On Thanksgiving, November 28, 2024, the Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears 23-20 at Ford Field. The Lions led 16-0 at halftime, and the Bears came back to within three points. Chicago reached the Detroit 35 with 36 seconds left, then Caleb Williams was sacked, and the Bears let the clock run with a timeout in hand. Their last pass hit the turf as time ran out. The next day the Bears fired Matt Eberflus, the first time in the franchise’s history that it had fired a head coach during a season.
Detroit was 10-1, on a nine-game winning streak. Chicago was 4-7 and had lost five in a row, the previous two by a combined four points. Ben Johnson was calling plays for the Lions as their offensive coordinator, and Williams, the first pick in the 2024 draft, was making his 12th start.
A 16-0 first half
Detroit took the opening kickoff and drove to the Chicago 12, and Jake Bates kicked a 30-yard field goal. The next Lions drive started at their own 10 after a muffed punt went out of bounds. Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 18, 13 and 11 yards on it, and Jared Goff threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta on the first snap of the second quarter for 10-0.
Bates added field goals of 36 and 48 yards. Detroit could have led by more: with 1:01 left in the half, Gibbs caught a pass at the Chicago 6, Tyrique Stevenson knocked the ball loose, and Gervon Dexter Sr. recovered. At halftime the Lions had outgained the Bears 279 yards to 53. Williams had completed 5 of 15 passes for 34 yards.
Williams and Allen bring Chicago back
The Bears scored on their first drive of the second half, and Williams found Keenan Allen behind the defense for a 31-yard touchdown. Detroit answered with an 11-play drive that used seven minutes, and Goff hit LaPorta again from the 1 for 23-7.
Williams then hit Rome Odunze for 19 yards and D’Andre Swift for 29, and on the third play of the fourth quarter, he threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Allen. The two-point pass to Cole Kmet fell incomplete, leaving it 23-13. After Bates missed a 45-yard field goal wide right with 8:47 left, Williams moved the Bears 65 yards in eight plays and threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore down the left side. With 5:36 to play, it was 23-20.
Williams completed 15 of 25 passes for 222 yards and all three of his touchdowns in the second half.
| Quarter | Time | Team | Scoring play | Score (DET-CHI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 7:10 | DET | Jake Bates 30-yard field goal | 3-0 |
| 2nd | 15:00 | DET | Sam LaPorta 3-yard pass from Jared Goff (Bates kick) | 10-0 |
| 2nd | 7:19 | DET | Bates 36-yard field goal | 13-0 |
| 2nd | 3:15 | DET | Bates 48-yard field goal | 16-0 |
| 3rd | 9:54 | CHI | Keenan Allen 31-yard pass from Caleb Williams (Cairo Santos kick) | 16-7 |
| 3rd | 2:46 | DET | LaPorta 1-yard pass from Goff (Bates kick) | 23-7 |
| 4th | 13:45 | CHI | Allen 9-yard pass from Williams (pass failed) | 23-13 |
| 4th | 5:42 | CHI | DJ Moore 31-yard pass from Williams (Santos kick) | 23-20 |
The last drive
Detroit went three-and-out, and Jack Fox’s 61-yard punt was downed at the Chicago 1 with 3:31 left. On third-and-7 from the 4, Williams found Moore for 25 yards. Moore caught another for 14, Swift ran for 12 on third-and-1, and Williams scrambled for 13 to the Detroit 44.
Two penalties followed on fourth down. Moore’s 21-yard catch was wiped out by offensive pass interference on Kmet, which made it fourth-and-14. On the next snap, Kindle Vildor was flagged for defensive pass interference, a 29-yard penalty that gave Chicago a first down at the Detroit 25 with 56 seconds left. After an incompletion, the Bears used their second timeout with 43 seconds left. Allen then caught a pass at the 13, but an illegal-hands penalty on Teven Jenkins pushed Chicago back to the 35.
On second-and-20, Za’Darius Smith came in untouched and sacked Williams for a 6-yard loss at the Detroit 41, and the clock kept running from about 32 seconds. The Bears still had a timeout but did not call it. Williams got the next play in and got the offense lined up, then changed the play at the line. The ball was snapped with six seconds left, and his deep throw to Odunze landed incomplete near the goal line as time ran out. From the end of the sack to the final snap, 26 seconds went by.
| Time | Down and distance | Spot | Play |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:31 | 1st and 10 | CHI 1 | Williams to Allen for 6 yards; Allen unsportsmanlike conduct penalty |
| 3:14 | 3rd and 7 | CHI 4 | Williams to Moore for 25 yards, after a Chicago timeout |
| 2:25 | 3rd and 1 | CHI 38 | Swift runs for 12 yards to midfield |
| 1:26 | 2nd and 17 | CHI 43 | Williams scrambles for 13 yards to the Detroit 44 |
| 1:04 | 4th and 4 | DET 44 | Moore 21-yard catch wiped out by offensive pass interference on Kmet |
| 0:56 | 4th and 14 | CHI 46 | Defensive pass interference on Vildor, 29 yards, first down at the Detroit 25 |
| 0:43 | 2nd and 10 | DET 25 | Allen 12-yard catch wiped out by illegal use of hands on Jenkins, after Chicago’s second timeout |
| 0:36 | 2nd and 20 | DET 35 | Za’Darius Smith sacks Williams for a 6-yard loss; Chicago keeps its last timeout |
| 0:06 | 3rd and 26 | DET 41 | Williams deep to Odunze, incomplete; game over |
“I think we handled it the right way”
Eberflus explained the decision after the game. “Our hope was, because it was third going into fourth, that we would re-rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it inbounds, get into field goal range and then call the timeout,” he said. “We were outside the field goal range, so we needed to get a few more yards in there, as close as we can get, and then we were going to call a timeout, and that’s why we held that last timeout.”
“I like what we did there,” he added. “To me, I think we handled it the right way.” Once the clock got under 12 seconds, he said, the Bears had to keep the timeout and throw into the end zone.
Williams said he changed the play because a completion in the field of play would not leave time for a kick. “I made an adjustment because I saw the clock running down, knowing that if we complete a ball inbounds or anything like that, we won’t have time to kick a field goal,” he said. “I knew Rome was either going to be one-on-one or he was going to beat the safety and be one-on-one there. Tried to give him a shot, we got the shot and missed.”
Why the timeout mattered
A team facing a long third down outside field-goal range needs two things: yards and a stopped clock. With a timeout called right after the sack, the Bears would have had about 32 seconds for at least two plays from the Detroit 41, with time to throw short for field-goal range or take a shot at the end zone and still keep an option for fourth down. Without it, the clock dictated the call. By the time the ball was snapped, there was time for only one play, and it had to go to the end zone.
Late-game choices have swung other close Lions games, too. A year earlier, Dan Campbell went for it on fourth-and-2 against the Chargers which set up a field goal on the last play.
The numbers
| Detroit | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Passing | Jared Goff, 21 of 34, 221 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT | Caleb Williams, 20 of 40, 256 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT |
| Rushing leaders | David Montgomery, 21 carries, 88 yards; Jahmyr Gibbs, 9 carries, 87 yards | D’Andre Swift, 11 carries, 39 yards; Caleb Williams, 4 carries, 39 yards |
| Receiving leaders | Amon-Ra St. Brown, 5 catches, 73 yards; Tim Patrick, 2 catches, 48 yards | DJ Moore, 8 catches, 97 yards, 1 TD; Keenan Allen, 5 catches, 73 yards, 2 TD |
| Sacks | 5 (DJ Reader 2, Za’Darius Smith 1.5, Al-Quadin Muhammad 1, Ezekiel Turner 0.5) | 2 (Gervon Dexter Sr. 1, Austin Booker and Jack Sanborn 0.5 each) |
| Turnovers | 1 (Gibbs fumble) | 0 |
The next day
Eberflus held his regular news conference on Friday morning. Later that day, the team announced that he had been fired. “This morning, after meeting with George and Kevin, we informed Matt of our decision to move in a different direction with the leadership of our football team and the head coaching position,” general manager Ryan Poles said in a team statement, referring to chairman George McCaskey and team president Kevin Warren.
Eberflus finished 14-32 in parts of three seasons. Thomas Brown, who had taken over the offense and the play-calling when offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired earlier in November, was named interim head coach. Chicago lost its first game under Brown 38-13 at San Francisco and finished 5-12. Detroit went 15-2 and earned the NFC’s top seed but lost its first playoff game to Washington, 45-31. In January 2025, the Bears hired Johnson as their head coach.
The 2026 connection
Johnson brings the Bears back to Ford Field on Thanksgiving, November 26, for the Lions’ annual Thanksgiving Day game, with Wu-Tang Clan at halftime. Chicago (7-2) is off this week after beating Tampa Bay on Cairo Santos’ walk-off field goal and leads the NFC North by half a game over Detroit (6-2), which plays New England in Munich on Sunday, as the latest playoff picture shows. The Bears also have a Thanksgiving history of their own, including their 2015 win at Lambeau Field.
The scoring plays, clock times, drive notes and player numbers above come from the official play-by-play and game data. The quotes are from postgame comments and the team’s statement.
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