Prater, Stafford, Slay lead Lions to Thanksgiving win

We’ve always heard this when the Lions were playing close games but falling short.

Four plays after Matt Prater’s 48-yard field goal made it 13-13, Slay picked off Vikings QB Sam Bradford, setting the stage for Prater’s 40-yard game-winning kick on the final play.

“Our offensive identity is a team that picks up third downs, and we’re usually good at it”, Rudolph said.

On one hand, the Vikings defense deserved a much better outcome on Thursday. It’s not about great quarterback statistics, defensive rankings, or the amount of time ESPN or the NFL Network choose to gush over your team. Slay’s interception was his second of the season and sixth of his career. There were an NFL-record 11 missed extra points last week.

“I dont think you can ever say anything is automatic but hes as good as they come in those situations, ” Caldwell said. “They got us big conversions today, that was huge”. Pretty much all of the issues with this offense begin and end with the offensive line, and they’re a pretty sizeable portion of the parts in between, too. With five minutes left in the game, Vikings punter Jeff Locke, who had a tremendous game overall, pinned Detroit inside of its own 2. “But we’re happy that we were able to find a way to pull them out, that’s for sure”.

Among running backs, Matt Asiata had 27 yards on five attempts, but Jerick McKinnon gained 31 yards on nine carries.

On 3rd-and-goal from the Detroit 16, the Vikings gained six yards through the air. He said Minnesota’s offense needs to step it up in order for the team to keep fighting down the final leg of the season. When you have to get the ball out of your hand nearly as soon as you receive the snap, 5-yard routes are going to rule the day, and that’s what we’ve seen with this offense in recent weeks. “We’re going to keep fighting”.

Recent history: Denver has won seven of the last eight meetings, but the Chiefs won the last one, a 29-13 decision in Denver a year ago.

The Redskins (6-4-1) got swept by their NFC East rival, and the defending division champions fell 3 1/2 games behind Dallas with five games left.

Sam Bradford completed almost every pass he threw on Thanksgiving Day.

It was that lack of deep plays-or explosive plays of any kind-which led Bradford to a killer interception at the end of the game.

On what looked like a safe pass for Bradford, Slay created a turnover with an aggressive move.

The Detroit Lions dispatched of the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 16-13 on Thanksgiving Day. This time, they didn’t need overtime. Boldin’s 29-yard reception on third-and-8 from the Detroit 18 gave the Lions some breathing room.

Lions: Linebacker DeAndre Levy was inactive, but appears to be closer to coming back from a knee injury that has kept him out since Week 1. Those two games were decided by a walkoff touchdown in overtime and a last-second game-winning field goal, but that’s been the M.O. for the Lions this year – winning with dramatics.

Stafford had 232 passing yards in the win over Minnesota, and became the third quarterback, after Tony Romo Troy Aikman, 2,175, to throw for 2,000 yards on Thanksgiving.