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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
DETROIT – Thanksgiving at Dan Campbell’s house wasn’t the best experience in recent years.
After suffering three straight Thanksgiving losses as coach of the Detroit Lions, Campbell described himself as a “bear” to be around and said his wife, Holly, was praying for a win over the Chicago Bears on Thursday.
“It would be nice to feel good when you’re with everyone because it’s just not very fun. It’s not very fun to be around,” Campbell said beforehand. “Ask my wife, she will tell you.”
Campbell and the Lions delivered on Thursday, snapping a seven-game losing streak in the annual Christmas game by narrowly beating the Bears, 23-20.
At 11-1, the Lions are off to their best start in franchise history.
Before Thursday, the Lions hadn’t won on Thanksgiving Day since 2016. Although the time came, Campbell said he’s “going to take this W and I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.”
He described his mood as “good” before returning home to his family.
“Listen, much better. Much better. I’ll take a win. Look, that’s win number 3 in the division, which is huge, especially in the race we’re in right now and it’s win 11 and it’s another win in the conference”. Campbell said. “So, I feel good. I’m going to take that W and I’m going to enjoy this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and all your families and everyone out there. I’m going to enjoy this.”
Like Campbell, veteran quarterback Jared Goff had never experienced a Thanksgiving Day victory in Detroit. After leading the Lions to their 10th consecutive victory, Goff enjoyed the traditional turkey leg as MVP of Madden Thanksgiving 2024, alongside teammates David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, DJ Reader and Al -Quadin Muhammad in a very good mood. Goff finished with 221 passing yards and two touchdown passes to tight end Sam LaPorta and went 21 for 34 with no interceptions.
“It was kind of a bucket list thing for me to win on Thanksgiving, and now we can start our new winning streak,” Goff said. “But yeah, it was big. And certainly the game went down to the wire and you’re worried about which way it’s going to go, but to get the win the way we did and end that streak that we’ve had.” “We’ve been working on it and kind of putting that aside is another check on our list that we’ve been working on for the last few years and it feels good.”
The Lions took a 16-0 halftime lead but, having gone 12 straight quarters without allowing a touchdown, allowed three second-half touchdown passes from Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams to the receivers Keenan Allen and DJ Moore as Chicago closed within three.
However, the Bears came up short when Williams tackled receiver Rome Odunze as time expired. Before that, Williams was sacked at the Lions’ 41-yard line with 32 seconds left, and then the Bears let 26 seconds run off the clock, despite having a timeout remaining.
Lions running backs Gibbs and Montgomery combined to rush for 175 yards on 30 carries, but ended their 25-game rushing touchdown streak, including the playoffs, which was the longest in NFL history.
Still, almost no one on the roster was unhappy leaving Ford Field as the team continues to overcome a long list of notable droughts amid a historic start for the franchise. Campbell wouldn’t let his players lose sight of that moment.
“Look, I told the team, ‘If you’re not careful, start rating your own wins.’ And it’s good because you have these standards and the way you think you should play by your own standards, by what you have, doesn’t have nothing to do with the opponent,” Campbell said. “It’s just that they know themselves and they know what they’re capable of and so if they’re not careful they start to go too far and they start to take the wins for granted and ultimately it’s a good win.” “.
