NFL Week 12: Detroit Lions and Others Destined to Win on Turkey Day

The NFL games on Thanksgiving have become one with the holidays. In fact watching the Detroit Lions lose before you eat has become as much a part of the holiday as the turkey itself.

However, these are not the Lions of the last five to 10 previous Thanksgivings. Oh no, these Lions will not only make this year’s game competitive, but they will also win. 

That’s right, the former punching bags on Thanksgiving Day will rise up to upset the undefeated Green Bay Packers in front of an electric home crowd. These Packers do have the best passing attack in the NFL. However, they have not faced as menacing of a pass rush as the Lions. 

This relentless pressure from the Lions will cause Aaron Rodgers to force his throws early, which will result in him missing his receivers. In fact the last time Rodgers played this Lions defense at Ford Field, he was knocked out of the game early. 

This year’s Lions team has a healthy Calvin Johnson, a quarterback playing at a high level in Matthew Stafford and a great supporting cast of receivers that will give this Packers secondary nightmares on Thursday. 

After the Lions stop the Packers from their pursuit from perfection, the Dolphins will continue their winning streak against the Cowboys. 

In the Dolphins previous three games, their defense has been playing out of their minds. In those last three games the defense has given up 21 points. That’s a seven-point average over that span, while the offense is scoring 20 points or more. 

Facing a Cowboys team this week that has been playing some balanced football with running back DeMarco Murray, Miami will jump on the Cowboys early, which will eliminate the running game from the Cowboys offense. 

The win will give the Dolphins’ their fourth in a row, which will be an amazing turnaround after they lost their first seven games. 

To end your Thanksgiving holiday, you will see the Harbaugh brothers face off in Baltimore. As hot as the San Francisco 49ers have been, their offense will have no answers to a great Ravens defense. 

This game will be a test between two of the better defenses in the NFL, however the Ravens passing attack will be enough to put them over. The emergence of wide receiver Torrey Smith gives quarterback Joe Flacco a dangerous deep threat. 

With the 49ers coming in with a bad pass defense, the Ravens will send Smith deep with Flacco hitting him on more than one of those deep balls. 

The Thanksgiving holiday will give us some great football to watch on television. For once the Lions are a good team. The Dolphins are coming around as a competitive team and should give a great team performance against the Cowboys, while the Ravens and 49ers game will give us a hard hitting defensive battle. 

This year’s Thanksgiving action will be some of the best football the holiday has ever seen. 

Follow @tjmcaloon