NFL Thanksgiving games: Lions win 10th straight as Bears mismanage clock
Jared Goff connected with Sam LaPorta for two touchdowns and the Detroit Lions extended their winning streak to 10 games by holding off the visiting Chicago Bears, 23-20 on Thursday.
The streak matches the franchise record established during their first season in Detroit in 1934. The Lions snapped a seven-game losing streak in their annual Thanksgiving Day game.
Goff passed for 221 yards, while David Montgomery had 124 scrimmage yards. Jahmyr Gibbs added a combined 104 yards for Detroit (11-1), who own the best record in the NFC.
Caleb Williams threw for 256 yards and three second-half touchdowns for the Bears (4-8), who have lost six straight. DJ Moore caught eight passes for 97 yards and a touchdown. Chicago’s poor clock management on their last possession allowed Detroit to hold on.
The Lions outgained the Bears 279-53 in the first half and grabbed a 16-0 lead.
Detroit controlled the ball for nearly eight minutes after the opening kickoff but settled for a 30-yard Jake Bates field goal. The Bears went three-and-out on their first possession.
The Lions then methodically moved 90 yards down the field in 10 plays and scored on the first play of the second quarter, a three-yard pass from Goff to LaPorta.
The Lions added 36 and 48 yard field goals by Bates.
The Bears got on the scoreboard on the opening possession of the second half. Williams finished off the 74-yard drive with a 31-pass to Keenan Allen.
The Lions answered with a touchdown. That drive was completed by Goff’s one-yard toss to LaPorta to make it 23-7.
Chicago cut the deficit to 23-13 on Williams’ 9-yard scoring pass to Allen with 13:40 remaining. Williams threw an incompletion on the 2-point try.
Bates missed a 45-yard field goal try with 8:42 left. The Bears then made it a three-point game with 5:36 remaining on Williams’ 31-yard scoring pass to Moore.
The Lions were forced to punt on their next possession but it was downed on the Bears one-yard line. A pass interference penalty against Detroit on fourth-and-14 allowed Chicago’s drive to continue in the final minute.
After a sack left the ball on the Chicago 41-yard line with 32 seconds left, the Bears failed to call a timeout on third down and the clock ran out on a Williams incompletion.
New York Giants 20-27 Dallas Cowboys
DeMarvion Overshown returned an interception 23 yards for a touchdown, Rico Dowdle ran for a score in his first career 100-yard game and the Cowboys held on for a 27-20 Thanksgiving Day victory over the Giants.
Cooper Rush threw a touchdown pass, and Dowdle finished with 112 yards Thursday as the Cowboys (5-7) ended a six-game home losing streak going back to a wild-card loss to Green Bay last season.
Drew Lock, who started in place of the injured Tommy DeVito a week after the benching and subsequent release of Daniel Jones, lost a fumble following Overshown’s pick-six in a seventh consecutive loss for the Giants (2-10).
Lock ran for 57 yards and a touchdown that ended up being too late to avoid New York’s eighth consecutive loss to their NFC East rivals.
The Giants had their first lead since Week 5 before Overshown’s dynamic play put Dallas back in front for good in the second quarter. The Cowboys led for just 2 minutes, 15 seconds during their six-game skid at AT&T Stadium.
Leading 7-6, Lock tried to flip a screen pass to Devin Singletary after the running back had been overpowered trying to block Overshown. The second-year linebacker tipped the pass into the air toward the end zone, used his speed to run it down and scored untouched.
Overshown also recovered Lock’s fumble on the opening possession of the second half to set up Rush’s two-yard TD pass to Brandin Cooks in a second straight win for Dallas coming off a five-game losing streak.
Rush, now 2-2 as the starter this season with Dak Prescott out for the year with a torn hamstring, threw the scoring pass to Cooks the play after the quarterback’s apparent fumble into the end zone was overturned on review.
