- Nicky Oldala

Written by nicky_heart in The 2023 NFL season - American football on 25 November 2023 à 13:40

Summary

That's what Thanksgiving football was like

11/23/2023

Thanksgiving started with a surprise, as the Packers were able to beat the 8-2 Lions on the road. After that came the expected smooth games, first the Cowboys and then the 49ers took care of their group rivals very confidently, so that they could take a bite of the well-deserved turkey. Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions 29 – 22

If it's Thanksgiving, head to Detroit, where the Lions open the holiday game dump. The match was started by the Cheeseheads, who surprisingly chose to attack after winning the coin toss. And if it was won, Love also threw the first pass of the meeting to Christian Watson and the visiting team immediately started with a 50-yard game. And the Packers went on with the momentum, from 10 yards, Jordan Love gave Reed perhaps the most beautiful ball of the entire game in a spot the size of a handkerchief, away lead.

However, the home team also had a great opening drive. Sam LaPorta first caught a 30-yard pass, and then the Lions closed with his touchdown in the red zone. The tying goal failed because the extra point was missed by Riley Patterson.

We have already seen well-executed pre-planned drives by both teams this year, but here the momentum continued on Green Bay's side. Love was great at finding empty receivers, who were always good for 6-7 yards, to give AJ Dillon enough yardage for first downs. At the end of the drive, well-functioning runs resulted in play action and Tucker Kraft's first career touchdown.

However, the match here jumped out of the bed we imagined. After a 14-6 away lead, Jarred Goff lost the ball twice in a total of 5 plays. First, Rashan Gary knocked the toy out of Owens' hands, which Owens ran back for a touchdown, and then rookie Karl Brooks reached the pigskin. However, the offensive line could not convert the latter into points, even though they were in the red zone, Jordan Love set up his own runner for 4&1.

The Packers also missed the extra point, but they were still able to put a field goal on the board before the break, so the teams went into halftime with a surprising 23-6 guest advantage.

After the weak concert, the Lions dominated the second half. They were constantly able to move forward, produce yards, but couldn't consistently put points on the board. In the first drive, they went all the way down the field, but on the occasion of their second series, Dan Campbell called a fake punt at his own 23-yard line, which was unsuccessful. The Packers welcomed the short field and Christian Watson, who played his best game this year (5 catches 94 yards), scored a touchdown for the second week in a row.

The Lions were completely broken by this. Although they had one of the best fourth attempt rates in the league, they were only able to solve one out of 6 attempts, and that too in garbage time. Although in the end the team managed to close within one possession of the ball and were able to stand up for an onside kick, the attempt was unsuccessful. But even if it had come together, they should have scored a touchdown in 40 seconds without a timeout.

The Packers actually put a strong quarter on the field, the wave of which they were able to ride throughout. The Lions disintegration started on the offensive line. Even at the beginning of the game, they couldn't run the ball even with strong lineups. Despite having 6 or 7 players on the line, the Packers usually held the Gibbs to 0-1 yards. They ended the game with 140 rushing yards, the Packers switched in the second half and allowed the slower progress on the ground to run the clock. Where the game was decided was pass protection. Jarred Goff passed under pressure on nearly half of his passes, and everyone knows what Goff is like when defenders are constantly in his face. Rashan Gary sacked Goff three times, knocking the ball out of his hands twice. He absolutely dominated his matchup against Taylor Decker.

In the middle, Kenny Clark was able to push into the pocket from Glasgow or injury-substitute Kayode Awosika, but Preston Smith, Van Ness and Enegbare also registered multiple hurries. As if one of the best walls in the league didn't stand up against them. The battle lost at the line of scrimmage rewrote the Lions gameplan and they got momentum from time to time, even though Amon-Ra St. Brown was unstoppable even now (9 catches for 95 yards). In every drive, there were 1-1 negative plays that they couldn't overcome.

Although Goff passed for 332 yards, it was clear that his partner on the other side, Jordan Love, played better. The second-year quarterback threw 3 touchdowns, 268 yards and now even converted a couple of important first downs with his legs. He showed perhaps his best game of the season, in which the key was the offensive wall. The Lions lost both side battles at the line and were absolutely unable to get close to the Packers quarterback. From a clean pocket and without pressure, Love is also able to find his teammates. However, after the first two drives, there was no real pressure on them. Apart from RZ's fourth-down blunder, which turned out to be funny, they didn't put themselves in a bad situation and took what the defense or the special unit offered them.

The Lions are not in a bad situation yet, but their dreams of the first promotion seem to have vanished. And the 7 turnovers collected in the last two weeks do not show a good trend. Their defense also declined, even though they weren't a strong unit at the beginning of the year, 31st in success rate and 32nd in EPA per play since the game against the Ravens.

By the way, the outcome of the meeting was already written in the heavens before the kickoff. Since 1966, when there was a waxing moon on Thanksgiving, the Lions have been unable to win a game on the holiday. They had a record of 0-12 before the meeting, and that hasn't been broken now either.

Washington Commanders @ Dallas Cowboys 10-45

It was clear from the first Commanders drive that this would not be an exciting game: Sam Howell was sacked on the fourth play, and then Washington decided to punt the ball at the Cowboys' 44-yard line (in the next drive at the Dallas 43-yard line the punt came on 4&2). In the end, there wasn't as much of a sack parade as we expected (Howell was brought to the ground only four times by the end of the game), but the home team never took the lead, and even from the end of the second quarter, they were never within two possessions.

The Commanders did not score any points except for the second quarter, which was due to poor coaching on the one hand (punting around the opponent's 40-yard line?) and poor execution on the other. Howell couldn't add to the performance of the offensive line except for the escapes, and although he reached 300 passing yards, he made mistakes in key moments - and, incidentally, he had more pick-sixes (1) than passing TDs (0). Of course, it would be easier with a better offensive wall and a more effective running game, so that he doesn't always have to solve everything, but often he really just gets lost from the team even when the opponent doesn't force him to do so.

The visiting defense can't be too proud of themselves either. The sacks did come against the Giants' non-existent offensive line and rookie running back, but against a good line and a veteran QB, the Montez Sweat-Chase Young duo was sorely missed. Dak Prescott played without pressure almost the entire time, the running game also split, it's almost a miracle that Dallas scored only 20 points at the end of the third quarter.

Everything worked for the Cowboys. Prescott finished the game with 331 yards and four TDs without an INT, and half of those yards came on true deep balls. The fact that CeeDee Lamb felt it isn't surprising, but her chemistry with Brandin Cooks is getting better and better, which doesn't bode well for opponents. In addition, Tony Pollard is starting to perform more and more efficiently, he scored a TD and produced an average of 6.1 yards on the ground. The only reason they can be a little sad in Dallas is that Michael Gallup couldn't flash even in such a game, the $11.5 million they gave him seems like a net waste of money.

Defensively, Micah Parsons is still a beast, noting himself this time with 2 sacks, plus he had three QB hits and did well against the run. Johnathan Hankins also had a big game with two sacks of his own, but Stephon Gilmore and Malik Hooker also made nice plays. DaRon Bland, on the other hand, led the team in tackles (10) and scored his fifth pick-six of the year, the most ever in one season!

At the Commanders, it's slowly time to think about changing coaches, even during the season (at least you can test Eric Bieniemy live). And the Cowboys once again showed that their ceiling is in the sky - it would be nice if they could bring this form exceptionally against a top team, and they could go for the Super Bowl. (running)

San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks 31-13

Based on the balance sheet, this might have looked like a very intense game in advance, but the 49ers' three wins out of three last year (with an average difference of 15.3 points) did not necessarily predict this. And the Kyle Shanahans once again beat their division rival very easily.

In the first 10 minutes, the yardage ratio was 119-1 in favor of the visitors, which changed after 29 minutes of play so that the 49ers had more first downs (16) than the Seahawks (15). It was 24-3 at halftime, with the Seahawks getting their only points on a great punt return, followed by a one-yard run and a field goal. They managed to go 41 yards before the break, but then the field goal was missed, so Geno Smith's performance was a disaster, and I didn't even mention that the running back, who was playing with an elbow injury, also threw an interception (pulled off by Ambry Thomas).

In contrast to the suffering of the Seahawks offense, the 49ers offensive line split as we have come to expect. They weren't perfect, because they managed to get a point from every second attack in the first half, but don't be complacent. First Deebo Samuel and then Christian McCaffrey got on the scoreboard twice, the second was CMC's 11th rushing TD of the year, a 49ers franchise record (and where else is the end of the season?).

Overall, they went through like a knife through butter. Both on the ground and in the air, involving all important players in the production. In the first 30 minutes, Aiyuk might have been quieter, but in the second half he caught the team's only touchdown, so in the end he couldn't complain either. The prime, on the other hand, was taken by the McCaffrey-Samuel duo, who, in addition to TDs, also delivered the most in yards, the two combined for 233 scrimmage yards.

Based on the 24-3 halftime lead and the picture of the game, the second half was just a formality, although right after the break they managed to make things a little more exciting thanks to a Jordyn Brooks pick-six, which ended up being the Seahawks' only touchdown of the game. . After that, they were able to close to 9 points with one more field goal, but in the fourth quarter they were unable to score any more, but the aforementioned Aiyuk scored six points, so the game ended with a final score of 31-13. This was the largest domestic prime-time loss in Seahawks history.

Not much good can be said about the Seahawks after that. Maybe so much that the two first-round rookies had a 1-1 highlight movement, Jaxon Smith-Njigba showed an impressive one-hander, and Devon Witherspoon made an incredible instinctive knockdown when he stood with his back to the pass. In addition, Dee Eskridge's long return can be highlighted, or Jamal Adams' 1-2 nice movement, and obviously the pick-six, but that's all.

Geno Smith played injured, but even then it was weak, the offensive line couldn't protect him at all from the terrible 49ers pass rush (6 sacks), DK Metcalf had several drops (3 catches for 32 yards out of 9 targets), the run didn't want to at all work, as did the run defense (CMC ran for 6 yards) and the pass rush. That's why it's hard. And it won't be any easier in the coming weeks either, as the Cowboys come, the 49ers again, and then the Eagles.

On the other hand, practically everything worked for the 49ers. Purdy played well, the skill players were unstoppable again, Shanahan drew up great plays, the wall held up/cleaned. The defensive wall was able to put a lot of pressure on Geno and the run was also caught in the meantime, plus the secondary didn't allow areas either, Charvarius Ward had a particularly good game at Metcalf. It is no coincidence that the 49ers are a top contender, and next week there will be a rematch against the Eagles for the conference finals - this has been circled in red on the players' calendars for a long time.

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