Bills 28, Lions 25
The Bills were nine-point favorites entering the first Thanksgiving game on the slate, but they found themselves in a dogfight in the fourth quarter. The Bills lost Von Miller to a knee injury and made numerous mistakes throughout the afternoon, and there a shocking poor connection between Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs. Allen fired 10 passes in Diggs’ direction prior to the final two drives of the game, yet Diggs caught just three passes. Diggs dropped a couple of passes, but Allen was more to blame, as many of his throws were off the mark when targeting his No. 1 receiver. It was shocking to see Allen play so poorly, especially against a Detroit defense that was missing its No. 1 cornerback.
It’s unclear what changed on the penultimate possession of the game, but the Bills, down 22-19, put together what seemed to be the game-winning drive. Allen and Diggs flipped the on switch out of nowhere, as Allen completed four passes to Diggs, including a touchdown to go up three. The Lions had a chance for the tying field goal because of the missed extra point by Tyler Bass. Thanks to big plays by D’Andre Swift and Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Lions moved into field goal range, though they missed out on a chance for a touchdown because of a poor Jared Goff throw to D.J. Chark. Still, Michael Badgley drilled a field goal with 23 seconds left, so it appeared as though we would be headed to overtime.
Allen and Diggs had other ideas, however. Allen drilled a pass to Diggs for 36 yards to move into field goal range and following some Allen scrambles to make the kick closer, Bass was able to make amends for missed extra point, hitting the decisive kick to win on Thanksgiving.
