The Detroit Lions faced a disappointing defeat against the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving Day, falling 31-24 at Ford Field. Instead, the loss became a devastating gut-punch for the Lions. Worse, they’ve now lost four of their last seven and are now just 7-5 on the year. Coach Dan Campbell acknowledged the uphill battle his team faces, stating, “we’ve dug ourselves a little bit of a hole.”
After all the Lions came into the game with a league-leading, impressive 29.6 points per game average. Time and again they couldn’t finish key chances. They’re now 0-for-7 on fourth downs since Week 11, a fact that would turn out to be crucial in this contest. In a key fourth-quarter moment, quarterback Jared Goff badly overthrew a fourth-and-3 short pass to Jameson Williams. This error cost the Lions and lost a great scoring chance.
It’s no surprise Goff was confident in Williams — the receiver was a frequent target in the game. Williams set a career high with those seven receptions and wideout gained 144 yards. He punched in a touchdown, showing that he can be the engine that runs the Lions’ offense. With 20 seconds left in the game, Goff threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to rookie Isaac TeSlaa. This score was TeSlaa’s third receiving touchdown of the year. TeSlaa finished with five receptions overall.
When it came to misfortune, the Lions were hit early and often. Star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown left the game early in the first quarter after aggravating a high ankle sprain. Sadly, he never made it back to the field. His absence created a hole in the receiving corps, which had a major effect on the team’s offensive approach.
This loss ends Detroit’s six-game Thanksgiving win streak dating back to 2021. Now, their record is a dismal 1-8 over the last nine games on this holiday. Campbell emphasized the need for improvement moving forward, noting that “those first two series that we had, we’ve got to find a way to convert on third down and then the fourth downs.” He noted that maybe two or three plays made differently would have been all it took to win it. They were up against an even more formidable foe.
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