 plays after that, Jordan Love found Christian Watson for a 16-yard touchdown pass. The Packers then tried to do a version of the “Philly Special” for the two-point conversion, but the play failed, keeping the score at 29-14 with 3:30 left in the third quarter. After the kickoff resulted inna touchback, the Lions went down the field to potentially get a score. They got to the Green Bay 31 yard line before they faced a fourth and 7. On the fourth down play, Jared Goff was strip-sacked by Rashan Gary, who also recovered the fumble at the Green Bay 39 yard line. The Packers ultimately did not score on their next drive and punted back to Detroit, who started their next drive at their own 9. Like the previous drive, the Lions were able to move the ball down the field and get into scoring range. This time, the Lions got all the way to the Green Bay 12 yard line before the drive ended in another turnover on downs. On fourth and 7 from the 12 yard line, Jared Goff threw an incomplete pass intended for Sam LaPorta, giving the Packers the ball back with 6:46 left in the game. The Packers were able to get into Detroit territory and planned a dagger touchdown to Christian Watson on this and 10 from the Lions 42 yard line. What derailed that was Josh Myers messing up his block and allowing a pass rusher to get into Love’s face, forcing him to basically throw it away. After the punt, the Packers defense allowed the Lions to score a touchdown and two-point conversion that cut the lead to 29-22 with 41 seconds left in the game. Jayden Reed thankfully recovered the onside kick, sealing the Packers’ win on Thanksgiving Day. With the win, the Packers are now 5-6 on the season. The bummer was that the Packers were not given any turkey legs after the win, which is usually a tradition for the winning team.
On offense, the Packers played fantastic in the first half and parts of the second half. Jordan Love had himself a great game, completing 22 of his 32 pass attempts for 268 yards and 3 touchdowns (plus running for 39 yards on 3 scramble attempts). He made some great throws, including the touchdown to Jayden Reed in a very tight window and a couple of side-arm passes that were great to see. It helped that the offensive line was able to keep Love from getting sacked at all, though Love had to throw a couple of passes away to avoid being sacked. One of those throwaways was the potential dagger touchdown to Christian Watson that got ruined due to Josh Myers not really blocking anyone. Thankfully, the Packers have some extra time to consider starting Sean Rhyan at right guard over Jon Runyan, Jr and put Yosh Nijman at left tackle over Rasheed Walker, who did not play too bad on Thursday. The receivers played well on Sunday, with Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft, and Christian Watson each scoring a touchdown for Green Bay. Watson got things started with his 53-yard catch that helped set up the TD to Reed. Malik Heath caught 4 passes for 46 yards, while AJ Dillon caught 3 passes for 38 yards, including a 22-yard catch and run that saw him jump up and run after that. Other than a couple of drops, the receivers helped Jordan Love have a great game on Sunday. Some play calls were great by Matt LaFleur, including the play that helped Tucker Kraft score his touchdown in the first quarter. Other play calls, including the fourth down run play and the two-point conversion attempt, were not that great at all (in fact, don’t do the “Philly Special” play again unless there is great protection from the pass rush). Even with the mistakes, it was great to see the offense play well on Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully they keep that momentum going in the coming weeks.
On defense, the Packers played a great game against arguably one of the best offensive lines in football. They kept the ground game in check (other than a couple of chunk plays) and got to Jared Goff early and often, which disrupted the offense a lot. Rashan Gary recorded three sacks on Goff, including two strip sacks. The first strip sack resulted in a fumble return touchdown by Jonathan Owens, and the other one was recovered by Gary himself after sacking Goff on a fourth down play in the second half. Kenny Clark played well on the defensive front as well, with one play having him run over an offensive lineman and getting into the face of Goff. Karl Brooks was able to get Goff from behind and recover the fumble when Goff tried to run for a couple of yards. Jonathan Owens had a great game, having a couple of big hits in addition to the fumble return touchdown. Other than allowing a couple of touchdown drives in the second half, including one that was in garbage time, the defense held its own even without some key players. Kudos to the players and (for at least this week) Joe Barry for the performance on Thanksgiving Day. It will be tough against Kansas City next week, but anything can happen.
On Special Teams, the Packers did not allow any big plays to happen, other than the big return after the missed 63-yard field goal attempt just before halftime. There were no kickoffs returned by Green Bay, as each of the three kickoffs resulted in a touchback. There were a couple of them returned by Detroit, but they didn’t get past midfield at least. The two punts were fair caught by Green Bay, while Daniel Whelon booted a couple of balls deep into Lions territory, with one of them almost getting into the end zone. That particular punt was saved from going in there and was downed by Zayne Anderson at the one yard line. The Packers were not fooled by the fake punt attempt, which was stopped for no gain and gave the Packers great field position on offense (which was turned into Christian Watson’s TD catch). Anders Carlson was not perfect on Sunday, as he missed an extra point kick after the Jonathan Owens fumble return TD. He almost made the 63-yard field goal attempt that ended up being short of the goalpost by a couple of yards. He needs to clean up the extra point misses soon. Luckily, there should be plenty of time to get those reps in during practice and warmups. Other than the mistakes that I put up here, I’m glad that the Special Teams unit played well enough to win, including the onside kick recovery by Jayden Reed. Mistakes need to be kept to a minimum against the Chiefs next week in prime time.
Overall, it was a great win for the Packers over their division rivals in Detroit. It was the first Packers win on Thanksgiving Day in 12 years, and it was a great way to (metaphorically) punch the Lions in the mouth after being punched by them for the last 3 matchups between these 2 teams. Obviously, I did not like that there were no victory turkey legs for the Packers, but I hope that gets fixed next time the Packers play on Thanksgiving Day. Green Bay has plenty of time to prepare for their next game, which will be at Lambeau Field. Their opponent on December 3rd will be the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who are not invincible. Anything can happen on Gameday, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. For now, I am celebrating a Victory Friday. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you want to.)
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