Here at CBS Sports we hope you and yours had a fantastic Thanksgiving with food, family and successful parlays. There was plenty of NFL action to digest on Thursday, as the Chicago Bears’ comeback attempt against the Detroit Lions fell short, Rico Dowdle and DeMarvion Overshown led the Dallas Cowboys to victory over the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. achieved a relatively easy victory over the visiting Miami Dolphins.
Who stood out at Thanksgiving? Below, we’ll break down some Turkey Day winners and losers.
Winner: Lions defensive front
The Lions as a whole didn’t have the most impressive performance in the win over the Bears, but this defensive front was dominant. Not only did Detroit hold D’Andre Swift to 39 yards on 11 carries, but according to Next Gen Stats, Za’Darius Smith (8), Al-Quadin Muhammad (7) and DJ Reader (7) set or tied career highs. the season. in pressures. This was just the second game this season in which a team had three players with seven or more pressures. Reader recorded two sacks, Smith had 1.5 and Muhammad had one.
The Lions also pressured Caleb Williams on 17 no-load dropbacks, which was his most no-load pressure in a game in the Dan Campbell era.
Loser: Matt Eberflus
After being outscored 16-0 in the first half, the Bears made a nice comeback in the second half. Chicago went on a 20-7 run and was even in position to tie the game or potentially win it late. However, Eberflus’ clock management ruined Chicago’s chances.
Down by three points, the Bears had the ball at the Lions’ 25-yard line with less than a minute left. Williams missed DJ Moore on the first attempt and Eberflus spent his second timeout with the clock already stopped. A Teven Jenkins penalty on second down pushed the Bears back 10 yards, and then Williams was sacked on the next second-and-20.
Williams was sacked with about 33 seconds left. He tried to get his teammates to the line of scrimmage and call a no-huddle play, but didn’t get the ball snapped until there were six seconds left in the fourth quarter. His attempted through ball to Roma Odunze that fell incomplete ended up being the last play of the game.
It’s pretty crazy that Eberflus wouldn’t want to use that last timeout to reset his offense after the sack. The Bears should have called a timeout after the sack, called a play to gain about 5 yards on third-and-26, then brought out the special teams unit and kicked the game-tying field goal. There was enough time for that. What’s even crazier is that Eberflus told reporters afterward that he thinks they handled the situation the right way.
“Our hope was, because it was third [down] going fourth, that we would build that play back up at 18 seconds, throw it down the field, get into field goal range and then call a timeout,” Eberflus said, via NFL.com. “There It’s where I was and that was our decision. -decision making process about that. Again, we were out of field goal range, so we needed to go a few more yards, as close as possible, and then we were going to call a timeout, and that’s why we celebrated that last timeout.”
Eberflus also added: “I like what we did there. Again, when we are under 12 [seconds] there, you are going to ask for a timeout there, you have no choice. … To me, I think we handled it the right way. I think we have to reorganize the play, put it on the field and then call a timeout. “That’s why we put up with it and it didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”
Winner: DeMarvion over the top
The second-year player from Texas scored the first touchdown of his career after throwing a screen pass in the air, then catching it and taking it 23 yards to the house in the second quarter of the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving matchup against the Giants:
Then in the third quarter, Overshown recovered a Drew Lock fumble to set up the Cowboys with fantastic field position. According to CBS Sports Research, Overshown is the first Cowboy to record a pick six and a fumble recovery in the same game since 2002.
Loser: CeeDee Lamb Fantasy owners
Lamb was noticeably absent in the second half, and one has to wonder if he reaggravated the AC joint sprain he suffered in the Week 9 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. He finished the game with two catches for 39 yards.
Loser: Shaq Barrett
Why Shaquil Barrett is a loser on Thanksgiving? Isn’t that that former Pro Bowl pass rusher who retired in the summer?
Earlier this week, it was reported that Barrett had requested reinstatement after hanging up his cleats in July. However, the Miami Dolphins own his rights. On Thursday, NFL Media reported that the Dolphins had elected not to activate Barrett off the reserve/retired list, meaning he will not play for Miami this season. The Dolphins also reportedly have no intention of releasing him, meaning Barrett cannot play for another franchise as teams prepare to advance to the playoffs.
It seems Barrett may have waited too long to attempt his return to the NFL. The Dolphins will not allow him to sign with another team at this point in the year.
While injuries have affected his season a bit, Love continues to shine when healthy. He did it again Thursday night, completing 75% of his passes that included a pair of touchdowns to Jayden Reed. In total, Love threw for 274 yards on 21-of-28 passing and was not sacked.
Hill finished with a solid stat line of six receptions (on nine targets) for 83 yards and a score. But most of those numbers were accumulated when the Dolphins were already trailing by double digits late in the second half. Hill hasn’t had more than 100 receiving yards in a game since Week 1. That needs to change if the Dolphins want to make progress over the final five weeks of the season.
The Packers linebacker was all over the field while tying for the team lead with 10 tackles. Walker recorded one of the biggest plays of the game when he sacked Tagovailoa on fourth-and-goal with Miami threatening to make the game a one-possession early in the fourth quarter.
Loser: Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins have lost 12 consecutive games that were played when the kickoff temperature was 40 degrees or below. Tagovailoa fell to 0-5 in those games, but his performance Thursday night was masterful. Even though Hill and Jayden Waddle were bottled up and lacking anything resembling a running game, Tagovailoa still threw for 365 yards and two touchdowns on 37-of-46 passing.
