DETROIT – The Detroit Lions won their first Thanksgiving game since 2016 after the Chicago Bears pulled off a crazy finish in the final minutes.

Chicago started its final drive from the 1-yard line after a booming punt by Jack Fox with 3:31 left. They trailed 23-20 and rallied from a 16-0 halftime deficit with just one first down after a disastrous first half.

The final 1:04 of the game included three back-and-forth penalties, with offensive pass interference, defensive pass interference and an illegal hand use penalty on Chicago’s offensive line.

Bears’ rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked by Za’Darius Smith on second-and-20 with 36 seconds left. Instead of calling their final timeout or going for a quick playoff with the goal of a field goal, the Bears squandered any lasting chance to win or at least send the game into overtime.

Williams grabbed the ball within 6 seconds, floated one from Chicago’s 41-yard line to Rome Odunze and the pass ended up on the ground as the clock reached zero.

“…We liked our play and we were hoping he would call it or let him snap the ball and then we called a timeout right there,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said. “But if it’s under 7 (seconds) there, you call a timeout there, basically you throw the ball into the end zone because once it’s under 12 (seconds), you can’t throw it in without a timeout. And it was third place before fourth, so that’s the big deal. It was third place before fourth and that’s why we wanted to preserve the timeout.”

“Yeah, I like what we did there… I think we handled it right. I do believe that you just restart the play, put it in play and call a timeout, and that’s why we held it and it didn’t work out the way we wanted.”

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Williams said he ended up changing the line on the call and saying they joined in and tried to “grab it and get the shot.” After the freshman shot the ball, he knew it would be their last shot, so he tried to let Odunze make a move.

Dan Campbell said his gut feeling told him defensive success was coming in those crucial moments. The Lions head coach said he didn’t expect the game to end like this, but, “I’ll take it.”

“I felt like we were going to take a stand. I didn’t see it that way,” Campbell said. “You get into these types of games, and you get into these types of situations, and you just try to play out of them, do the best you can, because beforehand, too, in my head I’m thinking, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ Do you need a break?’ Will you give yourself a chance to answer if there is a tie?’

“But if you don’t, now you’re giving them more time to score a touchdown and win the game. You experience all these scenarios. I was just proud of the way the defense held up. I had a good feeling that we did it, I just didn’t know how it would turn out.”

For more from the locker room, see below:

Lions quarterback Jared Goff at the end of the game: “Yes, it ended in our favor. It’s hard, man – the end of the game, it’s hard, it’s real time decisions that both sides make. It takes a lot of repetition and a lot of time spent on situational things, and we’re ahead today. I thought Caleb played really well and I’m sure we’ll be fighting for a long time. But he’s a good player and did a good job.”

Eberflus, for further thoughts on the goal: “Yeah, I just think we can – we’re there at the moment. We just have to deal with it better. We need to deal with it better, and we are on the right track. Here too there were some penalties at the end. We were in a position to score, we had a hand in the face, I think that was pretty costly. Then we just have to be more careful not to make negative plays. I think it starts right here. It starts with me.”

Williams, more about the final sequence: “On the last, last piece? Well, there were two different pieces. The last of those were two different plays and we had the play called and got sacked. The play call, I don’t know if I’m telling you the play, but yeah, I wanted to run right off Larry (Borom) or the guard’s hip and take him down for as long as I could. Then from there, either get the first down or whatever that situation would have been and then maybe score a touchdown on the next one, but if not, shoot the field goal – but the sack forced us out, out of field goal range and go for it then, to make a play with that last play.”

Lions DL Alim McNeill, on the final play: “On that last play, I had no idea what was going on. It was like Game 20, so I just tried to hurry up. I was surprised to see that it just reached zero and the game was over. I was happy we got the W.”

McNeill on how he and the team feel after this win: “Continue to get better. That was a division game, and that’s no excuse at all, but it’s a different game for both teams. We play extremely hard, it’s a division game, it’s almost like a rivalry game. Sometimes these games go like this. We definitely leave every game and try to improve the next week. There’s a lot we can do to achieve that and become a better team.”

Lions C Frank Ragnow on catching the Thanksgiving gaffe: “I can go home and actually enjoy Thanksgiving dinner smiling.”

Ragnow on what this means for the franchise: “I don’t want it to sound cliche, but I really don’t think this group sees it that way. We’re just taking it one game at a time knowing we have another division opponent next week and we’ll be ready to fight again. I think we just have a good culture, a good group of guys, a good coaching staff, you find ways to win no matter if it’s ugly, close or sellout. We find ways to win and that’s what makes a good team.”

Campbell on some of the issues in the red zone: “Yeah, I think like the red zone thing – we had a chance to make it 28-0 or whatever it would have been if we had scored all the touchdowns and even at the end on that drive Make it 23-0 at the end of the half, or even 19-0 if we had a field goal. But you just know you left the door open a little bit and you know, “Okay, this is going to be a game,” and unfortunately we kind of put ourselves in that position. I have to somehow fight for it now and keep finishing this game. I thought they fought back well. This team is a good team, they are talented, they fought well and in the end we were able to close the door.”

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