The last time the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions met on Thanksgiving, Jordan Love made a statement with a breathtaking performance that stunned the hosts.
It helped the Packers gain momentum but ultimately didn't derail the Lions' season, as they won the NFC North and fell within a game of the Super Bowl.
This time, Love could send the Lions' playoff hopes spiraling into the abyss.
Remember the good ol' days when the Lions could only dream of one day being able to hang an NFC North banner? When Thanksgiving wasn't a chance to improve their playoff seeding, but a fun day out for their opponents?
That's the kind of Thanksgiving we have in mind in 2025.
It's way too early to make grand, definitive predictions, but you don't need a crystal ball to notice just how brutal the Lions' schedule is early in the season. The data backs it up, and it could leave Love and the Packers with a chance to make an even bigger Thanksgiving statement.
Lions face a rocky path to Thanksgiving, and the Packers could finish them off
It's wild to talk about finishing off a team's playoff hopes by November after they went 15-2, but just look at their schedule.
In the opening 11 weeks, Detroit gets road games against the Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Commanders. As Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis notes, each of those teams is projected to win at least nine games, giving the Lions by far the toughest slate in the opening 11 weeks.
On top of that, the Lions get the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home — the latter secured a rare victory at Ford Field last season.
The Packers, meanwhile, rank second in the league for strength of schedule from Weeks 1-11, per Sharp.
It's not impossible to imagine the Packers building an early lead over the Lions in the first half of the season.
Enter Jordan Love to finish them off. Maybe the Lions use all of their grit and kneecap-biting ability to win most of those road games, but that's a nightmare slate. Campbell's team will start the season in survival mode.
The problem? They then run into Toyotathon Jordan Love, and we've seen how that has played out on Thanksgiving before.
With a win at Ford Field, the Packers could send the Lions into the unfathomable reality of a playoff-less season, which is hard to believe but a more realistic scenario than it sounds. Following that game, Detroit gets three of its final five on the road, finishing the year with away dates versus the Los Angeles Rams, Vikings, and Chicago Bears and a home game with Aaron Rodgers' Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Lions have dominated in recent years and talked trash while doing it. The schedule may present an opportunity for the Packers to get revenge and severely dent their playoff hopes on Thanksgiving.
It will be like the good ol' days.