As the Packers’ 2025 season recedes and 2026 starts to come into view, one of the year’s defining moments still stands out: Dontayvion Wicks making Detroit pay on Thanksgiving.
The play landed at No. 10 on the APC staff’s list of the Packers’ top 10 plays of 2025, and it came in a game that already had the feel of a second act. Green Bay had beaten the Lions in Week 1, helped in no small part by its late addition of Micah Parsons, and the rematch arrived in Week 13 with both teams sitting near each other in the standings.
The Packers were 7-3-1 after beating the Vikings in Week 12. The Lions were 7-4 after an overtime win over the Giants.
On a short week, on a holiday, there was plenty on the line.
Green Bay opened with a clean march and got a 45-yard field goal from Brandon McManus for a 3-0 edge. After that, the first quarter turned into a grind. Neither side found much rhythm, and neither team got across midfield again until the Packers finally pieced together another drive with a little more than three minutes left in the quarter.
Josh Jacobs helped push that possession forward with a 29-yard run, and by the time the second quarter opened, the Packers were sitting at the Detroit 31. Jacobs added nine more on second down, but Jordan Love’s third-down throw to Christian Watson fell incomplete. That left Matt LaFleur with a choice: take the field goal, or trust his offense on 4th and 3.
The decision echoed the previous season’s matchup in Detroit, when the Lions had leaned into their own fourth-down boldness and turned it into a win. This time, LaFleur chose the aggressive route.
Green Bay came out in 11 personnel, with Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Dontayvion Wicks aligned in a bunch to the right. Just before the snap, Wicks broke free from the formation and motioned right to left, then turned up the left sideline as the ball was snapped. Love glanced right, then came back to Wicks and dropped a pass into a tight window between Brian Branch and Thomas Harper.
Wicks hauled it in, tapped his toes, absorbed a glancing hit from Harper, and got the touchdown. The score was reviewed and upheld, and McManus added the extra point to make it 10-0.
“We knew it was going to come down to the end, so we had to go make the plays that counted,” Wicks said after the game.
He backed that up. Detroit kept coming all afternoon, clawing back from three separate double-digit deficits and keeping the game within one score. But Wicks’ touchdown, one of two he scored in the game, ended up being the difference in a 31-24 Packers win.
In the end, the play was about more than one catch in the end zone. It was LaFleur trusting his quarterback and Wicks delivering in a spot that mattered.
“That’s what it comes down to,” he said. “Coach believes in you. You just go out and make plays, and that’s what keeps him believing.”
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