Thoughts on Week 13 (2025): Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day

Thank goodness the Packers won that game in Detroit. Entering the Thanksgiving Day game at Ford Field against the Lions, the Green Bay Packers were looking to add onto their win total. Not only did the Packers want to improve to 8-3-1 on the season, but they also wanted to sweep the Lions for the first time since 2020. It was a hard fought game to the end, but the Packers were able to get the job done in Detroit and celebrate with turkey legs. Let’s get into detail on how the game went down.

The Packers started this game on the offensive side of the football. Even though they had to start their first drive at their own 17 due to a holding penalty on the kick return, the Packers offense was able to get into scoring position. Two plays into the drive, Jordan Love found Christian Watson for a 17 yard pass that gave the Packers first and 10 at the Green Bay 38. Three plays later, Josh Jacobs (who was back from injury) ran for a 13 yard gain and a first down on third and 1 from the Green Bay 47. They got to the Detroit 27 before the drive stalled with three straight incomplete passes. The first incomplete pass would have been a touchdown had Love not rushed the throw to Bo Melton after escaping pressure. The other two were essentially throwaways, forcing the Packers to settle for a 45 yard field goal. Brandon McManus made the kick, giving Green Bay a 3-0 lead with a bit over 9 minutes left in the first quarter. The Packers defense was able to force the Lions to go three and out on their first possession. Jahmyr Gibbs only ran for two yards on first down and Jared Goff threw incomplete on second and third down. Three punts would then occur, with the first one by the Lions after the incomplete pass on third down and the other two ones being after a failed drive by each team. Starting from their own 23 yard line with 3 minutes and 23 seconds left in the first quarter, the Packers were able to move the ball down the field for their first touchdown of the game. A big play happened when Josh Jacobs converted a third and 2 with a 29 yard run play that got the Packers into Lions territory. Three plays later, on third and 4 from the 34, Jordan Love was able to get a Lions defender to jump offside. The pass to Romeo Doubs went incomplete, but the Packers got a free first down from the penalty. 4 plays later, the Packers had a decision to make: either settle for a field goal or go for it on fourth and 3 from the Detroit 22. They went with the latter option and got a touchdown out of it when Love found Dontayvion Wicks, who was able to have possession of the ball just as he was getting his feet inbounds. It was a tough catch given the circumstances, but Wicks got it done for the touchdown. The extra point kick was good, increasing Green Bay’s lead to 10-0 just into the second quarter. That 10-0 lead was then cut to three when the Lions were able to get their first touchdown on their next possession. There were a couple of times when the Lions were behind the sticks only to convert those long situations and keep the drive alive, including a third and 13 from the Green Bay 32. The drive ended when David Montgomery ran it in for a three yard touchdown. The extra point kick by Jake Bates was good, cutting the lead to 10-7 with under 8 minutes left in the second quarter. After Bo Melton’s kick return, the Packers started their next possession at their own 30 yard line. During the drive, Love recovered a fumble then threw a pass that went incomplete. That sequence, which thankfully wasn’t a turnover, set up a third and 5 from the Green Bay 46. On that third down play, Love found Wicks for an 18 yard pass completion that gave the Packers a first and 10 at the Detroit 36. Two plays later, Love found Luke Musgrave for a 23 yard pass completion that gave them first and 10 at the 11. Eventually, they faced another fourth and short. This time, it was from the 2 yard line. The Packers were able to avoid a false start penalty by calling a timeout just in time. On fourth and 1, Love found Romeo Doubs for a touchdown pass that, with the extra point, increased the lead back up to 10 points with a bit over 2 minutes left. Unfortunately, the Packers defense was once again unable to stop the Lions from scoring a touchdown. The scoring play should not have happened. Carrington Valentine had Jameson Williams in his sights, but he dove for his ankles instead of wrapping him up. Williams was able to get away from Valentine and score a 22 yard touchdown with under 30 seconds left in the half. The Packers didn’t do anything meaningful with the last few seconds, resulting in the score being 17-14 in Green Bay’s favor at halftime.

The Lions got the ball first to start the second half and were looking to get another score to either tie the game or take the lead. However, their quest for points ended when Jahmyr Gibbs was stuffed for a loss of two yards on fourth and 3 from the Green Bay 47. Two plays later, Jordan Love found Christian Watson down the right sideline for a 51-yard touchdown pass. The extra point kick was good, increasing Green Bay’s lead to 24-14 with 10 and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Yet again, the Lions were able to respond with their own touchdown to cut the deficit to 3. The 7 play drive for Detroit was too easy for them as it had multiple chunk plays. The drive culminated in a 17-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Isaac TeSlaa. The extra point kick was good, cutting the lead to 24-21 with 7 and a half minutes left in the third quarter. After the kickoff return, the Packers started their next possession at their own 28. On second and 7 from the 31, Bo Melton ran for 14 yards on an end around to the left that gave the Packers first and 10 at the 45. On the following play, Jordan Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 30 yard pass completion that gave the Packers first and 10 at the Detroit 25. Two run plays later, the Packers were set up with first and 10 at the 15. Two plays later, Rasheed Walker came up with a clutch play when he recovered a fumble that was lost by Romeo Doubs. On third and 1 from the Detroit 6, Jordan Love threw an incomplete pass that was nullified by a facemask penalty on the defense. Two plays later, Love found Wicks for his fourth touchdown pass of the day. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 10 points with 2 and a half minutes left in the third quarter. The Lions were able to get into field goal range on their next drive, which took nearly 6 minutes of game time. However, they gambled on fourth down again only for them to fall short. On fourth and 3 from the Green Bay 21, Jared Goff threw a pass that was dropped by Jameson Williams, resulting in a turnover on downs. The Packers didn’t do anything after that and went three and out, though there should have been an obvious flag for pass interference on third and 4 from the Green Bay 28. The punt by Daniel Whelan went into the end zone for a touchback, resulting in the Lions starting their next possession at their own 20. The Packers hoped to get off the field on third and 15 from the 33. On first and 10 from the 38, Micah Parsons sacked Jared Goff for a loss of 8 yards. On second down, the Lions gained only 3 yards on a short pass. On the third down play, Goff was sacked by Kingsley Enegbare. However, there was an illegal contact penalty called when Keisean Nixon was ran into by his receiver. Two plays after the penalty, the Lions were into scoring position due to a 44 yard catch and run by Jameson Williams. The Packers defense made sure to hold the Lions to a field goal thanks to another sack by Micah Parsons on third and goal from the Green Bay 4. A huge blow to the defense happened on that play when Devonte Wyatt’s ankle was ran into by Warren Brinson. It was unfortunately a situation where Brinson was pushed into Wyatt during the play. After he was carted off, the game continued with a 31 yard field goal attempt by Jake Bates. The kick was good, cutting the lead to 7 with 2:59 left in the game. The ensuing kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, resulting in the Packers starting their last possession at their own 35. The goal was simple: get enough first downs to run out the rest of the clock and force the Lions to use their timeouts. The Packers were able to do that successfully as they got some key first downs on the drive. On third and 5 from the Green Bay 40, Christian Watson caught an 8 yard pass that kept the drive going. 4 plays later, the Packers faced another fourth and short situation. It was fourth and 3 from the Detroit 45. The decision was made to go for it on fourth down. Jordan Love threw a completed pass to Dontayvion Wicks, who made a great catch in traffic even with only one shoe on. After that, the game was over and the Packers celebrated their 31-24 win with turkey legs courtesy of Fox. With the win, the Packers are now 8-3-1 on the season.

(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube channel. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you want to.)

On offense, the Packers played very well against the Lions defense even without a couple of their receivers in Matthew Golden, Jayden Reed (who hopefully comes back soon), and Savion Williams. Josh Jacobs was back in action after missing the Vikings game. He was definitely needed for this one. He led all rushers with 17 carries for 83 yards, with some of those yards being on chunk plays. Jordan Love played great for the third straight year on Thanksgiving Day as he threw for 234 yards and 4 touchdowns for a 124.2 passer rating. He did miss on a TD throw early and there were times that he had to throw it away, but I am glad that he did not turn the ball over or get sacked. The offensive line deserves major kudos for keeping Jordan Love upright and giving him time to throw. Rasheed Walker was the one who saved a turnover from happening when he recovered a Romeo Doubs fumble in the second half. Speaking of Doubs, he was able to catch one of Love’s 4 touchdown passes. Dontayvion Wicks and Christian Watson were the other recipients, with Wicks catching 2 TDs on the day. Wicks made some clutch grabs, including the first touchdown grab and the catch that sealed the game during the final drive. Matt LaFleur deserves plenty of credit as well for the game plan and for the guts to go for it on the fourth and short situations. It was a very good day on offense, even with a couple of three and outs. Hopefully that great offensive play continues week after week.

On defense, the Packers played good against a Lions team that was hoping to make their home crowd happy. I know that there were times that the Packers defense gave up some big chunk plays, including that one touchdown by Jameson Williams where Carrington Valentine whiffed on a tackle attempt just before halftime. I have to give kudos to the Lions offense for making those plays happen even though they were without Amon-Ra St. Brown for most of the game due to an ankle injury. With that being said, the Packers defense did its work by forcing the Lions to settle for a couple of field goals. They also made some key stops, including a couple of fourth down stops (though the second one was due to a dropped pass). Micah Parsons was once again great against the Lions offense as he was able to get a couple of sacks on Goff and was a great presence all throughout the game. The defense also held Jahmyr Gibbs to under 100 rushing yards on the day, which was great given that Gibbs ran for over 200 yards against the Giants 4 days prior. I feel awful for Devonte Wyatt, who suffered a bad ankle injury that will force him to miss the rest of the season. He was a great presence on the defensive line and will be missed during this last stretch of games. Even though there were some mistakes, I am glad that Jeff Hafley’s unit came to play well enough to help the Packers get the win on Thanksgiving Day. It won’t be easy without Wyatt during these last few weeks, but I am sure they’ll figure things out without him.

On Special Teams, the Packers once again avoided too many mistakes. There was a holding penalty on the opening kickoff and there were a few kickoffs by Brandon McManus that went for a touchback, but the Packers avoided many other mistakes on Special Teams. McManus made all of his kicks, and Daniel Whelan punted twice on the day, averaging 67 yards per punt attempt (bummer that the second punt ended in a touchback). There were no turnovers or blocked kicks on Thanksgiving Day, which is always a sigh of relief. There weren’t any big kick returns by Green Bay, but at least the Lions didn’t have any big ones either. All in all, it was another decent showing by the Special Teams unit as they didn’t mess up the Packers’ chances to win this game. Rich Bisaccia’s job is safe for the time being. Hopefully his unit keeps up the consistent play from here on out, regardless of who is at kicker (Lucas Havrisik was brought back via practice squad).

Overall, it was great seeing the Packers winning on Thanksgiving Day for the third straight year. It was also great seeing the Packers sweep the Lions for the first time since 2020, the year before Dan Campbell came to Detroit. Barring a playoff rematch, I don’t think the Packers will play the Lions again until next season. For now, it’s on to the next game for the Packers. Next week will be a big matchup as the Packers will take on the 9-3 Chicago Bears in a fight for first place in the NFC North. This game will be the first of two games in a 13 day span between the Packers and Bears. Thankfully, the game that will be on Sunday December 7th is at Lambeau Field. Even with that, the Packers need to be ready for anything the Bears throw at them. I’ll be back for the recap of that game after it’s done. In the meantime, I’m glad that the Packers and their fans (including me) get to enjoy a stress free weekend of football. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!