Vikings vs. Lions live stream: How to watch Thanksgiving football online

Thanksgiving is here, and that can mean only one thing: The NFL is coming to Ford Field.

The Lions will host their annual Turkey Day tradition when they welcome division rival Minnesota to Detroit on Thursday afternoon. This year, the game won’t just be background noise to distract you from your middle-aged uncle’s hottest takes. The team who walks off the field a winner will also take control of the NFC North.

The two teams have pulled away from the Green Bay Packers at the top of the division. Detroit currently holds the edge over Minnesota thanks to a Week 10 overtime win in Minneapolis.

The game was one of the best of an ongoing 2016 season. The Vikings took a three-point lead with 23 seconds to play when tight end Rhett Ellison scored his first-ever rushing touchdown. Matthew Stafford then threw for 35 yards in 21 seconds, clocking the ball at the Minnesota 40-yard line. Matt Prater calmly drained a 58-yard field goal, and this game went to overtime.

That’s when Golden Tate brought disrespect back with his game-winning catch and subsequent flip into the end zone. Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo got to the corner a second too late, getting a face full of Tate’s butt instead of making a game-prolonging tackle. The Vikings’ loss wound up being the third in a four-game slump and served as a symbolic changing of the guard in the NFC North, one week before the Lions took over the top spot for real.

On Thursday, Minnesota gets its chance for revenge. The Vikings snapped their losing streak by handling a dangerous Arizona team on Sunday. The 30 points they scored were the most since an early October win over the Texans, but several questions still exist about this team’s offense. They gained only 217 total yards last week and rushed for just three yards per carry.

Sam Bradford has been quietly competent behind center but threw for only 169 yards against the Cardinals. His mistake-averse quarterbacking would have made a Minnesota team with a prime Adrian Peterson one of the NFL’s best, but Peterson is out with a knee injury — and even when he was on the field, he looked like a shell of his old self. If Bradford or this team’s running game continues to stall out, the Vikings won’t have enough firepower to keep pace against an explosive Detroit team.

For Detroit, a win would prove the Lions’ worth as a 2016 playoff team. The Lions started 2016 with a 1-3 record, and each loss came to a team currently under .500 in the standings. Since then, they’ve gone on a 5-1 tear with victories over NFC playoff contenders Philadelphia, Washington, and Minnesota. Still, a checkered history and zero postseason wins since 1991 makes it difficult to have supreme confidence in the team.

Stafford is doing work to change that perception. The eighth-year veteran is in the middle of his finest season. His 101.2 passer rating is a career high and he’s on pace to throw a career-low eight interceptions over the course of a full season. He’s excelled even without future Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, utilizing targets like Tate and Marvin Jones to push the Lions offense to new heights.

He’ll face a stiff test from the Vikings on Thursday. Minnesota held Stafford to one of his least efficient games of the season, though he still managed to sling a pair of touchdown passes in the win. He’ll have a partisan holiday crowd behind him in Week 12, and that could be enough to push the Lions to sole possession of first place in the NFC North.

Time: 12:30 p.m. ET

Place: Ford Field, Detroit, Mich.

TV: CBS

Announcers: Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Tracy Wolfson

Online: Sunday Ticket