DETROIT — Rashan Gary tore his ACL the last time he played at Ford Field.
On the same turf Thursday, one year and 17 days later, the Packers’ $96 million pass rusher had three sacks and two forced fumbles, one that resulted in a Jonathan Owens scoop-and-score touchdown and one that Gary recovered himself on fourth down early in the fourth quarter.
So you can probably understand why, when coach Matt LaFleur presented “one special game ball” to Gary in the locker room after the Packers’ 29-22 win over the Lions, the 25-year-old couldn’t hold back his tears.
Gary, one of the NFL’s biggest menaces on the field, cried this summer when he found out he was cleared to practice for the first time since tearing his ACL. He cried when LaFleur gave him a game ball after a three-sack performance against the New Orleans Saints in Week 3. And he cried again Thursday when he reminded everyone that he’s one of the league’s most dangerous defensive players.
Defensive lineman Kenny Clark said players told Gary they were playing Thursday’s game back in Detroit for him. That they were ready for him to show out on the same field that cost him the second half of last season and so much more in the months following.
“I’m tired of crying around y’all motherf—–s,” Gary said through tears in a video captured by Fox cameras.
Gary, an admittedly emotional guy, told reporters postgame that this was probably one of his most emotional moments. He had no sacks from weeks 7 to 10, three of those games coming after he inked his massive extension, but has four in the last two games after his second three-sack game of the season Thursday.
“I really can’t get my words together, but the only thing I can say is I’m blessed and fortunate,” Gary said. “I want to give all thanks to my higher power, my family members that kept me locked in, kept me out of my head, especially going into this week. I said it’s a really emotional week. Being able to come back, first off, leave the game healthy as where I (started), that’s what I asked my Holy Father for, and he blessed me to leave the game healthy and he blessed me a little bit extra. It’s great to be back, great to get a win, and I’m happy to get this past me.”
Jordan Love’s arrival, with help from others
The Packers have found their quarterback.
Jordan Love has seemed to show improvement in each of the last four games, a stretch in which the Packers have won three and narrowly lost one to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Love completed 27 of 40 passes Sunday in a win over the Chargers for a career-high 322 passing yards and two touchdowns. Against the Lions, he completed 22 of 32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns, fitting more balls into tight windows — sometimes unintentionally — and stacking big-time throw on top of big-time throw. Love even delivered the knockout blow of sorts when he saw linebacker Alex Anzalone crash on the fake handoff to running back AJ Dillon and pulled the ball on third-and-1 from his own 21-yard line late in the fourth quarter. The Packers led by 15, and Love’s 37-yard dash helped milk about 2 1/2 more minutes until the Packers punted with 2:53 remaining.
Most importantly, Love has not committed a turnover in the last two games while displaying impressive composure in the pocket, an ability to extend plays outside it and, on Thursday, a much-needed calm behind center in a raucous indoor environment. LaFleur called Love’s command of the offense “night and day” compared to earlier in the season. LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst said then that Love needed more from his supporting cast — his offensive line, his running game, his pass catchers, his coaches. On Thursday, he got it in the form of stalwart pass protection against a formidable defensive front (Love was not sacked), stick-em-like hands from his pass catchers, 5 yards per carry from his running game (his 37-yard scamper didn’t hurt) and what looked like a strong day from LaFleur on the headset, too.
LaFleur said Love’s improved command of the offense has given the team “a lot of confidence to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the calls.” The Packers trust their offensive line to hold up and their quarterback to throw the ball in rhythm where it needs to go. Because of that, LaFleur said, the Packers had plenty of longer-developing plays that resulted in chunk gains that haven’t always been there this season.
“I think he’s done a tremendous job,” LaFleur said of his quarterback. “He can’t do it alone. I think a lot of guys made plays for him. Christian Watson, Malik Heath, Rome (Romeo Doubs), Jayden Reed, all those guys did a really nice job stepping up and making some big-time plays. The tight ends, AJ Dillon on some of those checkdowns, but again, I think the story was the offensive line. Just to provide the protection for him, they kind of got after us the first time we played them.”
GO DEEPER
Jordan Love, Christian Watson set tone right away and Packers never look back
Thanksgiving leftovers
1. Love’s first touchdown pass went to Reed on a slant after the rookie second-round pick beat safety Brian Branch. The throw somehow fit in front of safety Kerby Joseph (he wasn’t looking), who was trailing Watson, who looked to be running an out route from inside Reed after a stutter step. Maybe Joseph wasn’t looking at Reed because he didn’t expect the throw to go into such a tight window. As it turns out, it wasn’t supposed to.
“We actually messed that play up,” Love said. “(Watson) was supposed to run a slant, and somehow it just worked out. I’m not even sure how the ball got in there, but it was great by J-Reed being able to concentrate when there was like three dudes right in that window. For him to be able to concentrate, catch it and finish in the end zone was huge. Like we said, it’s not going to be perfect, but when you just go out there and make these plays come to life, execute and then just obviously come up with a big play right there, it’s huge.”
2. Trailing by nine and facing a fourth-and-4 from their own 23-yard line, the Lions tried to catch the Packers off guard with a fake punt. The snap went directly to linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Outside linebacker Kingsley Enagbare held the edge as Reeves-Maybin first darted outside, and rookie first-round pick Lukas Van Ness dragged him down 3 yards short of the line to gain once he cut inside.
“Given that it was a Thanksgiving, we knew a lot of that stuff comes out,” Van Ness said. “So be ready for it. Coach Rich (Bisaccia) stressed ‘be aware’ right before we went out there. I was rushing, but right away I noticed something was up and got my eyes up and was able to make the tackle. … That’s a game-changer right there. They make that fourth down and they drive down the field, who knows? It could be a different game. Always big to make those stops.”
3. Safety Jonathan Owens had an egregious missed tackle on Chargers tight Stone Smartt on Sunday that resulted in a 51-yard touchdown. Against the Lions, not only did Owens return a fumble for a touchdown, but he turned in a handful of sturdy tackles (he had 12 total), perhaps most notable of which came on third-and-5 with the ball on the Packers’ 10-yard line and the Lions threatening to cut a 15-point lead to one score with 7 1/2 minutes left in the game.
Quarterback Jared Goff faked a handoff to running back Jahmyr Gibbs and threw a quick screen to wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown. Owens got under the block attempt of right tackle Penei Sewell and brought St. Brown down for a loss of 2 yards. Goff’s fourth-down pass into the end zone was incomplete, and the Packers took over on downs.
“That just wasn’t a great rep,” Owens said of his costly error last week. “That’s all. It doesn’t define me as a person or who I am as a football player. It’s one rep, man, so the NFL, it humbles you week to week, man, so you have to keep proving yourself. So regardless of what you do the week before, you just gotta come out and prove it again next week, so that’s all it is. Gotta have a short memory.”
4. Arguably the Packers’ niftiest play call of the day came on third-and-1 from the Lions’ 9-yard line late in the first quarter. Love took a shotgun snap and faked a handoff to Dillon while rookie third-round tight end Tucker Kraft, playing more because of the recent injury to Luke Musgrave that landed him on injured reserve, held a block on defensive end Aidan Hutchinson. Kraft released, nobody covered him and he waltzed into the end zone after catching Love’s lob to put the Packers up 13-6.
Before Kraft’s touchdown, Dillon gained 1 yard on a second-and-2 run. LaFleur said he was told that Dillon got the first down and when he saw the chains not move was visibly frustrated with the referees. LaFleur said he called the play that resulted in Kraft’s touchdown as a first-down play and stuck with it even when he realized it was third down because he liked it for that situation, too.
“I’ll let it soak in,” Kraft said. “But we gotta get back to work. We got a lot more games to win. We’re starting to be on the right side of these close-game victories, and it feels good. We’re enjoying this feeling. We got two games in a row where we come out and we’ve put points on early and the defense has played well. That’s the formula, and we’re gonna keep sticking to it.”
5. The Packers were in line for the No. 6 pick in the 2024 draft when they started 2-5. After winning three of their last four, a playoff berth is no longer a pipe dream. The Packers own the No. 8 slot in the NFC, one game back of the No. 7 Vikings, who sit 6-5 with the head-to-head advantage over Green Bay. Beating the Lions, especially while so short-handed, means the Packers can beat anybody remaining on their schedule. Whether they can go 6-0, 5-1 or even 4-2 to miraculously sneak into the playoffs after their miserable first half of the season remains to be seen.
Up next are the Chiefs on “Sunday Night Football” at Lambeau Field, then the Giants away, the Buccaneers at home, the Panthers away, the Vikings away and the Bears at home. Why can’t the Packers win any of those games after beating arguably one of the NFL’s two best teams without running back Aaron Jones, cornerback Jaire Alexander, inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, Musgrave, safeties Darnell Savage and Rudy Ford and others injured?
“It’s great,” Clark said. “They beat us, what? Five times in a row? Four times. It’s a great team win. It was huge for us. To get it on Thanksgiving on a short week, we got a lot of guys out, for us to come out and put a performance on like that, it’s a total team win.”
(Photo: Lon Horwedel / USA Today)
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