5 takeaways from the Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving win over the Chicago Bears

I am grateful to Matt Eberflus.

Without a historic blunder by the Bears head coach, the Detroit Lions wouldn’t have beaten the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving. After a dominant but low-scoring first half for Detroit, Chicago fought back and was on the verge of a chance for a draw or a win. Instead, the Lions walked away victorious thanks to terrible time management from Eberflus.

Detroit may have ended its holiday losing streak with a Thanksgiving win, but it was far from a pretty outing. The offense had one of its quietest performances of the year, while the defense continued to lose players.

That and more in this week’s takeaways.

Please stop the injuries

“How battered and bruised can a football team be?” I wrote that in last week’s takeaways, and I feel like I’ve written that in almost every takeaway article this season. The fact is that the injury crisis is devastating the Lions. With the Lions already missing a bevy of players from the top seven (plus Carlton Davis and Taylor Decker), the Lions’ depth was further weakened on Thanksgiving. Both Levi Onwuzurike and Josh Paschal were ruled out after suffering leg injuries in the first half. One of their substitutes, freshman Mekhi Wingo, briefly left the team in the second half with a knee injury. Malcolm Rodriguez suffered a knee injury midway through the fourth quarter and did not return. DJ Reader and Za’Darius Smith were both devastated in the fourth quarter but returned shortly after, with Smith going off twice.

Detroit has already hit rock bottom, but losing three cornerstones of their defense (over 1,100 snaps between Onwuzurike, Paschal and Rodriguez) is another blow they will have to absorb along the way. Players like Al-Quaddin Muhammad and Pat O’Connor – two players who were not at the team’s training camp – will be relied upon to maintain a strong defensive line. Trevor Nowaske, Ben Niemann, David Long or Ezekiel Turner may need to fill the potential void at linebacker on a team already without Alex Anzalone and Jalen Reeves-Maybin.

Interior designer

As crippled as the edge defenders were, the interior was sturdy thanks to Alim McNeill and DJ Reader. Reader was afraid of injury but was otherwise dominant. He recorded two sacks while tag-teaming with McNeill on countless pressures. Caleb Williams was sacked five times that day, largely thanks to internal pressure from McNeill and Reader.

There is no doubt that the Lions would not be in their current position without these two defensive tackles.

Missed opportunities

The Lions have defeated many teams this year by forcing them to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns. On Thursday, the Lions found themselves on the wrong side of that trend. Despite a dominant first half, Detroit had to settle for three short field goals after stalling in opponent territory. The score was just 16-0 at halftime, although Chicago didn’t get a first down until the final seconds of the second quarter. For the rest of the game, they only managed a single touchdown in the second half.

After a modest (by their standards) 24 points against the Indianapolis Colts, the offense wasn’t at its best for the second week in a row. The missed opportunities didn’t cost the Lions a (narrow) defeat, but there is still cause for concern. They need to clean up their game if they want to continue to compete against tougher opponents. Next? The Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills. The Lions will need their offense as usual.

Ups and downs for Jamo

Jameson Williams has established himself as a key part of the offense, but that can be both positive and negative. On the bright side, Williams did some damage on short passes, as opposed to his usual style of being threatening. He also had a nice hurdle in an end-around, completely eliminating a Bears defender.

On the negative side, he almost had a fumble that was declared incomplete in a split second. He later received a stupid taunt penalty for throwing the ball into a Bears defender’s face after a catch. This put Detroit on second-and-22, which eventually turned into a missed field goal.

Williams is an electric player, you have to live with the roller coaster ride he will give you.

Another Thanksgiving curse from Jim Nantz

Jake Bates missed his first field of the season on a 45-yard attempt thanks to Jim Nantz and his wizardry. Nantz praised the perfect kicker moments before the field goal attempt. He had a similar moment in 2022 when Michael Badgley missed a short 27-yard field goal to end his perfect streak – that game also took place on Thanksgiving:

Someone needs to tape Nantz’s mouth shut whenever the Lions kick.