It was turkey with all the fixin’s for the Green Bay Packers as they stunned the NFC North Division leading Detroit Lions 29-22 at Ford Field with a memorable Thanksgiving Day performance. It was far and away the Pack’s best showing of the year, taking down a club that had won five straight games and is trying to chase down their first division title in 30 years. That the Lions dismantled the Packers 34-20 on another Thursday night back in September, their fourth straight win in the series, and Green Bay was playing with a lot of star power on the inactive list (Aaron Jones, Jaire Alexander, De’Vondre Campbell, Rudy Ford and Dontayvion Wicks among them), this made for an even more remarkable effort.
Ford Field celebrated the holiday, but not the football.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur put together an outstanding play sheet on a short week with Jordan Love and company executing it with aplomb. Love finished another ascending day 22 of 32 for 268 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions, he wasn’t sacked and put up a passer rating of 125.5.
Green Bay won the toss and deferred the deferral to take the ball first. The braintrust decided Wednesday to fire a deep bomb on the opening snap, not unlike in Minnesota to open the 2022 season. Unlike that play where then rookie Christian Watson dropped a sure fire 75 yard touchdown, the second year pro pulled down a 53 yarder with two defenders around him and the race was on. Love capped the opening drive by threading the needle to rookie Jayden Reed who muscled over the line for a 10 yard score.
Detroit’s high powered offense (ranked 2nd in the NFL), answered immediately, driving 73 yards in 7 plays, capped by Jared Goff hitting tight end Sam LaPorta over the middle on a 7 yard strike. Riley Patterson however, missed the extra point keeping the score at 7-6.
With Wicks down, free agent Malik Heath got snaps and made the most of it (4 receptions/46 yards), pulling in a 16 yard grab on the second series. Facing third and one at the Detroit 9, Love and A.J. Dillon carried out an excellent play fake that allowed rookie Tucker Kraft to leak open in the right flat and he scored his first NFL touchdown to make it 14-6.
The defense got into the act two plays later when Rashan Gary circled behind Goff and knocked the ball out of his hand just before his arm moved forward. The ball rolled forward and it was scooped up by safety Jonathan Owens who scrambled 27 yards for a touchdown that opened up a 20-6 advantage. Anders Carlson continued his PAT struggles however by pulling the kick wide left.
It was Karl Brooks turn next. The rookie reached Goff on a scramble, knocking out a second fumble that he recovered himself at the Detroit 23. The Packers had the first quarter break to consider a 4th and 1 play from the Lion 14 but when the second quarter began, Love and Dillon bumped into each other on the handoff which ruined the scoring chance.
Dillon made amends by taking a check down pass for 22 yards, hurdling a defender along the way on the next series. The drive stalled but Carlson connected on a 43 yard field goal to make it 23-6 with 5:56 left in the half.
The defense turned over the Lions on a 4th and 4 play from the Packer 35 as Preston Smith hit Goff to force an incompletion.
The Packers had one more chance to score with Carlson coming on for a 63 yard field goal attempt on the final play of the half. It would have broken Mason Crosby’s club record 58 yarder in 2011 but it came just short of the crossbar. Kalif Raymond caught the ball right on the back line of the end zone and took off an exciting 50 yard dash to midfield before the Packers finally got him to the groun.
Detroit opened the third quarter with back to back big plays of 23 and 28 yards. David Montgomery, who torched Green Bay for 121 yards and 3 scores in the first meeting, crashed in from 6 yards out and then converted the two point try that pulled the Lions to within 23-14.
It was time for the special teams to step up. Detroit coach Dan Campbell gambled on 4th and 5 from his own 22. He called a fake punt with the direct snap going to fullback Jalen Reeves-Maybin but rookie Lukas Van Ness snuffed it out for only a gain of a yard.
Love and Watson cashed it in with a perfect high fade to the left corner of the end zone for a 16 yard touchdown. The Packers got too cute for their own good on a double reverse and possible Romeo Doubs pass to Love on the two point conversion.
Gary delivered another big play in the stadium where he tore his ACL just 53 weeks ago, sacking Goff, forcing another fumble and recovering it himself as the 4th quarter began. The Packers couldn’t move but the defense came up with another 4th down stop inside the red zone.
Green Bay gave it up one more time with Daniel Whelan hitting his 4th punt of the day that pinned Detroit inside the 20 for the 4th time. The Lions covered all 91 yards with Goff hitting Raymond on a 12 yard touchdown, LaPorta on the two point conversion to make it 29-22 with only :41 to play.
Reed smothered the onside kick and Love took a knee to finish off easily the most satisfying holiday possible for Matt LaFleur:
The roars from the squad were easily heard as reporters waited to enter the locker room afterwards. I chased down a few of the key players once inside.
Detroit outgained the Packers 464 to 377 but they had three lost fumbles and were just 1 of 5 on fourth down plays.
What was most impressive was how energetic and aggressive the Packers played. They knew what kind of environment it was going to be on the 84th Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit with 66,476 fans in full throat. The Lions had lost six straight on the holiday but that was before the team’s surge to the top of the North and the locals were amped up to see their team bury the Packers and take a step closer to the division title. Green Bay would have none of it. They snapped a four game losing streak to their rivals and made their first visit to the Motor City on the holiday memorable. The Packers are now 9-12-1 against the Lions on Thanksgiving, 104-76-7 all time against Detroit. They’ll get to enjoy the mini-bye weekend before they welcome the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs to Lambeau Field in prime time a week from Sunday night.
They have room for their first banner in 30 years but it’ll have to wait.
The Love feast had to leave Packer fans feeling both stuffed and satisfied, almost as much as the turkey and fixins.
