New England Patriots vs. Detroit Lions: Grading Each Team's Performance
The Lions started off well, but quickly tailed off when the Patriots and Tom Brady dominated the second half.
Brady had his second straight dominant performance, completing 21 of 27 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns.
Deion Branch and Wes Welker each caught two of the touchdown passes. BenJarvus Green-Ellis also ran for two scores.
Devin McCourty led the defense with two picks.
For the Lions, Calvin Johnson got on the board when he caught a touchdown pass from Shaun Hill. Maurice Morris produced the rest, rushing for two scores.
Read on to find out how the game unraveled, including drive-by-drive grades.
Detroit Lions' First Drive
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After New England won the coin toss and deferred, the Lions elected to receive the ball first and returned the opening kickoff to their own 29-yard line.
They picked up just one first down on a seven-yard carry by Maurice Morris on 2nd-and-5.
After a three-yard run by Morris, an incompletion by Shaun Hill and a two-yard completion from Hill to Morris, the Lions punted the ball away.
Julian Edelman returned the punt for the Patriots 11 yards to their own 19-yard line.
Drive One Stats: 5 plays, 17 yards, 2:49 elapsed, punt
Drive One Grade: C
New England Patriots' First Drive
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Starting on their own 19-yard line, the Patriots got off to a promising start when Tom Brady completed his first throw to Alge Crumpler for 27 yards and a first down.
However, the drive stalled shortly after that.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for four yards, then Brady threw an incomplete pass intended for Wes Welker. On 3rd-and-6, he was sacked by Ndamukong Suh for a loss of three yards.
Zoltan Mesko launched a punt into the end zone for a touchback and the Lions took over once again.
Drive One Stats: 4 plays, 28 yards, 1:43 elapsed, punt
Drive One Grade: C
Detroit Lions' Second Drive
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The Lions' second drive was even worse than their first.
Maurice Morris' first carry was stuffed at the line by Jerod Mayo for no gain. Then Shaun Hill completed a pass to his running back for a three-yard gain.
Hill followed that up with an incomplete pass deep right to Nate Burleson.
Nick Harris trotted onto the field for a second time and uncorked a 48-yard punt, but Julian Edelman returned the punt 28 yards into Lions territory.
Drive Two Stats: 3 plays, 3 yards, 1:29 elapsed, punt
Drive Two Grade: D
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New England Patriots' Second Drive
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Tom Brady was a little bit better on his second drive.
He made a clutch throw to Wes Welker for nine yards on 3rd-and-6 to avoid a costly three-and-out.
On his next throw, he once again hit Welker, this time for 19 yards.
Brady's third completion to Welker on the drive went for six yards, but they needed seven on third down to move the chains.
Shayne Graham, the Patriots kicker, came onto the field and knocked a 19-yard field goal through the uprights to take a 3-0 lead.
Drive Two Stats: 8 plays, 41 yards, 3:59 elapsed, field goal
Drive Two Grade: B
Detroit Lions' Third Drive
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The Lions' third drive began on their own 29-yard line.
Shaun Hill single-handedly led the team down the field, accounting for all four of the first downs on the drive.
He hit Nate Burleson for nine yards on the first third down of the drive, then picked up the next set of chains by completing an eight-yard pass to tight end Brandon Pettigrew on 2nd-and-3. On the next set of downs, Hill ran for eight yards and a first down on 3rd-and-6.
When the sticks moved again, Hill ran 13 yards for the Lions fourth first down of the drive.
The play afterwards, he hit Calvin Johnson for a 19-yard touchdown to take a 7-3 lead.
Drive Three Stats: 11 plays, 71 yards, 5:00 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Three Grade: A
New England Patriots' Third Drive
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The Patriots needed to get a big drive together in response to the Lions touchdown.
After Ben Tate returned the kickoff to the New England 18, the first quarter ended.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis opened the second quarter with a run for a loss of three yards. The Patriots kept going backwards until it was 3rd-and-15, and then Brady hit Danny Woodhead for eight yards.
Zoltan Mesko came on to punt again after the three-and-out. He punted 50 yards to the Detroit 29-yard line, but Stefan Logan returned it for eight yards.
Drive Three Stats: 3 plays, 3 yards, 2:38 elapsed, punt
Drive Three Grade: D
Detroit Lions' Fourth Drive
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Shaun Hill had another great performance on this drive.
He completed six of his seven passes for 35 yards. Hill also picked up a first down on a 4th-and-1 quarterback sneak from the 2-yard line.
On the following first down, Maurice Morris dove over the pile, up the middle, for a one-yard touchdown.
The Lions took a 14-3 lead, inspiring Bill Simmons, an unabashed Patriots fan, to tweet, "Congrats to the Lions on a much-deserved Thanksgiving victory. Pats played not to lose and got what they deserved."
Drive Four Stats: 13 plays, 63 yards, 6:24 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Four Grade: A
New England Patriots' Fourth Drive
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New England once again needed to respond, but this time they did so with the most impressive drive of the game to that point.
This was most definitely the BenJarvus Green-Ellis drive. He ran the ball four times for 33 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown scamper on 2nd-and-4.
Tom Brady wasn't bad either, completing three passes for 35 yards.
Importantly, this drive took long enough that the Lions were only left with 0:45 left in the half to work with.
Drive Four Stats: 10 plays, 83 yards, 5:13 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Four Grade: A
Detroit Lions' Fifth Drive
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With only a four-point lead and 0:45 seconds in the half to work with, the Lions were going to be hard pressed to score.
Yet behind Shaun Hill's 40 yards through the air, they managed to. The key play was a 20-yard completion to Nate Burleson with just 0:02 left.
Dave Rayner came onto the field and kicked a 44-yard field goal to increase the Lions lead to 17-10 at halftime. In doing so, he became the first kicker other than Jason Hanson to make a field goal on Thanksgiving Day since 1991.
Drive Five Stats: 7 plays, 41 yards, 0:45 elapsed, field goal
Drive Five Grade: A
New England Patriots' Fifth Drive
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The Patriots returned the opening kickoff of the second half for 26 yards to their own 24-yard line.
Tom Brady then completed his first pass of the second half to Sammy Morris for 15 yards.
It went downhill from there and Brady threw incompletions on the next three plays of the drive, forcing Zoltan Mesko to come back onto the field.
So much for a good start to the second half.
Drive Five Stats: 4 plays, 15 yards, 1:05 elapsed, punt
Drive Five Grade: D
Detroit Lions' Sixth Drive
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This drive started out promisingly for the Lions when Maurice Morris ran for 17 yards on its first play.
Then Shaun Hill threw a deep pass to Calvin Johnson and it was picked off by Devin McCourty. McCourty returned the interception for 23 yards until he was tackled by Nate Burleson.
Drive Six Stats: 2 plays, 17 yards, 0:38 elapsed, interception
Drive Six Grade: F
New England Patriots' Sixth Drive
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This drive was like clockwork.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for three yards. Tom Brady hit Deion Branch for 12 yards and the first down.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for six yards. Tom Brady hit Wes Welker for five yards and the touchdown.
Game tied at 17. Boom.
Drive Six Stats: 4 plays, 26 yards, 2:08 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Six Grade: A
Detroit Lions' Seventh Drive
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The Lions desperately needed to score to end the Patriots comeback.
After a big first-down pickup on 3rd-and-8 when Shaun Hill completed a pass to Brandon Pettigrew for 24 yards, Detroit was still driving down the field.
Hill completed another big pass during the drive, a 21-yard throw to Calvin Johnson.
Finally, Maurice Morris found the end zone for his second touchdown of the game on a one-yard run, and the Lions took a 24-17 lead.
Drive Seven Stats: 9 plays, 58 yards, 4:08 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Seven Grade: A
New England Patriots' Seventh Drive
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I guess, technically, this was a three-and-out.
After Danny Woodhead was stuffed at the line, Brady decided to take over.
He hit Rob Gronkowski for eight yards and then Deion Branch for 79 yards and a touchdown.
The game was tied yet again.
Drive Seven Stats: 3 plays, 87 yards, 1:38 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Seven Grade: A
Detroit Lions' Eighth Drive
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Now tied with the Patriots, the Lions started this drive on their own 30-yard line.
Things started out going well as Detroit picked up two first downs on their first four plays of the drive.
But the drive stalled on the next set of downs.
On 4th-and-5, Dave Rayner missed a 46-yard field goal wide right and the Lions defense took the field once again.
Drive Eight Stats: 8 plays, 42 yards, 4:12 elapsed
Drive Eight Grade: C
New England Patriots' Eighth Drive
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Tom Brady took the field yet again, which meant another touchdown.
They even overcame a 10-yard penalty when Alge Crumpler threw an illegal block above the waist.
Tom Brady and Deion Branch got to relive their golden days together when the quarterback hit his wide receiver for a 22-yard score.
Patriots 31, Lions 24. The lead would only increase from here.
Drive Eight Stats: 5 plays, 52 yards, 2:15 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Eight Grade: A
Detroit Lions' Ninth Drive
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Shaun Hill almost got his team moving down the field towards a game-tying touchdown.
But his biggest play of the drive, a 21-yard completion to Brandon Pettigrew, was called back due to offensive pass interference.
On the ensuing 3rd-and-15, Hill threw an incomplete pass. Even if it had been complete, it would have been negated by an offensive facemask penalty.
The Lions were forced to punt.
Drive Nine Stats: 5 plays, 9 yards, 2:38 elapsed, punt
Drive Nine Stats: D
New England Patriots' Ninth Drive
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Does it surprise you at all that Tom Brady threw another touchdown pass on this drive? It shouldn't, by now.
Brady was three-for-three for 53 yards on this drive.
The touchdown came on a 16-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker.
Drive Nine Stats: 7 plays, 84 yards, 4:25 elapsed, touchdown
Drive Nine Grade: A
Detroit Lions' 10th Drive
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Now down 14 points with just 6:42 left, the Lions really needed to get something going.
It looked decent when Shaun Hill threw a 14-yard completion on 1st-and-15, but his next pass wasn't so great.
Hill threw deep to Nate Burleson, but for the second time in the game, Devin McCourty picked off the pass. This time, Burleson wouldn't tackle him as the Patriot ran 50 yards back to the Detroit 12-yard line and stepped out of bounds.
Game over.
Drive 10 Stats: 2 plays, 14 yards, 0:59 elapsed, interception
Drive 10 Grades: F
New England Patriots' 10th Drive
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Come on, now. When the Patriots are rolling like this, don't give them a short field.
New England took advantage, and on the fourth play of the drive, BenJarvus Green-Elllis ran into the end zone from one yard out for his second touchdown of the day.
Now the game was really over.
Drive 10 Stats: 4 plays, 7 yards, 2:29 elapsed, touchdown
Drive 10 Grade: A
Detroit Lions' 11th Drive
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Somehow, Shaun Hill got it done on third down a couple times.
On the first 3rd-and-10 of the drive, he completed a pass to Bryant Johnson for 12 yards.
Then, on the second 3rd-and-10, he hit Calvin Johnson for 34 yards.
However, the drive stalled later after a fourth-down incompletion.
Drive 11 Stats: 12 plays, 61 yards, 1:52 elapsed, turnover on downs
Drive 11 Grade: B
New England Patriots' 11th Drive
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All Tom Brady had to do to secure the win was kneel down twice.
And the Patriots won to improve to 9-2.
Drive 11 Stats: 2 plays, -2 yards, 1:22 elapsed, end of game
Drive 11 Grade: Incomplete
Overall Grades
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New England Patriots:
The Patriots offense rolled in the second half, scoring on five straight drives.
A
Detroit Lions:
The Lions fought hard in the second half, but couldn't stop the Patriots for the duration of the game.
C
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