SUMMARY
After seven straight Thanksgiving losses, the Detroit Lions were finally able to celebrate by beating the Chicago Bears 23-20 on Thursday afternoon at Ford Field.
The Lions (11-1), leaders of the Northern section of the National, enjoy an 11th victory in their first 12 matches for the first time in the history of the concession.
Quarterback Jared Goff threw two touchdown passes to Sam LaPorta, who had two majors in a game for the first time this campaign.
The Bears (4-8) have now suffered six defeats in a row, including three on the last play of the game. They didn’t look at all in the game in the first half, but a comeback in the second brought back some suspense late in the game when a 16-point deficit was cut to just 3 thanks to three touchdown passes from Caleb Williams.
During a last-ditch offensive sequence that took the Bears close to the end zone, a series of penalties and quarterback sacks caused the team to lose ground, all combined with poor clock management. which caused precious seconds to run out while head coach Matt Eberflus still had time out at his disposal. On third down with barely 7 seconds left at the 26 line, Williams finally threw a long, desperate pass to Rome Odunze which was not caught, ending the game.
The first half all to the advantage of the Lions
The Lions’ first offensive sequence ended with a 30-yard field goal from Jake Bates.
They took a 10-0 lead at 14:55 of the second quarter when Goff threw the first touchdown pass of this Thanksgiving in the direction of Sam LaPorta.
Bates increased the gap with a 36-yard precision kick and another from 48 yards.
The Bears had difficulty moving the ball forward and were completely dominated in possession in the first half. They went for a single first down 48 seconds before halftime, returning to the locker room blanked 16-0. If the Lions had been better at finishing their streaks, this lead would have been even more overwhelming.
The Bears got a second wind coming back from the break scoring a quick touchdown to cut the lead to 16-6; Keenan Allen scoring in second straight game.
On second and goals, Sam LaPorta got his second major of the game while Jahmyr Gibbs lured everyone to the perimeters along with a fake handoff, increasing Detroit’s lead to 23-7.
The Bears had not yet said their last word, as Allen made a double feint to catch his second touchdown pass of the game. Chicago then missed its 2-point conversion after a high pass from Williams to keep the score at 23-13.
Bates missed his first field goal of the season on 45 yards by kicking to the right of the posts to give the ball to the Bears at the line of 35. The latter took the opportunity to end this sequence with a touchdown from DJ Moore, approaching dangerously at 23-20 in the last quarter.
