The Lions prevail over the Bears and end the drought on Thanksgiving Day

DETROIT – Thanksgiving Day in Dan Campbell’s household hasn’t been the best experience in recent years.

After suffering three straight losses as coach of the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, Campbell described himself as a “bear” and said his wife, Holly, was praying for a win over the Chicago Bears on Thursday.

“It would be nice to feel good about being with everyone, because it’s just not really fun. “It’s not really fun to be around,” Campbell previously said. “Ask my wife, she will tell you.”

Campbell and the Lions performed well on Thursday, ending a seven-game losing streak in the annual holiday game by narrowly defeating 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 since 2016. Although it got to the point, Campbell said he was “going to take that W and I’m not going to lose my sleep over it.”

He described his mood as “good” before heading home to his family.

“Listen, much better. Much better. “I’ll take a W. Look, that’s division win No. 3, which is huge, especially in the race we’re in right now, and that’s win 11 and it’s another conference win,” Campbell said. “So, I feel good. I will accept this W and enjoy this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, all of your families and everyone out there. I’m going to enjoy this.”

Like Campbell, veteran quarterback Jared Goff had never experienced a Thanksgiving win in Detroit. After leading the Lions to their 10th straight win, Goff enjoyed the traditional turkey game as the 2024 Madden Thanksgiving MVP in high spirits alongside teammates David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, DJ Reader and Al-Quadin Muhammad . Goff finished the game with 221 passing yards and two touchdown passes to tight end Sam LaPorta while going 21 of 34 with no interceptions.

“It’s kind of a wish list for me to win on Thanksgiving, and now we can start our new winning streak,” Goff said. “But yeah, it was big. And the game is definitely down to the end and you’re worried about which way it’s going to go, but about getting the W the way we did and about putting an end to the defeat that we “It’s another check off 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, after going 12 straight quarters without giving up a touchdown, allowed three second-half passing touchdowns from Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams to receiver Keenan Allen and DJ Moore to bring Chicago within three points.

However, the Bears failed when Williams overthrew receiver Rome Odunze as time expired. Earlier, Williams was sacked on the Lions’ 41 with 32 seconds left, and then the Bears allowed 26 seconds to run despite a timeout remaining.

Lions running backs Gibbs and Montgomery combined to rush for 175 yards on 30 carries, but ended their 25-game streak of rushing touchdowns, including the playoffs, which was the longest in NFL history.

Still, hardly anyone on the roster was unhappy about leaving Ford Field, as the team continues to endure a long list of notable droughts despite a historic start for the franchise. Campbell didn’t let his players lose sight of the moment.

“Look, I told the team, ‘If you’re not careful, you’ll start evaluating your own victories.’ And it’s good because you have those standards and the way you think you should play by your own standards, by what you have. It has nothing to do with the opponent,” Campbell said. “You just know yourself and what you’re capable of. So if you’re not careful, you start going too far down, then you start taking wins for granted, and ultimately that’s a good win.”