NFL Thanksgiving review: Catastrophic lost timeout costs Bears vs. Lions, Cowboys continue improbable playoff push, Packers blink past Dolphins

CNN
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While people were hiding in their turkey, there was plenty of football for fans to enjoy on Thanksgiving as well.

The games were played in Detroit, Dallas and Green Bay, with the winning teams celebrating, as is tradition, by eating turkey during their postgame interviews.

Here’s what happened across the NFL on Thanksgiving.

A missed timeout call by Bears head coach Matt Eberflus ended up costing Chicago as they tried to mount a late comeback against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving’s first game of the day, falling short 23-20 in the Motor City.

The Bears had fallen into a 16-0 hole in what looked like a one-sided affair at Ford Field as the Chicago offense struggled to move the ball and Detroit dominated possession.

Three Jake Bates field goals and a Sam LaPorta touchdown catch looked like Detroit would comfortably roll to a 10th straight win.

But to Chicago’s credit, the Bears battled back, with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams throwing three touchdown passes — two to Keenan Allen and one to DJ Moore — to cut the lead to three when they got the ball back on their own seven- yard. line with 3:31 left in the fourth quarter.

Williams drove the Bears into Lions territory on a field goal attempt that would have sent the game to overtime, but the 2024 No. 1 overall pick was sacked on second-and-20 from the 35-yard line.

With the clock ticking down with under 30 seconds remaining, Williams scrambled to get the offense set before throwing a pass as time expired that fell incomplete to Rome Odunze, meaning the game was over and the Bears lost.

What was confusing to many in attendance and those at home watching the game was that Chicago still had one timeout left that Eberflus could have used to stop the clock to allow his team to get back into field goal position to try to put the game away to overtime. .

After the disastrous end to the game, Eberflus said he “took the blame” but defended his handling of the situation.

“Our hope was — because it was third (down) going into fourth — that we would recreate that play in 18 seconds, throw it down the field, get into field goal range and then call the timeout,” Eberflus told reporters . “That’s where it was, and that was our decision-making process on that. Again, we were out of field goal range, so we needed to get some more yards in there, as close as we can get, and then we had to call a timeout, and that’s why we took the last timeout.”

He added: “I like what we did there. Again, once it’s under 12 (seconds) there, you want to call timeout there, you don’t have an option. … To me, I think we handled it on that right way. I believe you repeat the play, get it in and then call timeout. That’s why we kept it and it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”

The manner in which the defeat came about only served to compound the sense of disappointment Chicago fans felt as they lost their sixth straight game, adding another heartbreaking loss to the ever-growing list of those they have had this season.

For the Lions, the win improves them to 11-1 – the best start to a season in franchise history.

In the end, it was the Lions players who celebrated by eating roast turkey at the postgame show, as is tradition. While many of the players hid, running back David Montgomery ate a carrot on the side with a sheepish smile on his face.

The Dallas Cowboys continued their improbable late-season playoff push by beating their NFC East division rivals, the New York Giants, 27-20 in the second game of Thanksgiving.

The win was the Cowboys’ second in a row — and their first at home this season — to improve to 5-7.

Although they are without starting quarterback Dak Prescott after he underwent season-ending surgery on a hamstring injury weeks ago, Dallas’ star pass rusher Micah Parsons isn’t ruling out a late postseason push from ‘America’s Team.’

“To be honest, it’s really been, ‘Why not us?'” Parsons told Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews after the win over the Giants. “Everybody talked us out and it was like, ‘Enough is enough.’ We know what we’ve got, we know what we can do here, and I believe in every one of these guys, and I believe that we will turn it around and run a race.”

According to NFL.comis the Cowboys’ chances of making the postseason at 4% after the win.

Dallas was powered by a solid performance from backup quarterback Cooper Rush and a career performance from running back Rico Dowdle.

Rush threw 21-of-36 for 195 yards and a touchdown to Brandin Cooks, while Dowdle ran for a career-high 112 yards and a score to become the first Cowboys running back with over 100 yards and a touchdown since Week 10 in 2022.

Although the Giants scored the first touchdown of the game through rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr, a 23-yard DeMarvion Overshown pick-six by Giants QB Drew Lock and two first-half field goals by Brandon Aubrey meant Dallas led 13-10 at halftime .

But two touchdowns by Dallas in the third quarter gave the home team a commanding lead before 10 fourth-quarter points by the Giants made it a nervy finish, but the Cowboys were able to hang on.

“Well, where we are, I haven’t really had time to think past one quarter as far as getting a win,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters afterward. “This is the NFL. Any team can give you the loss. But the bottom line is, I’m happy to get this one. We’ve got Cincinnati going. We’re going to get better.

“The bottom line is I see improvement, and with improvement, we have teams in front of us that we can (beat).”

In the final game of Thanksgiving, a scoring barrage by the Green Bay Packers was enough to hold off the Miami Dolphins 30-17 at Lambeau Field.

QB Jordan Love had two touchdown passes, both to Jayden Reed, and running back Josh Jacobs had another score as Green Bay exploded on offense early. Brandon McManus also added three field goals.

It was another impressive outing for Jacobs, who completed his fifth straight game with 100-plus scrimmage yards — 43 on the ground and 74 through the air — the longest such streak by a Green Bay player since Eddie Lacy in 2014 ( nine straight games) and is tied with Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson for the longest streak by such a player in 2024.

At the 7:42 mark of the third quarter, the Packers led 27-3 in frigid Wisconsin temperatures before the Dolphins scored 14 points in garbage time.

It was a complete performance for Green Bay, with the defense rushing Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa all night; five players had at least three pressures and Tagovailoa was sacked four times.

Afterwards, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur called it a “total team win.”

“Well, there was a lot to like. We get out to a big lead, but we want to finish it off and we kind of let them get back into the game,” he said.

The win improves the Packers to 9-3 and sets up a huge NFC North showdown with the Lions next week at Ford Field.