As you know, the Lions' annual Thanksgiving Day Game this year will be against the Green Bay Packers, who -- after their win vs. the Bucs on Sunday -- are 10-0 on the season. More than halfway to perfection, there's definitely buzz around the league that the Packers can match the 1972 Dolphins and finish what the 2007 Patriots started before losing in the final minute of the Super Bowl.
↵With that in mind, Bob Costas' weekly halftime essay during NBC's Sunday Night Football reminded the nation of the last time an unbeatable Packers team came into Detroit for Thanksgiving:
↵And this next one is especially interesting, at least to those of us of a certain age, old enough to remember when the Packers, the defending NFL champions at the time, just as they are now, and 10-0, just as they are now, rolled into Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Day, 1962. On that day, the notion of their invincibility was dashed, as Alex Karras, Roger Brown, and company sacked Bart Starr 11 times; once for a safety, once for a fumble that resulted in a touchdown. And the Lions beat the stuffing out of the Packers, 26-14. The season was only 14 games then, and after that, the Packers never lost, finishing 13-1 and going right to the NFL title game, where they beat the Giants.↵
Whether this Thursday’s game, 49 years later, will be nearly as entertaining, or as resonant, remains to be seen. But still, it’s good to actually be able to anticipate the Lions game on Thanksgiving Day again, rather than having it serve as a bland appetizer for the football feast to come.
For what it's worth, the Packers are early six-point favorites.