Two weeks ago, it would have seemed impossible that the Detroit Lions would be coming into their Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles as the hot team. The Eagles had just beaten the Dallas Cowboys in overtime to move to 4-4, while the Lions were on a bye week after dropping to 1-7 with a 45-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in London.
Eagles vs. Lions 2015 live stream: Time, TV schedule and how to watch Thanksgiving football online
Detroit is looking for its third straight win while Philadelphia tries to end its collapse.
Now, though, the Eagles are coming off back-to-back home losses to the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the latter a 45-17 blowout where Jameis Winston outplayed Mark Sanchez, who was playing in place of injured Sam Bradford. At the same time, the Lions have won two in a row, ending a 24-year losing streak at Lambeau Field before coming home to beat the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
For Detroit, the difference has been on defense. After having one of the league's best units last season, the Lions weren't able to recover from the loss of Ndamukong Suh to free agency and DeAndre Levy to a hip injury. Suddenly teams were moving the ball at will and putting more and more pressure on an offense with no running game.
However, the Lions fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi just before leaving for London, and new OC Jim Bob Cooter and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin both spent the bye week simplifying their game plans. The results have been easy to see. Detroit had 20 turnovers in its first eight games, but only one in the two wins since the bye. Meanwhile, the rushing defense looks like it did a year ago, even without Suh and Levy. The Lions have only allowed 29 points combined in the last two weeks and became the first team since the merger to score exactly 18 points in back-to-back games.
The Eagles have a strong ground game led by DeMarco Murray and Darren Sproles. If the Lions can take away the running attack, something they were able to do against the Packers and Raiders, that will put all of the pressure on Sanchez. That's not good news for the Eagles given how he's playing and that his lasting Thanksgiving memory is the butt fumble while playing for the Jets.
Since replacing Bradford, Sanchez has thrown four interceptions in 64 pass attempts and is only averaging a little more than 10 yards a pass. If he has to start throwing deeper because the Eagles get behind, it could get ugly. His only saving grace might be the Detroit secondary, which has only intercepted four passes this season.
When the Lions get the ball, a lot will depend on their running game. It has been among the league's worst all season, but Cooter had success against Oakland with a new mix of his three backs. Detroit spent most of the game using speedy Ameer Abdullah and pass-receiving specialist Theo Riddick on plays designed to get them into space, and saved powerful Joique Bell until they were running out the clock.
The Eagles are 25th against the run and allowed Tampa Bay to put up 283 yards on the ground, so the Lions might have some success with that game plan. Against the Raiders, it slowed down the pass rush enough that Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate were able to get downfield and make plays instead of serving as overqualified possession receivers. It's not a perfect system -- the Lions only scored one touchdown -- but it was better than what they had before.
And they’re hoping it’s enough to get a third win in a row, against a team that has a perfect 6-0 record in Thanksgiving games.
How to watch
When: 12:30 p.m. ET
Where: Ford Field, Detroit
Network: Fox
Announcers: Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews
Online: NFL Game Pass
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