Acme Packing Company
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....
