If you plan on watching any Lions games over the final six weeks of the season, don't bother tuning into until the fourth quarter because that's when all the magic happens.
For seventh time this year, the Lions won thanks to a dramatic fourth quarter comeback. This time around, Detroit got two field goals in the final 1:49 of the game on Thursday to top the Vikings 16-13 in a win that puts the Lions in complete control of the NFC North.
On Thanksgiving Day, Lions fans should be thankful that their team plays better in the fourth quarter than they do in the first three.
With 5:02 left in the game, the Lions trailed 13-10, and things weren't looking good for Detroit. Up to that point the Lions had only put up 24 yards of offense in the second half.
Luckily for Detroit, comebacks are Stafford's specialty and he put one together at the right time. In the final five minutes of the game, Stafford led the Lions on a 10-play, 68-yard drive that ended when Matt Prater hit a 48-yard field goal to tie the game at 13.
On the drive, Stafford went 6 of 8 for 61 yards.
This is the Lions we're talking about, which means the drama didn't end there. After the field goal, the Vikings got the ball back with 1:45 left in the game and a chance to win with just a field goal.
That game-winning field goal attempt never came though because Darius Slay picked off Sam Bradford on a third-and-7 play, and returned it to Minnesota's 20-yard line.
Slay's pick set up another field goal from Prater, which he drilled from 40-yards out with exactly zero seconds remaining on the clock.
The clutch Lions kicker is now 25 of 25 in his career on game tying/go-ahead field goals in the fourth quarter.
Speaking of the fourth quarter, Stafford has also been clutch. The win means he now has 24 fourth quarter comebacks since 2009, which is more than any other quarterback in the NFL over that span. Stafford finished the game 23 of 40 for 232 yards and a touchdown.
Even more amazingly, the win now means that Lions are 7-4 even though they've trailed in the fourth quarter of all 11 games they've played this year. To put that in perspective, the only other team to trail in the fourth quarter of every game is the Browns, and as you probably know, they're having a rough season.
As a matter of fact, since 2008, only eight teams have trailed in the fourth quarter in each of their first 11 games, and those teams have combined to go 4-73 in those games. Again, the Lions are 7-4. It's also worth adding that each of those 11 games have been decided by 7 or fewer points. Detroit is the only team in NFL history that has opened the season with that many close games in a row.
This game must have felt like deja vu for the Vikings. Just 18 days ago, Minnesota led Detroit 16-13 with just 23 seconds left in the game. The Vikings didn't win, though. Stafford led a comeback in that game and the Lions ended up pulling out a 22-16 win in overtime.
Both of those wins combined means that the Lions are sitting pretty in the NFC North. Thanks to the season sweep, Detroit basically has a two-game lead over Minnesota with just five games left. If the two teams have the same record at the end of the season, the Lions will win the division title.
That means a 4-1 record down the stretch for the Lions would win the division. The Lions aren't used to all this first-place talk. Thursday's game marked the first time since 1993 that Detroit was in first place for a Thanksgiving Day game.
2. Both teams got off to a hot start
For the first 14 minutes of this game, it almost looked like we were going to get a shootout. The Lions opened up the game by driving straight down the field and getting a touchdown on their first possession. During the drive, it didn't look like there was any way that the vikings were going to be able to stop Matthew Stafford in the game. On the 12-play, 75-yard drive, Stafford went 6 for 6 for 46 yards, including the 2-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin you can see below.
Not to be outdone, the Vikings also got off to a hot start. Sam Bradford drove Minnesota 75-yard downfield for a touchdown that tied the game up at seven. Like the Lions, the Vikings put together a methodical 12-play, 75-yard drive, the only difference is that Minnesota's drive actually had some drama.
The Vikings appeared to turn the ball over twice on the drive, but both were called back. A Bradford fumble was changed to an incomplete pass after being reviewed while a Bradford interception by Detroit's Glover Quin was overturned because the Lions were called for pass interference.
The Vikings first series ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Matt Asiata.
Bradford went 6 of 7 for 51 yards on the drive, which tied the game at seven. Of course, the only pass that anyone's going to remember is Bradford's final one to Slay.
3. Thanksgiving special-teams fest
If you're thankful for special teams play this year, then this was the game for you. After those two opening drives that went for touchdowns, this game was all special teams. Once the second quarter started, every drive in the game either ended with a field goal, a punt, turnover or failed fourth down. There were no more touchdowns to be had.
Lions punter Sam Martin touched the ball almost as many times as running back Dwayne Washington. Washington had five carries in the game, while Martin punted the ball four times.
Vikings punter Jeff Locke was also busy. Locke had four punts in the game and used three of those to pin the Lions inside their own 20. As a matter of fact, if the Vikings would've won, you could almost make a case that Locke would've been the MVP. The punter pinned the Lions on their own 14-, 13- and 2-yard line with his three punts that went inside the 20.
The kickers in this game were clearly able to put the ugliness of Week 11 behind them as they both were perfect at Ford Field. Of course, in Week 11, NFL kickers combined to miss a record 12 extra points. In this game, Kai Forbath hit his only extra point along with two field goals (28, 30). On Detroit's end, Prater hit his only extra point, along with three huge field goals (29, 48, 40).
4. Vikes dig deep in playbook for second-half lead
With their offense floundering, the Vikings decided to try something a little different in the second half. On their second possession of the third quarter, the Vikings set up in a Wildcat formation, which led to a 10-yard by Jerick McKinnon.
Now that, might not sound like a lot, but it was McKinnon's longest run of the day. The Vikings running back finished the game with nine carries for 31 yards.
That's wasn't the only trickery the Vikings pulled out on that drive. A few plays later, the Vikings called a reverse to Cordarrelle Patterson that went for 22 yards.
The play for Patterson and the run by McKinnon provided 32 of the Vikings' 76 yards on drive, which ended with a 28-yard field goal by Kai Forbath that gave Minnesota its first lead of the game at 13-10.
5. The Lions slay the Vikings
There's a reason that Darius Slay's nickname Big Play Slay: Slay has been clutch for the Lions this year. Not only did he win Thursday's game by picking off Bradford with just 38 seconds left, but Slay also a huge pick in Week 5 when he sealed Detroit's 24-23 win over Philadelphia when he intercepted Carson Wentz with just 1:28 left in the game.
That's two wins you can chalk up to Slay.
Slay isn't the only member of the secondary who's been clutch this year. Although the Lions only have seven picks on the season, four of those have come in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
That's one stat you definitely want to lead the NFL in.
6. Twitter not amused by Aretha Franklin's national anthem
The game almost didn't start on time in Detroit after Aretha Franklin sang what may go down as the longest rendition of the national anthem in American history. It took four minutes and 35 seconds for Franklin to get through the anthem, which had some people on Twitter wondering if the game was even going to be played.
There was also a solid Colin Kaepernick joke.
Here's a nice graphic that really puts Franklin's anthem length in perspective.
Although there were a lot of complaints about the length of the anthem, everyone seemed to deal with it because, after all, it is Aretha Franklin we're talking about here.