DETROIT – The Lions overtook the Packers on Thursday night at Ford Field, winning 34-31 on a 35-yard walk-off field goal.

Here are five takeaways from the tough defeat:

1. It was one of those “who had the ball last” games.

The Packers tied the game at 31-3 with 3:38 left, but never got the ball back. The Lions reached very manageable field goal range and converted a fourth down for the fourth time in the game to give them a chance to run out the clock before sending out rookie kicker Jake Bates and winning Detroit’s 11th straight game.

“Obviously it’s a big disappointment for our guys,” said head coach Matt LaFleur. “I thought it was one of those games, we knew exactly how it was going to be, a hard-fought back and forth game. That was it.”

The Packers rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit, using a Christian Watson bomb and a Keisean Nixon interception to score two touchdowns and take their first lead, 21-17, in the third quarter.

From then on the game went up and down.

2. Fourth defeats played a decisive role in the result.

Just like in the first meeting with the Packers this season, the Lions scored two goals on four-and-goal conversions – one at the end of the first half on a short pass to running back Jahmyr Gibbs and another in the third quarter on a completion to receiver Tim Patrick, who had two touchdowns in the game.

The Packers actually got a fourth-down stop when the Lions attempted it at their own 30-yard line late in the third quarter. The defensive front overran Gibbs on an outfield and caused the turnover on downs.

Green Bay took advantage of good field position to launch another touchdown to take a 28-24 lead, but the Lions remained unfazed until the final drive on fourth down.

LaFleur wasn’t at all surprised at how aggressive his opponent, Dan Campbell, was throughout the game.

“Maybe a little bit of that at the end of the game,” LaFleur said, referring to the time when the Lions could have kicked a 39-yard field goal on fourth-and-1 with 43 seconds left but decided not to. Taking no risk the Packers get the ball back.

“But that’s what Dan has done throughout his career. It doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but that gave us a chance there. Hats off to them. They executed, we didn’t.”

The Lions went 4 of 5 on fourth down and 11 of 20 on third and fourth downs combined, while the Packers went just 1 of 5 on third down.

3. Another big regret came on Green Bay’s final possession.

Trailing 31-28, the Packers scored a first-and-goal at Detroit’s 7-yard line with about five minutes left, thanks to big plays from receivers Watson (four catches, 114 yards) and Dontayvion Wicks (4-yards). 53).

But on second down, Watson was called for pass interference on a strange play as he ran a low cross from the right side as second option and crashed into the defender trying to chase down Josh Jacobs, who was running out of the backfield.

The play wasn’t even designed to get there, but when QB Jordan Love couldn’t get the ball to receiver Jayden Reed on a screen on the left side, it came back to the right and Jacobs was wide open. The flags were flying.

“I read the opposite,” Love said, having never seen the collision that resulted in the penalty. “Christian and the DB just ran into each other and the refs thought there was a pick, so they called it that.”

The lost 10 yards put the Packers in a difficult position and they ultimately had to settle for the game-winning field goal.

“It’s unfortunate,” said LaFleur, who had spoken to the referees about another play in which he believed a Green Bay defenseman was picked. “The bottom line is that when you play a low cross you have to get out of the way of the defender and we didn’t do that on schedule.”