DETROIT — For too long in Detroit, Thanksgiving has been a holiday devoid of its most important ingredient: a quality, competitive football team.
For the last decade, watching the Lions host their annual Thanksgiving Day game has been akin to having Thanksgiving dinner without the turkey and stuffing.
Quite simply, the Lions haven’t brought an NFL team to the game, a trend that in recent years has drawn cries from many calling for the NFL to take the game away from Detroit, ending a tradition that dates to 1934.
That’s what a 39-121 record — the Lions record from 2001 through last season — will do for you.
The Lions, who have lost their last six Thanksgiving games by an average of 23.3 points, last won their holiday showcase in 2003 against the Packers, whom they play today at what figures to be a positively stoked Ford Field.
The task won’t be much easier than it has been in recent years for the Lions, considering the Packers are far and away the elite of the NFL at 10-0 and have won their last 16 games dating back to last year, including their Super Bowl victory.
But these aren’t your father’s Lions. They bring a 7-3 record to the game, have a legit franchise quarterback who can sling it and a potentially formidable defense.
The Lions look like they have the firepower to hang with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers and a defense that can rattle Rodgers. And that makes today’s game easily the most intriguing Thanksgiving matchup in Detroit seemingly since Nixon was in office.
The Lions’ first task is to get after Rodgers, which they have done before, knocking him out with a concussion the last time the teams faced each other, in a 7-3 Detroit win last year.
Rodgers has looked like he’s been on cruise control so far this season, completing 72.3-percent of his passes with 31 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
“Aaron Rodgers is clearly playing at the highest level of any quarterback that I’ve been associated with,” Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said this week.
Rodgers will face a Lions defense that ranks fifth in the NFL with a plus-nine turnover margin and has 15 interceptions, tied for second behind Green Bay’s 19.
Rodgers will have to deal with a Lions’ defensive front, led by tackle Ndamukong Suh, that has the capability to make him uncomfortable, something that hasn’t happened all season.
The Lions, too, will need to put up some points with Matthew Stafford keeping pace with Rodgers. Stafford threw five touchdowns in a comeback win over the Panthers on Sunday.
The Packers’ primary focus will be not letting receiver Calvin Johnson run up and down the field on their defense.
Johnson, who has 59 receptions for 974 yards and 11 TDs in 10 games, has 35 receptions for 508 yards and eight TDs in seven career games against the Packers.
This is the advice Packers tight end Jermichael Finley, who’s built similarly to the 6-foot-5, 236-pound Johnson, has for his defensive teammates: “Rip his jersey off. Hold him. You have to take a couple penalties against him. You have to eat him up.”
The Lions, of course, would love to feast on the Packers today, make a race out of the NFC North and end their string of Thanksgiving Day ineptitude, showing the world they’re worthy of carrying on the tradition.
“We want them to respect this tradition and we want them to respect it by playing well,’’ Schwartz said. “We don’t want to have people talking about, ‘How can they continue with that tradition?’ ’’