DETROIT — Dan Campbell admittedly wanted this one for more than just the win-loss column. It’s Thanksgiving, a time when all eyes are on a Detroit Lions franchise that plays on this holiday each year. Campbell has never won this game as head coach. Most of his players haven’t, either. It had been eight years since the Lions last won on Turkey Day.
For the sake of those sharing a dinner table with Campbell and his players after the game, they all wanted a happy Thanksgiving.
“It’d be nice to feel good about it when you’re with everybody because (otherwise) it’s just not really fun,” Campbell said earlier this week. “It’s not real fun to be around. Ask my wife; she’ll tell you. Like, that’s why she’s praying for a win big time because she knows that I’m a bear when we don’t win, so we all want it. It is long overdue, but we have to win to win.”
The rest of Detroit must’ve joined Campbell’s wife in prayer because the Lions had the football gods watching over them. Their 23-20 victory over the Chicago Bears on Thursday was closer than many anticipated. They watched a 16-point lead fall to 10, then 3 and almost 0, unable to finish a Bears team that entered the day on a five-game losing streak and is now 4-8 on the season.
For those feeling unsettled…
