Matt LaFleur and Packers make statement in season sweep of Lions

DETROIT — Long gone are the days of Dan Campbell bullying Matt LaFleur.

Campbell had been stuffing LaFleur and his team in a locker for the better part of four seasons entering Thursday’s matchup, the Detroit Lions winning six of their first eight games against the Green Bay Packers under the brawny head honcho and his edgy coaching style.

On Thanksgiving in Detroit, it was the scrawny (relatively speaking, with all due respect) LaFleur’s turn to show Campbell who was boss, no matter the discrepancy in their physical statures.

The Packers faced a fourth-and-3 from Detroit’s 45-yard line, leading 31-24 with 1:55 remaining. They lined up to go for it before calling a timeout after their effort to draw the Lions offside failed. Instead of trotting out the punt team in hopes of pinning the Lions deep with no timeouts, LaFleur sent back out his $220 million quarterback with faith he’d stuff Campbell and the Lions in that locker he’d spent plenty of time in.

“I thought the only way you come into this place (and win), which is not an easy place to play, is you’ve got to be aggressive,” LaFleur said, after winning in that way, in the building home to the coach who has made going for it on fourth down cool.

With defensive tackle Alim McNeill in his face, that high-priced quarterback, Jordan Love, lofted a pass to wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks while drifting backward. With safety Brian Branch draped on his back, Wicks, the receiver plagued by drops last season, skied for perhaps the most important catch of his young career — a highly contested one to seal the game.

The Packers have now swept the Lions for the first time since 2020, the year before Campbell took over. Green Bay is 3-0 in the NFC North, perhaps the league’s best division, and can sit in first place entering Week 14 if the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Bears on Friday afternoon. The stakes were massive Thursday. LaFleur and his team delivered.

“It was exactly the way that we needed to play,” wide receiver Christian Watson said. “Not only to win, but to just assert ourselves out there, the kind of team that we are, the kind of team that we’re trying to be as we get later in the season.”

LaFleur decided to go for it on fourth-and-3 to try and win the game before third down. He told Love that he had two downs to work with as the Packers faced third-and-3. On that play, Watson ran an in-breaking route, and Love hit him in the hands after a double move to wideout Romeo Doubs didn’t pan out. Coaches will grade it as a drop — Watson slammed both fists on the turf — even if Branch was glued in coverage.

LaFleur said the Packers threw it on third down instead of running it, knowing they were going for it on fourth because the Lions were in their base defense with a loaded box and in man coverage, while Green Bay was in 11 personnel (one running back and one tight end with three wideouts).

On fourth down, McNeill muscled past rookie right guard Anthony Belton on the inside. Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson’s left hand stretched near Love, too, while rushing against right tackle Zach Tom. LaFleur said that the play’s first option was Watson on what looked like a deep out route from the slot against cornerback Amik Robertson in man coverage, but Robertson maintained effective outside leverage. None of that fazed a quarterback adept at playing under pressure as he calmly trusted Wicks to make a play.

“And our guys just made a play,” LaFleur said.

“We got a chance to go out there and ice the game, not even give them a chance to get the ball back,” Love said. “And we stayed aggressive, and I love it.”

Jordan Love on the game-clinching throw to Wicks on fourth down: pic.twitter.com/Dvpy5pX7jr

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) November 27, 2025

It’s not the most difficult decision to be aggressive through the air when you have a quarterback like Love, who once again showed Thursday why he’s one of the NFL’s best at the position. Not only on his last throw to Wicks, but also on a 51-yard touchdown heave to Watson to begin the second half, which Love dropped in the bucket, and on several other dimes throughout the game.

Maybe it’s just something about Thanksgiving, a holiday on which Love has been lights out the last three years. In a 2023 win over the Lions at Ford Field, a 2024 win over the Miami Dolphins at Lambeau Field and Thursday’s win in Detroit, Love is a combined 61-of-90 with 776 passing yards, nine touchdowns and no interceptions. On this Thanksgiving, he completed 18 of 30 passes for 234 yards and four touchdowns, the third four-touchdown game of his career and the first since Week 6 last season. So it’s no surprise that LaFleur trusted his quarterback to make one more play when it mattered most.

“Matt wanted to definitely stay aggressive in this game, and we had conversations all week,” Love said. “I think it’s just the confidence he has in everybody on the offense to be able to go out there and make those plays, and it’s one of those games you gotta be aggressive. You gotta stay aggressive to go win it because we know it’s a really good offense on the other side of the ball, and you want to stay away from trying to give them the ball back.”

What if the play didn’t work, though? And a Lions offense that was picking Green Bay’s defense apart only needed 55 yards with plenty of time left to tie the game or even take the lead?

“I’d rather go down swinging,” LaFleur said.

Wicks’ catch served as a fitting microcosm for the growth he’s shown over the past year. His eight drops last season tied for the ninth-most in the NFL (he had 39 catches), according to TruMedia. Social media has floated the names “Droptayvion Wicks” and “Dontayvion Bricks.” Not anymore. Not only was his game-sealing catch an impressive contested grab, but his first of two touchdown catches was of the acrobatic variety, too. Wicks hauled in a Love rainbow on fourth-and-3 for a 22-yard score while deftly touching both feet down as safety Thomas Harper collided with Wicks’ leg and twisted his left ankle.

Wicks hasn’t been perfect catching the ball this year, with three drops (he has 26 catches), but the Packers sure were thankful for the third-year receiver who has battled through a calf injury this season after what he did on Thanksgiving.

“We don’t win that game without him,” Watson said.

On the game’s final meaningful play, Wicks ran another in-breaking route with Branch in press man and, as Fox analyst Tom Brady said on the broadcast, the tightest coverage possible. Wicks even lost his right cleat before making the catch after Branch stepped on his leg mid-route.

“I didn’t even realize it till ‘Sheed (left tackle Rasheed Walker) said it. I wasn’t thinking about the shoe. We won the game,” Wicks said. “When you’re in the game and adrenaline’s running, you don’t really feel nothing. … I looked down, and my shoe was off.”

LaFleur hoisted his arms in the air on the sideline and yelled. This rivalry is his and the Packers’, at least for now. You think of going for it on fourth downs and aggressive offensive coaching, and you think of Campbell. On Thursday, it was LaFleur’s offense that went 3-for-3 on fourth down and Campbell’s that went 0-for-2. On those three conversions, the Packers scored two touchdowns on their first two attempts and iced the game on their third.

Even so, LaFleur was having none of the notion that he or the Packers made a statement beating Campbell and the Lions with how they did.

“Every game’s its own game, and we just came in here with an aggressive mindset, and I think that’s one of the ways you have to play against these guys, knowing that you’re going to defend four downs and it’s a really good football team,” LaFleur said. “They’ve won a lot of games, and they’ve been one of the premier teams in the league for the last few years now. They’ve got a lot of great players. I’ve got so much respect for Dan and his staff and what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

It’s a safe bet that LaFleur’s internal monologue was far different than the politically correct answer he gave into the podium microphone at Ford Field. You can’t blame him if it was.

The coach, who is trying to earn a long-term extension from a new team president, and the team he coaches, made a statement. Whether he wants to admit it or not. LaFleur has finally exorcised perhaps his biggest demon in Campbell, and in doing so, helped the Packers look like a Super Bowl contender again.