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Lions, Cowboys, Ravens triumph
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The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys won their annual US Thanksgiving home games on Thursday to seize National Football League division leads while reigning Super Bowl champion Baltimore moved into a playoff position.
Detroit’s Matthew Stafford tossed three touchdown passes and the Lions won on Thanksgiving for the first time since 2003, beating the Green Bay Packers 40-10 to grab the NFC North lead at 7-5.
In Dallas, DeMarco Murray ran for a career-best three touchdowns to power the Cowboys over the Oakland Raiders 31-24 and seize the NFC East lead at 7-5.
And Baltimore improved to 6-6 with a 22-20 home victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Justin Tucker kicking five field goals to push the Ravens into the last American Conference playoff spot with five weeks to go in the regular season.
Detroit’s Stafford completed 22 of 35 passes for 330 yards and, even though he threw two interceptions and lost a fumble that led to a Packer TD, the Lions’ defense forced four turnovers and allowed Green Bay only 123 total yards. “We turned the ball over too much but our defense came through for us,” Stafford said.
Detroit posted seven quarterback sacks, two fumble recoveries, an interception and a safety as the Lions took the first win in their annual Thanksgiving home game since beating the Packers 22-14 a decade ago.
Reggie Bush ran 20 times for 117 yards, caught five passes for 65 yards and scored a TD and Calvin Johnson caught six passes for 101 yards and a TD. “It was a great day for us,” Bush said. “We fought back and came through adversity and came out with a win. It’s pretty special. It was a big win.”
The Lions, seeking their first division title in 19 years, moved ahead of Chicago, which would join them at 7-5 with a victory at Minnesota tomorrow.
In Dallas, Oakland’s Greg Jenkins produced a rare score on a team kicking off the ball when he recovered a fumble and ran it back 24 yards for a TD on the opening play of the game for the Raiders.
Murray answered with a 2-yard TD run for Dallas set up by an Oakland fumble but the Raiders seized a 21-7 lead on a pair of 1-yard TD runs by Rashad Jennings.
But the Raiders did not score again until the dying seconds while Dallas added 4- and 7-yard TD runs by Murray and quarterback Tony Romo’s 4-yard TD pass to Dez Bryant.
The Cowboys moved ahead of Philadelphia atop the NFC East but the Eagles can pull level with Dallas at 7-5 by beating the Arizona Cardinals tomorrow.
In Baltimore, the hosts Ravens grabbed a 10-0 half-time lead on Joe Flacco’s 7-yard TD pass to Torrey Smith and a 43-yard Tucker field goal.
Tucker kicked field goals of 34 and 38 yards around an 8-yard Steelers TD pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Emmanuel Sanders to give the Ravens a 16-7 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Tucker added a 45-yard field goal but Pittsburgh answered when rookie LeVeon Bell scored on a 1-yard TD run to pull within 19-14 with 9:32 remaining.
Tucker’s fifth field goal of the game and 27th successful attempt in a row was a 48-yarder that gave the Ravens an eight-point lead.
Roethlisberger fired a 1-yard TD pass to Jericho Cotchery with 63 seconds remaining to pull the Steelers within 22-20 but Sanders dropped a 2-point conversion pass from “Big Ben” and Pittsburgh botched an onside kick attempt to hand Baltimore the victory.
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