- Packers quarterback Jordan Love threw for four touchdowns, a season high for him.
- Lions coach Dan Campbell’s team fell further behind in the NFC playoff picture after being swept by Green Bay.
- Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown left the game early with an ankle injury.
The NFL’s Thanksgiving schedule has seen far more questionable appetizers than the one served up early Thursday afternoon.
For a long time, the Detroit Lions’ appearance on the holiday was treated something like a distant relative’s casserole brought to a family meal: something to be tolerated at best before the tastier options became available. But the Lions’ resurgence has changed the dynamic on Thanksgiving, with the organization now actually having legitimate national appeal. And the 23rd Thanksgiving meeting between Detroit and the Green Bay Packers – the highest total for any two teams on the holiday – had plenty of intriguing subplots given a tight NFC North race.
The Packers’ firepower proved too much for the Lions, as Green Bay prevailed with a 31-24 win. Here’s a closer look at the fallout from the game, with a breakdown of the biggest winners and losers:
Winners
Jordan Love
The consistency still isn’t all there for the Packers’ aerial attack. But it’s hard to pin much of that on Love, who yet again lifted the passing game by blending precision with boldness. He set a season high with four touchdown passes and had 234 passing yards, his most since Week 9. The highlight came on a 51-yard moon ball to Christian Watson to open the third quarter, helping to pad Green Bay’s lead and deflate the home crowd coming out of halftime. But he also closed the door with a 16-yard strike on fourth down to seal the win.
Matt LaFleur
Criticized for a lack of aggressiveness in a few recent stumbles by Green Bay, the coach took a bit more of a backyard football approach into the holiday. LaFleur went for it twice on fourth down in the second quarter and was rewarded with touchdowns on both plays. He also could have punted late but took another page from the Dan Campbell playbook to close the game out with another fourth-down conversion. The running game got going early, but the coach was wise to stick with what was working by letting Love dice the defense.
Dontayvion Wicks
Drops – including nine last season – have derailed the receiver’s bid to become a bigger part of the Packers’ offense. Early on Thursday, however, he managed to get both feet in on a difficult 22-yard touchdown strike from Jordan Love. His hands didn’t let him down on his second score, either, as he managed to reel in a 1-yard grab after breaking free at the goal line. And when Love needed to wrap things up, he once again lofted it up to Wicks, who secured a 16-yard grab on fourth down to deny any shot at a comeback. In all, he led Packers receivers with six catches for 94 yards.
Jameson Williams
The speedy wide receiver was largely overlooked in the first half of the Lions’ season, to the point that coordinator John Morton accepted blame for not getting him more involved. With Dan Campbell taking over play-calling duties, however, he’s enjoyed a re-emergence in the passing attack. That trend continued Thursday. With Amon-Ra St. Brown sidelined early by an ankle injury and almost nothing else working for Detroit offensively in the first half, Williams kept the Lions in the game with three catches for 69 yards and a touchdown before halftime. He did plenty of the work himself, like when he eluded Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine on a quick screen and sprinted into the end zone to cut the second-quarter deficit to 3 points. A fourth-quarter drop on fourth down, however, marred a day in which Williams recorded seven catches for 144 yards.
Micah Parsons
After turning up the heat on the first two possessions, the Packers’ pass rush had trouble getting home and forcing Goff off his spot. Parsons, however, helped Green Bay close strong with two sacks on a late fourth-quarter drive, including one that would force Detroit to settle for a field goal. With 2 ½ sacks on the day, he becomes the only player in NFL history to notch at least 12 sacks in each of his first five seasons. Now just 1 ½ off his single-season high, it seems likely Parsons will set a career best in his new setting. And with his 8 ½ sacks on Thanksgiving tied for the most of any player in history, no one feasts on the holiday quite like him.
Jared Goff
It sure seemed like the Lions quarterback was in for another long day when he went the entire first quarter without a completion. But Goff prevented the game from getting out of hand, playing largely efficient football and throwing two touchdown passes. He managed to do so despite limited contributions from the ground game, with the quarterback’s 24-yard run the longest of the day for the Lions.
Jack White and Eminem
At least we should be able to get past one halftime show without a controversy or culture war. White probably would have been enough of a crowd-pleaser even without Eminem’s cameo, but the rapper’s appearance put the performance over the top for Detroit fans with a healthy appreciation for their homegrown stars.
A classic uniform matchup
Thanksgiving is a time for aesthetic delights, and both the Lions and Packers delivered with their threads. Detroit dusted off their streamlined design of yore: blue jerseys with gray pants and helmets with no logo. Green Bay’s traditional road uniforms completed the timeless feel to the tilt. At a time of year when we’ll see some sartorial showstoppers – including the Ravens’ ‘Purple Rising’ get-ups on Thursday night – it was nice to start the day off with something a little more understated.
Losers
Dan Campbell
Hard to fault the Lions head coach much for this one, as he navigated a tricky play-calling setup amid mounting offensive injuries and an unfavorable matchup. But things are looking really tough for a Detroit team that fell further behind in the NFC playoff picture after getting swept by Green Bay. The next three weeks will bring meetings with the Cowboys, Rams and Steelers. He’ll need some solutions in short order if the Lions hope to even salvage a wild-card berth, with holding onto the NFC North crown looking increasingly unlikely.
Jahmyr Gibbs
One week after posting a career-high 264 yards from scrimmage, the speedy back couldn’t seem to find much of a runway against the Packers. Gibbs had 20 carries for 68 yards and was essentially a non-factor in the passing game. This was the second time this year he was neutralized by Green Bay, a team that’s kept the dynamic all-purpose threat boxed in throughout his career.
Amon-Ra St. Brown
The two-time All-Pro hadn’t let his recent bout of drops get him down. But the ankle injury he suffered Thursday knocked him out of the game. With a showdown against the Cowboys next Thursday, St. Brown won’t get the typical extended recovery time conferred by a mid-week matchup. ‘Campbell said after the game was not ‘long-, long-term,’ but despite how Detroit’s offense fared without him, the Lions can’t be comfortable with the prospect of trying to reproduce these results with their season hanging in the balance.
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
