Detroit, MI
The Packers got away with one but Detroit Lions still need fixes
Detroit Lions fall to Green Bay Packers: Breaking down Thanksgiving L
Detroit Lions fall to Green Bay Packers: Shawn Windsor and Jeff Seidel break down Thanksgiving loss at Ford Field on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025.
The hole and the wink aren’t related. Not really.
Well, maybe.
OK, they are.
Just not how you think. And not how you want.
There is cause-and-effect. There is coincidence.
What happened at Ford Field on Thursday, Nov. 27, when the Green Bay Packers benefited from the officials’ mistake – or two – also exposed the Detroit Lions.
Again.
The Lions haven’t been good enough this season – in the trenches, on the margins – and it’s jarring, as reality so often is.
On Thursday, they couldn’t pressure the quarterback, they couldn’t protect their own quarterback when they absolutely needed to. They couldn’t convert on third-and-short or fourth-and-short, and Green Bay could – and did.
The difference in the game, said the man who winked – Packers coach Matt LaFleur. The difference in the game, said the man who mentioned the “hole” – Lions coach Dan Campbell.
As in: “We are in a little bit of a hole. That’s just what it is,” Campbell said after his team’s 31-24 loss. “There’s nothing more than that. All we got to do is worry about cleaning up this and then getting to the next game and finding a way to win the next one.”
The next one is, of course, against the Dallas Cowboys. Right back at Ford Field. Also a Thursday game (on Dec. 4). This time at night. Another must-win.
Though there are must-wins and there are must-wins. The Lions aren’t at the latter just yet. Too many games left. Too many possibilities.
The season isn’t finished, even if it feels like it will be soon. Then again, that feeling is also a way to cope, to deal with unmet expectations, to deal with being in “a hole,” to say: It’s over … and move on to college hoops or hockey, or even the Pistons.
Or to silence in your basement.
A wink and a nod from LaFleur
Which brings us back to the wink, which many will relate to the “hole,” because behind the wink, there is acknowledgement of a gift, from an official.
No, not cash or anything so direct or gauche. But the gift of a gathering, where folks dressed in black-and-white stripes huddled to discuss whether LaFleur had called a timeout before one of his offensive linemen jumped offsides, and concluded the timeout came first.
“Of course, they got it right,” said LaFleur, who winked as he said it. “What do you think?”
And:
“Yeah, I was calling timeout. … We call it a delay situation. Obviously, it was a timeout that we were going to use if they didn’t jump offsides, so we were going for it there regardless.”
If the flag stays, maybe the Packers convert. Maybe they don’t. But for LaFleur to act like fourth-and-6 is the same as fourth-and-1 is well, worthy of a wink.
That’s a tough look for the NFL, and an exasperating look for Lions fans. But so is the lack of a pass rush, and the season-long inability to make the play or two needed to win against the better teams in the league.
All of it can be true. The Lions got jilted. The Packers thought it was funny. The Lions still need to play much, much better.
Yeah, he winked. That’s indisputable. Nor is proof hard to find. Search “LaFleur and wink” and watch it pop up quickly – everywhere. Or at least everywhere the NFL and its officials are discussed, or everywhere the NFL is discussed.
And now everywhere the Lions are discussed.
The refs blew it. Then said they didn’t. That’s maddening, too. That’s also not why the Lions lost and fell further into their hole in the NFC North and overall playoff standings.
That could change. A lot needs to change with the Lions first.
“It all starts with you doing your job, which is us, and finding a way to win the next one in front of us,” said Campbell. “It really is that simple. Don’t make more of it than need be. It’s frustrating, it sucks, it’s tough, but we did it to ourselves and we’re the only ones who are going to get out of it as well.”
Wink …
… or not.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
Detroit Tigers blow lead, lose to Kansas City Royals on walk-off hit.
The Tigers lost, 4-3, to the Royals on Kyle Isbel’s walk-off single in the ninth inning.
Kansas City, Mo. — The losing streak is now five games. The road record is now an MLB-worst 6-16.
The Kansas City Royals prolonged the Tigers’ misery Saturday night with a relatively breezy 5-1 win at Kauffman Stadium.
Oh, and the Tigers might’ve lost another player in the process.
Right fielder Kerry Carpenter left the game in the third inning. He banged his left shoulder running into the side wall chasing Bobby Witt Jr.’s first-inning, two-run, inside-the-park home run.
Witt, a right-handed hitter, sliced a drive inside the bag at first. Carpenter chased it toward the side wall, but the ball caromed past him. Witt never stopped running.
Carpenter stayed in the game and even rolled an infield single in the second inning. But he was replaced by Wenceel Perez when the Royals came to bat in the third inning.
BOX SCORE: Royals 5, Tigers 1
He was being evaluated during the game.
The two-run homer by Witt ended up being more than the Tigers’ sputtering offense could overcome. But, for good measure, Michael Massey added a three-run home run off Ty Madden in the fourth inning.
Madden ended up being one of the few bright spots in the game for the Tigers. He pitched six innings and allowed just one other hit. He set down the last 11 hitters he faced.
He entered in the third inning after opener Burch Smith and lefty Tyler Holton worked one time through the Royals’ batting order.
Holton made a nifty escape in the first inning. With runners at second and third and one out, and two runs already in, Jac Caglianone hit a hard ground ball to second baseman Zach McKinstry, who was playing in on the grass.
McKinstry got the out at first. The runner at second, Carter Jensen, mistakenly broke for third where Vinnie Pasquantino was holding.
Spencer Torkelson threw to shortstop Kevin McGonigle who threw to catcher Jake Rogers once Pasquantino broke for home — your basic 4-3-6-2 double-play.
Not much else went the Tigers’ way.
Royals right-hander Michael Wacha snuffed out the few scoring opportunities the Tigers mustered.
He worked around an error and a McKinstry stolen base in the third innings. He got Jake Rogers to pop to shallow right field with runners at first and third and one out and then got Matt Vierling to ground out with the bases loaded in the fifth.
Wacha allowed two hits in seven innings. The Tigers put 18 balls in play against him with a soft average exit velocity of 84.4 mph.
The Tigers broke through in the eighth against lefty reliever Matt Strahm. And it was left-handed hitters who did the dirty work. Riley Greene, who extended his career-high on-base streak to 20 games, doubled home McGonigle.
This season is a long way from over but Tigers, 18-22, are in serious need a course correction.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
4Warn Weather – SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy skies. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. A few storms could be strong with gusty winds and hail. High: 71.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy skies, becoming partly cloudy skies late. Low: 45.
SUNDAY (MOTHER’S DAY): Mix of sunshine and clouds, cooler temperatures. High: 61.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Another chilly night. Low: 41.
MONDAY: Mostly sunny skies, remaining chilly. High: 58.
After a beautiful end to the week on Friday with sunshine and a little cloud cover, with warmer temperatures moving into the region as well, some of us are waking up to some patchy dense fog on Saturday morning. Some places south of M-59 are seeing reduced visibilities down to around a mile. If you do run into some patchy dense fog, be sure to use your low beams.
That warming trend continues into the start of the weekend on Saturday, but it also brings a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Another cold front will work through the region by Saturday afternoon and early Saturday evening and that will bring our thunderstorm chance. High temperature is warming into low 70s by Saturday afternoon.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed most of the region under a Marginal Risk (1 out of 5) on our severe weather scale for the start of the weekend. Gusty winds and hail are the primary threats as we work through the start of the weekend, but this will not be a widespread threat for severe thunderstorms.
Behind that cold front for the end of the weekend on Sunday, we will keep a mixture of sunshine and clouds into the forecast. High temperatures running about 10 to 15° cooler to end the weekend. Expect high to warm into the upper 50s to lower 60s by Sunday afternoon.
Drier weather sticks around for the start of next week, before another chance of rain moves into the region by the time we get to Tuesday. The cooler-than-average temperatures will continue into the start of next week as well. Expect high temperatures to remain in the 50s for Monday and Tuesday.
Temperature start to warm up by the middle of next week, and Drier weather moves back in by Wednesday behind another cold front moving into the region. Expect high temperatures into the lower 60s on Wednesday to warm into the upper 60s by the time we get to Thursday. Above average temperatures move back into the region as we look ahead into the end of the week, expect high temperatures back into the lower 70s by the time we get to Friday.
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