Jordan Love is at his best on Thanksgiving Day.
Playing on the holiday for the third straight year — each year he has been the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback — Love delivered a third consecutive tremendous performance. Against the Detroit Lions on Thursday afternoon, Love threw for four touchdowns and completed a critical 4th-down pass after the two-minute warning to clinch a massive 31-24 victory for the Packers.
Love was on point all day long, leading the Packers to scores on all but two of their meaningful offensive drives in this game. He spread the ball around a bit, but his top three wide receivers — Christian Watson, Dontayvion Wicks, and Romeo Doubs — got most of the work, with all four touchdowns spread between them. Wicks in particular had a huge day, catching 6 of 7 targets for 94 yards and two of those scores, while Watson hauled in a massive 51-yard score in the second quarter.
Matt LaFleur called an excellent game as well, and borrowed some aggressiveness from his counterpart on the Lions’ sideline, Dan Campbell. Green Bay was 3-for-3 on fourth down on this game, with two of their touchdowns coming on those opportunities.
The Packers’ defense also stepped up in some big moments and held the Lions’ running game largely in check. The Lions’ two running backs picked up exactly 100 yards on 28 carries, averaging less than four yards per carry. And although the secondary gave up some significant passing yards, especially in the second half, the pass rush came up big in some key moments. Most of that was due to Micah Parsons, who had 2.5 sacks in the game, while Isaiah McDuffie had a big day with 12 tackles of his own.
Green Bay now takes a big lead on the Lions in the division standings, and they will have a chance to take over the top spot if the Chicago Bears lose to the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday afternoon. The Packers will play the Bears a week from Sunday in their first of two meetings over three weeks, a stretch that could decide the NFC North.
The Packers received the opening kickoff as they did two years earlier, but this opening drive ended in a field goal instead of a touchdown. An 18-yard reception from Christian Watson and a 13-yard run from Josh Jacobs helped move Green Bay into field goal range, where Jordan Love threw a few incomplete passes to bring up fourth down. Brandon McManus put a 45-yard attempt right down the middle, and the Packers had an early 3-0 lead.
Green Bay’s defense got off to a tremendous start putting pressure on Jared Goff on the Lions’ first series. After a short run from Jahmyr Gibbs, Micah Parsons pressured Goff on second down to force an inaccurate pass and Jeff Hafley dialed up a great blitz on third down, with Xavier McKinney getting to the quarterback as he released the football to force a quick three-and-out.
After the Packers returned the favor with a three-and-out of their own, the defense got pressure on Goff once again. A penalty on Detroit, a stop on David Montgomery for no gain, and an incomplete pass brought up 3rd-and-15, when Parsons and Kingsley Enagbare converged on Goff for a sack to force another Lions punt.
Jacobs got another big gain on the Packers’ third series, going for 29 yards on a 3rd-and-2. That was Jacobs’ longest run of the season by ten yards, and it got Green Bay to the edge of field goal range again. Facing a 3rd-and-4 at the Lions’ 34, Love drew an offsides on D.J. Reader to get a free play and move the chains with the penalty. Facing a 4th-and-2 a few plays later, Matt LaFleur kept his offense on the field and Love floated a gorgeous ball to Dontayvion Wicks. The third-year receiver hauled in the ball with his right foot on the turf and tapped his left, and the play was ruled a touchdown and held up on review for a 10-0 Packers lead.
Detroit got its first passing yard of the game on their third series, as Goff found Jameson Williams for a gain of 22 yards. Later, with Amon-Ra St. Brown out of the game after suffering a leg injury, Tom Kennedy came on as his replacement and picked up 23 yards to get inside the ten-yard line. David Montgomery plunged into the end zone a few plays later to get the Lions on the board and cut the Packers’ lead to 10-7.
Wicks’ touchdown seemed to get him going for the next series. After a few short passes to the sideline, one to Wicks for a nice gain, Love dropped back on 3rd-and-5 and stepped into a bullet to Wicks at the numbers for an 18-yard gain. He then rolled out off play action and hit a diving Luke Musgrave for 23 yards down to the 11-yard line. LaFleur went for it again on 4th-and-short on this drive, this time from inside the five-yard line, and Love hit Doubs in the front corner of the end zone for another 4th-down score to respond and return the Packers’ lead to ten points.
With just over two minutes to go, the Lions offense tried to get some points before the half to start a double-up opportunity around halftime. They picked up a chunk of yardage on a pass to Jameson Williams and worked their way into field goal range. Facing a 3rd-and-3, Goff audibled and reset the formation, throwing a screen to Williams. Carrington Valentine read it well but badly missed the tackle, and Williams scampered into the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown.
That made the score 17-14 in favor of the Packers with 25 seconds left in the second quarter. After an incomplete pass on first down, Green Bay took a knee and went into the locker room.
The Lions came out of the break and moved the ball into Packers territory quickly, but slowed down when hitting midfield. The Packers stopped Gibbs for a loss of a yard on 3rd-and-2, then stuffed him for another loss as Dan Campbell tried running Gibbs again on 4th down, leading to a run stop by Isaiah McDuffie and Parsons and a turnover on downs.
It only took the Packers two plays to regain a ten-point lead. After a run by Jacobs for no gain, Jordan Love reared back for a moonshot to Christian Watson, who hauled in the Packers’ longest touchdown of the year — a 51-yarder. Check out this fantastic throw and catch:
Goff 24 yard scramble Monty checkdown 13, run 13 Teslaa 17 TD
The Lions responded right away this time, finding the end zone to pull back to within three. Goff scrambled for 24 yards early on the drive, then back-to-back 13-yard gains from David Montgomery set the Lions up inside the Packers’ 20. Goff then hit rookie Isaac TeSlaa for a 17-yard touchdown, cutting Green Bay’s lead to 24-21.
Green Bay wasted no time with their own response, however. A Bo Melton jet sweep gained 14 yards before Jordan Love found Wicks once again over the middle for a big gain, this one going for 30 yards. Jacobs looked to aggravate his nagging leg injuries on the drive after taking a big hit from Brian Branch on a tackle attempt later on, though he did come back later on the drive. The Packers got a big break on a failed third down attempt near the goal line, as Jack Campbell was flagged for a facemask to extend the drive. After a short run from Jacobs led to Love’s fourth touchdown pass on second down, as he found Wicks near the pylon and Wicks dove over the goal line for his second score of the game, restoring the Packers’ ten-point lead at 31-21.
Facing that deficit, Campbell tried to dial up a tricky play on the second play of the next drive. Goff handed off to Montgomery, who lateraled back to the quarterback for a pass downfield, but Goff dropped the catch and was tackled for a loss of 9 yards. Gibbs picked up a first down though with runs of 14 and 12 yards off the edge as the game clock ran out on the third quarter. Another big run stop from Evan Williams on 3rd-and-short set up the Lions for yet another 4th down and Goff had Jameson Williams wide open, but his throw was behind his receiver and Williams couldn’t haul it in, resulting in another turnover on downs and keeping Green Bay’s lead at 10.
The referees stole a third-down conversion from the Packers on their next series, failing to call Amik Robertson for an obvious pass interference call on Christian Watson. After the punt, Parsons got a solo sack on a big rush off the right side of the defense, but Keisean Nixon was flagged for illegal contact on the next play to give Detroit a first down. Goff then found Jameson Williams for a 44-yard gain to get into the red zone once again. After Gibbs made a short catch for a third down conversion to set up goal-to-go, Parsons delivered a huge third down sack — giving him 2.5 on the day — forcing the Lions to take a field goal on 4th-and-13.
The Packers then took over with just under three minutes to go, needing just a few first downs to close out the game. A Jacobs run for no gain took up the Lions’ first timeout, then he ran for five yards to eat up their second. On 3rd-and-5, Love hit Watson on an out route and the receiver went out of bounds for an easy and pivotal first down. Two more runs ran the clock down to the two-minute warning, with setting up a 3rd-and-3 at the Lions’ 45.
The Packers couldn’t convert, with Watson having the ball knocked out of his hands. But LaFleur shockingly kept the offense on the field, and Love delivered an incredible dagger to clinch the victory. He faded away under pressure and floated a pass to Wicks, who hauled it in with Brian Branch in his hip pocket, gaining 16 yards and sealing the 31-24 victory.
