DETROIT — Dan Campbell admittedly wanted this one for more than just the win-loss column. It’s Thanksgiving, a time when all eyes are on a Detroit Lions franchise that plays on this holiday each year. Campbell has never won this game as head coach. Most of his players haven’t, either. It had been eight years since the Lions last won on Turkey Day.
For the sake of those sharing a dinner table with Campbell and his players after the game, they all wanted a happy Thanksgiving.
“It’d be nice to feel good about it when you’re with everybody because (otherwise) it’s just not really fun,” Campbell said earlier this week. “It’s not real fun to be around. Ask my wife; she’ll tell you. Like, that’s why she’s praying for a win big time because she knows that I’m a bear when we don’t win, so we all want it. It is long overdue, but we have to win to win.”
The rest of Detroit must’ve joined Campbell’s wife in prayer because the Lions had the football gods watching over them. Their 23-20 victory over the Chicago Bears on Thursday was closer than many anticipated. They watched a 16-point lead fall to 10, then 3 and almost 0, unable to finish a Bears team that entered the day on a five-game losing streak and is now 4-8 on the season.
For those feeling unsettled by a game like this, that’s certainly reasonable. The offense went just 2-of-5 in the red zone. Jahmyr Gibbs coughed up a costly fumble, with the Lions in position to tack on points before the half. After a 3-yard catch to set up second-and-7 from the Chicago 29 with 9:44 left in the fourth quarter, Jameson Williams hit Bears DB Tyrique Stevenson in the face with the ball, drawing a 15-yard penalty. It led to Jake Bates’ first field goal miss of the season when the Lions were searching for breathing room. A unit known for putting away games when it matters most stalled with a chance to do just that in the fourth quarter, handing the Bears an opportunity to tie or win.
“We’re trying to win a football game,” said Williams, who apologized in front of the team in the locker room. “Things like that can’t happen.”
“We didn’t exhibit our best brand of ball, and we know that,” running back David Montgomery said. “On the offensive side, we can’t put that much pressure on the defense at the end of the game like that. So once we get down to the red zone, we got to find a way to score. You know, scoring is what we do. So, we gotta get back to figuring out how we can do that better.”
Air Waymo cleared for takeoff ✈️#CHIvsDET | 📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/6kvKeFRFh2
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 28, 2024
Normally when the offense has an off-day, the defense is there to pick it up. That’s harder to do when it can barely pick itself up off the turf, injury after injury.
This defense continues to play short-handed football. It continues to trot out and heavily rely on players who weren’t on this roster when the season began. David Long Jr., Ezekiel Turner, Al-Quadin Muhammad. Some of the names make you want to adjust your glasses for a second look. They’re rolling with reserves like Khalil Dorsey, Kindle Vildor, Ben Niemann and Mekhi Wingo. As much as they say next man up, sooner or later, there are no men to step up. Josh Paschal. Levi Onwuzurike. Malcolm Rodriguez. They all left the game and did not return.
Their absences, in addition to those of Carlton Davis, Alex Anzalone and so many others, was felt. The Lions entered the week surrendering just seven passing touchdowns all season. Rookie No. 1 pick Caleb Williams had three alone as he and this Chicago offense fought their way back from a 16-point deficit and nearly delivered a left hook that would have shell-shocked the home crowd, making for a not-so-happy Thanksgiving.
“Let me ask you this: Does it really matter?” Campbell said when asked about injuries to his defense. “Like, who cares? And that’s the thing. That’s what I go back to. It doesn’t matter. Either it is or it isn’t, and we get a guy back or we don’t get a guy back worrying about it and moaning about it and b—-ing about it. … So, I know this: Whoever we have available, we’re going to get them ready to play, and we expect them to hold the line, period.”
Ultimately, that’s what the Lions did. A crucial Jack Fox punt set up the Bears at their own 1. The defense — albeit, with some drama — held firm on the final possession. It got it done, in ways some Lions teams of the past have not.
There’s an all-too-familiar timeline where the Lions drop a game just like this. A team that can’t get out of its own way and continues to lose close games in new and perplexing fashion in the final moments? Sound familiar? That was once the Lions. It was the Bears on Thursday afternoon and has been for much of the season.
Some of their losses include a 3-point overtime defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings, a blocked field goal in a 1-point loss to the Green Bay Packers, a surrendered Hail Mary against the Washington Commanders and inexplicable situational awareness Thursday in a game that, at the very least, could’ve been sent to overtime.
The Bears gave Caleb Williams a play, perhaps one that could’ve set up a closer field goal attempt, but he checked out of it with time winding down as the Bears were slow to get set. He instead checked into an end-zone shot intended for Rome Odunze. Amid the chaos of a rookie QB trying to navigate a late-game situation, the Bears ended the game with a timeout in their pocket. The ball fell incomplete. Just like that, the clock hit zero and the game ended rather abruptly, with many wondering what they had just witnessed.
“Incomplete and the game is over,” Jim Nantz said on the broadcast. “Completely botched at the end by the Bears.”
Even Lions players were confused. They’ve been on the other side of situations like that before. They enjoyed their view of it this time around.
“It was a crazy ending, right?” Goff said. “Like, thought we won, thought we were going to go to overtime, thought we were going to have a chance to have our final drive, thought we won again. Like, it all kind of kept happening. …But yeah, it was a good win — don’t care how it happens, don’t care against who, division game on Thanksgiving. We’ll take any win we can.”
“On that final play, I had no clue what was going on,” Alim McNeill said. “It was like play 20, so I was just on autopilot. I was just trying to rush and get to the quarterback. But I was surprised when I seen it just hit zero and the game was over. I was glad we got the W.”
Thanksgiving is usually the boiling point for the Lions as a franchise. Getting embarrassed on national television is a tradition as old as time and has been the final straw for Lions head coaches of the past before a new one is brought in to right his predecessor’s wrongs, only to continue the cycle himself. Thanksgiving four years ago is what led to the firing of Matt Patricia and the hiring of Campbell, Brad Holmes and the start of this new era of Detroit Lions football.
If the worst thing to come out of this year’s game was a close call against a team that’s more competitive than its record suggests, consider it a sign of the times.
“Things have changed,” McNeill said. “Things are obviously a lot different from a couple years ago. So, yeah, things have changed a lot. We have a different mentality for different things and different mindsets and ways of thinking of things now because, you know, we built a squad here. We built a crew.”
McNeill said the only thing on the agenda the rest of the day is to go home, make himself a plate and sleep. Some of his teammates had already eaten, as Goff, Montgomery, Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown celebrated with a bite of the turkey leg.
“That’s something that I’ll never forget,” Goff said. “It was actually pretty good.”
#EasyToCelebrate a Thanksgiving Day dub @budlight 🍻 pic.twitter.com/evGfHAVWEk
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 28, 2024
There’s a lot to be thankful for if you’re the Lions or a fan of theirs. They secured yet another victory — their 10th in a row, tying a franchise record. They are 11-1 for the first time ever. Yes, ever. Thursday’s win keeps them in the pole position for the NFC’s No. 1 seed and the NFC North ahead of a much-anticipated rematch against the Green Bay Packers in a week.
Best believe they feel good about this one.
“We’re going to enjoy this first Thanksgiving win since I’ve been here, and our guys are going to enjoy it,” Campbell said. “We’re going to enjoy it. We’ve got a couple of days off before we’re back getting ready for Green Bay, our players do, and then we’re on to the next one. So proud of the guys.”
(Photo of Jahmyr Gibbs: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
