Lions S Glover Quin left the game with an injured left ankle, which he was protecting with a walking boot….
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Tom Brady and the Patriots are on deck.
The Detroit Lions got standout performances from Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson and Ziggy Ansah in their most complete performance of the season Thursday, beating the Philadelphia Eagles, 45-14, to win their third straight Thanksgiving game in blowout fashion. Definitely not the kind you want to talk about during the second helping of pumpkin pie. The past three years, the Lions have defeated Green Bay, Chicago and Philadelphia by a combined score of 119-41 – a point differential which equals the greatest in team history for Thanksgiving games, a tradition since 1934. It also was their first Thanksgiving loss. “And I pride myself on being an Eagle”.
“When we’re on point like that, it’s hard to stop”, Johnson said. We don’t lose like this being an Eagle.
“We started fast on defense”, Kuechly said.
Eagles head coach Chip Kelly addresses the media after an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015, in Detroit. “We just have to keep fighting”, he said.
“I think there’s growth and development in our game”, Caldwell said. We probably will not find out until this offseason, but I would absolutely love to see Kelly’s prolific offense reunited with a capable dual-threat quarterback. Sanchez, incredibly, lost despite not throwing a pick. “Defense went out there and brought their A-game and made our job a lot easier”.
“Megatron” Johnson finished with eight catches for 93 yards and three TDs, matching his career-best set in 2010.
Stafford threw for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover in the first half to help the Lions (4-7) take a 24-7 lead.
Clearly, the Eagles lost track of Tate from that spot as he ran his route, made cornerback Walter Thurmond miss and walked into the end zone.
Then the edgy receiver celebrated with a “mwaaahhh” kiss.
“The locker room is still together”, he said.
Center Jason Kelce intimated there’s a lack of trust. “Doubters… those are losers, in my opinion”. But when Glover Quin went down with an ankle injury early in Thursdays game, Ihedigbo came back in and played solid alongside Abdul-Quddus. Not doing very well. “I think all the way across the board, the guys played well”. But it seems equally logical to believe that Detroit isn’t almost as bad as that 1-7 start indicated. Two series’ later it was confirmed. Sanchez found tight end Brent Celek for a 2-yard score on third-and-goal to cap an 80-yard drive. Before Thursday, the Lions hadn’t cracked 20 points in their first three games under Cooter. Johnson didn’t catch his first pass until there was less than seven minutes remaining in the first half.
Taking advantage of one-on-one coverage, Stafford threw TD passes of 4 and 3 yards to Johnson in the third quarter.
Eagles veteran corner Byron Maxwell struggled against the big guy on crossing patterns. Early in the year Malcolm Jenkins and Walter Thurmond III looked like the best safety tandem in football.
Not really sure how anyone can blame a bean counter for on-field failure, so let’s skip right over that train of thought.
On the list of personal disappointments, Kelly had no problem prioritizing this setback. The agent even went as far as saying that one player in the locker-room was healthy enough to play, but wasn’t prepared to do so for Kelly.
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“Most of the time our packages divide to take the opportunities that are presented to us and they were giving us some opportunities there (with Johnson)”, coach Jim Caldwell said.
