A great trio of Thanksgiving games is looming

Houston Texans v Detroit Lions
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The first annual John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration will be memorable, in more ways that one.

For the first time since the NFL expanded the Thanksgiving slate in 2006 to include a prime-time game, it’s the best trio of Turkey Day contests the league has ever presented.

It didn’t look like it was going to be that way when the schedule game out. But Bills-Lions, Giants-Cowboys, and Patriots-Vikings have a much different feel, 11 weeks into the season.

Currently, five of the six teams that will play on Thursday are in the top 10 of the PFT power rankings. The other team, the Lions, have won three in a row — and they look to be capable of taking own the Bills.

So, between the captive audience and the great games, the NFL could have ridiculously high ratings for the three games that will be played in only two days.

47 responses to “A great trio of Thanksgiving games is looming

  1. Vikes need to restore my faith. Seems a tall task a mere 4 days removed from the stink bomb we witnessed Sunday.

  2. I love everything about the Lions future. That Mathew Stafford trade is going to turn into pure gold with the Rams crapping the bed this year and no signs of a reversal of fortunes coming from McVay’s crew.

    Can’t wait to see Jameson Williams, won’t be this week but it should happen soon enough.

    Wish I could buy stock in the Lions.

  3. Sorry, but only two of the games will be worth watching. Detroit should be forever banned from hosting Thanksgiving games and they will be after they get blown out yet again on Thursday.

  4. The Giants should not be in anybody’s top ten….simply a byproduct of a soft schedule that is back loaded

  5. Belichick is going to feast on our horrible offensive line and Jones will look like Tom Brady against our terrible defense

  6. honestly they could have on nothing but Jags-Texans and I would still watch. Distraction from having to talk to my family 🙂

  7. You have only one close game in terms of the spread and those two teams are pretenders. Giants and Cowboys interests me the most as I like division rivals and both teams have played decent but we all think only one has any chance at contending and the spread is 9. Bills and Lions isn’t very good at all. 10pt spread and one team is a contender while the other just picked up a couple of surprising wins over teams we don’t think are that good. East coast people can have the dinner early and be ready for the next game. Vikings and Pats doesn’t excite me as its two pretenders but its a 3pt spread. Grabbed the Vikings already, Pats won’t score enough.

  8. Pro football has been played on Thanksgiving since 1920.
    AKRON PROS 7, Canton Bulldogs 0
    Decatur Staleys 6, CHICAGO TIGERS 0
    ELYRIA (OH) ATHLETICS* 0, Columbus Panhandles 0
    DAYTON TRIANGLES 28, Detroit Heralds 0
    CHICAGO BOOSTERS* 27, Hammond Pros 0
    All-Tonawanda (NY) 14, ROCHESTER JEFFERSONS 3
    Games have been played every year since, except 1941-’44. Detroit has been hosting a Thanksgiving game 1934. The Cowboys didn’t jump on the bandwagon until 1966.

  9. Belichick’s record against former Patriots isn’t as good as his record against 1st and 2nd year quarterbacks. It will be interesting to see if that is a factor with O’Connell on Thursday night, a former third round pick of the Patriots. He was a player though, not a coach on the staff.

    I think the defense will play well and give the Patriots a chance. The question will be whether the Patriots offense can score enough points. They need to get at least above 20 points, and I really can’t say if they can do it without defensive scores or special teams scores. The short week may work in the Patriots favor as the Vikings don’t have a full week to make changes after what happened Sunday. I’m sure they’ll do something different, but the Patriots are an experienced staff and should anticipate that and have answers. If Tomlinson is healthy it will really help the Vikings, but also, if they rest him this week he has almost two more weeks to get healthy for the stretch run. The Patriots lost their center David Andrews on sunday, and I would expect their backup, Ferentz, to struggle with a big nose tackle like that.The Patriots have gone back to physical power running and they are good at it, with Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson being a two-headed monster in the backfield. If they don’t have to deal with tomlinson, they should run the ball fairly well. The Vikings also have some issues at DB which may help the Patriots passing offense. There’s a lot of uneven football being played all across the league. Parody is doing its dirty work. So it remains to be seen what Vikings team is the real deal. The same goes for the patriots, because they should be able to play better offense. It’s essentially the same cast of characters from last season, however for some reason the offensive line just hasn’t played well. Losing their long time coach to retirement appears to be an issue, and it’s Dominoed into other problems with the offense. The gap/power running is an exception, but it’s something they’ve done for years so I would expect that that wouldn’t change much. Both teams have issues, so I don’t know what to expect in this game. I do think the Patriots are on an upswing, and they have the defense and power running game to take on the road and play well. I think they do both of those things better than the Vikings. I also like the Patriots more experienced coaching staff to give them an edge. So for those reasons, I’ll pick the Patriots in a close one.

  10. Cowboys didn’t jump on the bandwagon until 1966.
    ************

    Considering that the cowboys were formed in 1960, and played in a completely different League that didn’t have the support of the big networks, it makes sense that they didn’t “jump in” until 1966.

  11. you say a great trio but I bet 2/3 of those games will be low scoring snoozefests, especially Vikings vs Patriots, yawwwwwn

  12. The Lions have a great home crowd every Thanksgiving, but it will be extra amped up this year. Somewhat meaningful games are rare in Detroit.

  13. “ELYRIA (OH) ATHLETICS* 0, Columbus Panhandles 0”

    That score reminds me of the Patriot/Jets game. But, it sounds more exciting.

  14. bluecat013 says:
    November 22, 2022 at 11:13 am
    Pro football has been played on Thanksgiving since 1920.
    Detroit has been hosting a Thanksgiving game 1934. The Cowboys didn’t jump on the bandwagon until 1966.
    Cowboys did not play on Thanksgiving 1977, St Louis hosted Miami (Dolphins 55 Cards 14)

  15. People are going to see and hear one of the loudest crowds of the year in Detroit vs the Bills. They have some extremely loyal fans who have been waiting a long time for a game like this.

  16. The story is about the games being broadcast, matchup quality, and the game times, not how long games have been played on thanksgiving.

  17. “Vikes need to restore my faith. Seems a tall task a mere 4 days removed from the stink bomb we witnessed Sunday.“

    Brace yourself. They could be headed for major slide if they lose to NE. 2-3 wins were gifts or quite atypical.

  18. Yawn. Vikings will beat the crap out of the overrated Patriots defense, 31-10.You heard it right here.

  19. Bailey Zappe should be starting! What is Bill thinking?!

    He is thinking Chess…..just ask the Patriot Troll who touts BB prowess all the time…he never thinks football just Chess…LOL

  20. thaswussup says:
    November 22, 2022 at 11:17 am
    Belichick’s record against former Patriots isn’t as good as his record against 1st and 2nd year quarterbacks. It will be interesting to see if that is a factor with O’Connell on Thursday night, a former third round pick of the Patriots. He was a player though, not a coach on the staff.
    ————
    BB usually beats Bill O’Brien but he’s never beaten Matt Patricia or Josh McDaniels. Go figure.

  21. DrewSports says:
    November 22, 2022 at 11:44 am
    Bailey Zappe should be starting! What is Bill thinking?!

    —-
    Zappe sucks

  22. Hey, even boring games can have exciting moment or outcomes. Who can ever forget Leon Lett’s spectacular blunder vs Miami?

  23. “…they look to be capable of taking OWN the Bills” — Yeah, but you can’t take down the Bills with any “D”!

  24. “…they look to be capable of taking OWN the Bills” — Yeah, but you can’t take down the Bills without any “D”!

  25. The Patriots defense has trouble with running QBs, the Vikings don’t have one. It will be a long night in that pocket for Kirk Cousins against that Patriots pass rush.

  26. The Bills are gonna need some of those defensive starters back if they wanna contain a surprisingly good Detroit offense, this could be a 31-28 type game. If the Bills run the ball like they did Sunday against another bad rush defense, it may be a snooze fest until late when the Bills love to lose leads.If Buffalo can start running the ball actively and not make Allen do everything they could easily go on a run, especially with a lot of home games coming up, and some solid starters getting healthier.

    Im looking forward to a meaningful Giants/Dallas game, but Daniel Jones against that D? Ouch. Might be painful for him, and us.

  27. Wouldn’t label this as a “great” slate. Entertaining might be a better word to use. The Giants are going to get absolutely destroyed with half of their team out with injuries. Detroit-Buffalo should provide a lot of offense. Patriots-Vikings should be the best overall game.

    Do yourselves a favor and put as much money as you can afford on Dallas. Game will be over by the half

  28. Lions aren’t ready for the Bills. Giants, Packers and Bears all have below average receivers. Also, mobile QB’s have been trouble for the Lions. Josh Allen is going to carve them up. The Lions will play hard, but Buffalo is a superior club at this point in time.

  29. Had a bad dream that the Vikings lose their next 8 games and the Packers win the division with nine wins. Glad I’m not Nostradamus.

  30. Belichick vs Cousins. I’ll take Belichick. Also the Giants missing the playoffs is going to be hilarious.

  31. patsfan4lifedynasty says:
    November 22, 2022 at 1:18 pm
    The Patriots defense has trouble with running QBs, the Vikings don’t have one. It will be a long night in that pocket for Kirk Cousins against that Patriots pass rush.
    —————
    Not as long as it probably will be for Mac Jones with the pylons he’s got in front of him.

  32. TV executive are biting their nails at the thought of another Vikings egg laying blowout as they have no other game to cut away to. I am sure the Vikings will not disappoint them.

  33. Detroit should lose, and possibly by double digits. But do NOT sleep on this team. They are either the youngest or 2nd youngest team in the league. They ball, every game. And they have good young talent. With a lot of picks in the next draft, their future is bright, IF they hit on those picks!

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