Kids all over the country will spend part of Thanksgiving playing with their food and the Lions did a lot of it themselves against the Bears, but they still escaped with a win.
The Lions dominated the first half of play, but had to settle for a 16-0 lead after three drives stalled for field goals before running back Jahmyr Gibbs lost a fumble at the Bears’ 6-yard-line just before the break. The Bears offense showed signs of life after the break, however, and scored three touchdowns as they cut the Lions’ lead to 23-20 with 5:36 left to play.
A quick three-and-out led to a Lions punt, but they downed it at the Chicago 1-yard-line with 3:31 left to play. A Caleb Williams pass to DJ Moore on third down got them out of the shadow of their end zone and a run by D’Andre Swift moved the ball to midfield on another third down before the two-minute warning. A sack by Za’Darius Smith and Ezekiel Turner stunted their momentum, though, and an offensive pass interference penalty on tight end Cole Kmet wiped out a fourth-down conversion with just under a minute to play.
The Bears were left with a last-ditch effort to convert and they did when officials flagged Bears defensive back Kindle Vildor for interfering with DJ Moore on the next play. That moved the ball to the Lions’ 25-yard-line, but a Lions penalty and a sack by Smith put them in position for a Hail Mary. They had a timeout to set it up, but didn’t call it and the game ended on an incompletion.
Goff threw both of his touchdowns to tight end Sam LaPorta and finished 21-of-34 for 221 yards. The Lions also dialed up a play in the first half that was meant to see right tackle Penei Sewell throw a pass, but he wound up keeping the ball for a one-yard loss. There were some other questionable calls to throw the ball on a day when the Lions saw Gibbs and David Montgomery run for a combined 175 yards. Jameson Williams made a highlight reel hurdle to add 15 more rushing yards, but had a pair of personal fouls that also kept the Detroit offense from firing on all cylinders.
The Lions will move on to another Thursday home game in Week 14. The Packers will come calling for that contest and another win will move them closer to another division title. They will have a number of injuries to monitor on the way into that game. Defensive end Josh Paschal, defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike, and linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez had to leave the game.
The Bears can’t harbor such hopes after falling to 4-8, but they can take some positives from the way the offense performed in the second half. Williams hit Allen for a pair of touchdowns and then hit DJ Moore for the score that brought them within a field goal. That was in line with the improved offensive performance in Thomas Brown’s first two weeks calling plays. Williams finished 20-of-38 for 256 yards and will try for a more complete performance in Santa Clara against the 49ers a week from Sunday.
