The Thanksgiving Day football is always special and unlike the regular Thursdays with only one scheduled game, this one gave us three exciting matches with some surprises.
Detroit Lions vs. Philadelphia Eagles 45-14
Detroit hosted the Eagles after two consecutive wins and demolished them in the game where they dominated in three-quarters. Only the first one was balanced, the rest of the game was completely under the Lions’ control.
The match started slowly; was mainly played in the middle, and the first score came after 13 minutes when Theo Riddick caught the pass from Matthew Stafford and converted it to a touchdown. The Eagles equalized only a couple of minutes later, at the very start of the second period. Tight end Brent Celek found the end zone after Mark Sanchez’s pass to tie the game. That was the only time Philly got close to Detroit, but after that it was all the Lions. The home team scored 17 unanswered points by the end of the half with Golden Tate’s and Calvin “Megatron” Johnson’s touchdowns, so Detroit took the 24:7 lead and it was pretty clear they going to win the game.
Megatron scored a pair of TD’s in the second half to tie his career best of three touchdowns in a match. Joique Bell was another scorer for the home team and Jordan Matthews’ late caught pass was only a consolation for sorry Eagles. Philadelphia have now lost three in a row while Detroit have won three consecutive games.
Dallas Cowboys vs. Carolina Panthers 14-33
Dallas hosted the undefeated Carolina after an excellent victory away at Miami last week. Tony Romo was back and immediately brought that win home and the Cowboy’s fans expected that he will be the first one to defeat the Panthers this season. However, Romo was horrific yesterday, he threw an interception on the first drive of the game for a pick six and after only one minute, Dallas was behind. Both teams had scored field goals before the first quarter ended, but the second period was completely under Carolina’s control. Tony Romo threw two interceptions in two consecutive drives, and Luke Kuechly scored one touchdown from that turnover while Graham Gano’s field goal attempt was on the spot to give a big lead to the Panthers; it was 3:23 at the half and spectators already started to leave the stadium.
Carolina controlled the game until the end. They took a little breath on 33:6 and allowed Cole Beasley to score a garbage time touchdown to settle the final score four and a half minutes before the end. Matt Cassel was the architect after Romo left the game due to collarbone injury; the same one he suffered when missed eight weeks of action. Now, he will be sidelined for the remainder of the season. Cassel will serve as a starting QB. Carolina is still one of the two undefeated teams in NFL.
Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears 13-17
A big divisional derby was played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and the Patriots were the favorites against the arch-rivals the Bears. Green Bay had a solid start to the game; Eddie Lacy caught a short pass from Aaron Rodgers and scored a touchdown to give a starting 7:0 lead to his team. Surprisingly, that was the only touchdown scored for the Packers last night, and the offense simply couldn’t move the chains like usual. Tight end Zach Miller tied the game in the middle of the second period while rookie running back Langford rushed for another one to give a 14:13 lead to the Bears at halftime. Brett Favre, the legendary Green Bay’s quarterback, had his number 4 retired during the halftime ceremony. The fans went crazy and saluted their former favorite.
Those fans expected a lot more interesting game after the interval, but what they saw it was unacceptable. Green Bay failed to score a single point by the end of the game and Gould’s field goal kick three minutes into the last quarter settled the final score 13:17. It was the first time this season the Packers were scoreless in a half, and Chicago’s defense gave new hope to the team. A 5-6 Chicago is now back in the saddle for the playoff push.
