DETROIT – With clutch performances by Jordan Love, Dontayvion Wicks and Micah Parsons, the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions on Thursday. It was their biggest win of the season.
While that’s not an overreaction, here are this week’s three Overreactions.
1. Jordan Love Is Championship Quarterback
The NFL might be entering a golden age of quarterbacking, with a lot of veteran passers or young, talented prospects highlighting rosters around the NFL.
Talent is one thing. Being clutch is another.
In 2023, when Love was the team’s first-year starter, he was not clutch. With opportunities to make game-winning plays against the Raiders, Broncos and Steelers, he made the type of critical mistakes that a franchise quarterback absolutely can’t make.
In 2025, Love has displayed the clutch gene that all the great quarterbacks possess.
Love entered Thursday ranked third in the NFL with four fourth-quarter comebacks and sixth with three game-winning drives. He didn’t add to those numbers against the Lions – the Packers led wire-to-wire and were up 31-21 after three quarters – but Love delivered when it mattered again.
The Packers led 31-24 when they took possession with 2:59 remaining. Detroit had three timeouts. If it could get a stop, it would have a chance to tie or win the game.
On third-and-5, Love hit Christian Watson for 8 yards. It was an easy pitch-and-catch completion, with Watson winning easily against Terrion Arnold. Moments later, the Packers faced third-and-3. Love drifted to his right and threw a bullet to the left to Watson, who couldn’t make the play against Brian Branch.
The play before the clinching fourth-down conversion, Love threw this strike to Watson. pic.twitter.com/Z0E8mIhr8a
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 28, 2025
That set up what might have been a do-or-die fourth down. Unlike the previous play, when Love had a solid pocket, defensive tackle Alim McNeill got inside of rookie right guard Anthony Belton and got in Love’s face. Love drifted back and to his left to buy a split-second of time before getting dumped to the turf. This throw was all arm strength. It was right on the money to Dontayvion Wicks, who made a superb catch against Branch for the clinching first down.
This is a championship-worthy throw by Love and a “man-hands” catch by Wicks to clinch the game. pic.twitter.com/jw5YKx59t6
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 28, 2025
Again and again in the tie at Dallas, Love drove the Packers to come-from-behind scores. Against Cincinnati, he drove them to the clinching field goal. Against Arizona, he rallied the Packers with two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Against Pittsburgh, he rallied the Packers with three fourth-quarter touchdowns. Against the Giants, he led a game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
“It’s just staying the course,” Love said. “Something I feel like I’ve learned is all these games come down to the last couple plays. The last couple minutes in the game and that’s when you got to be at your best to be able to go out there and put these games away.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) throws a pass against the Detroit Lions on Thursday. | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
“It’s not just me. It’s everybody going out there and making those plays when it matters most. We’ve had moments where we’ve gone out there and haven’t made those plays before, and I think from those moments you learn, you grow, you find that confidence to just go out there and keep going, play in and play out, and find ways to go out there and win. But if you want to win, you got to make those plays and got to go out there earn the right to win.”
The great quarterbacks have to make great plays in big moments against great teams. That’s really the only way to win the Super Bowl.
Love did it on Thursday, like he has throughout the season.
“It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling,” Love said. “Obviously, game on the line right there, fourth down, got-to-have-it play and to be able to throw one up and for him just to make that catch, that’s phenomenal,” Love said.
“But it’s awesome to be able to put the game away right there on a got-to-have-it play. In the game, there’s going to be opportunities and there’s going to be moments where you got to make big-time plays and that was a big-time play.”
2. Micah Parsons for NFL MVP
Let’s be clear with the obvious: Micah Parsons is not going to win NFL MVP. He’s not even going to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
But who is more valuable to his playoff-caliber team than Parsons?
Parsons is a one-man wrecking crew. According to Next Gen Stats, he had 10 pressures against Detroit. Everybody else had nine. Parsons had 2.5 sacks, including two in the fourth quarter. He is leading the NFL with seven sacks in the fourth quarter.
Thinking about legendary Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley calls Parsons “The Closer.” Parsons isn’t a baseball guy, but he had his own comparison.
“The only person I knew was the greatest closer was Iron Mike (Tyson),” Parsons said on Tuesday. “That’s the guy. Baseball was never really my thing. But Haf was educating me last week when he told me about it. But Iron Mike used to just go in there. It’s like, ‘You can’t f*** with me. I’m going to get you out of here.’”
There was no f’ing with Parsons on Thursday, especially when it mattered most. No play was bigger than third-and-goal at the 4, when Parsons lined up at left defensive end, looped up the middle and buried Jared Goff.
“He had a hell of a performance,” coach Matt LaFleur said.
Of Parsons’ seven fourth-quarter sacks, he had six in the last six games.
After back-to-back losses, the Packers have won three consecutive games. Parsons has six sacks in those games.
Parsons has 12.5 sacks and leads the NFL with 70 pressures. With Parsons, the Packers will have a chance to take the NFC North lead next week against Chicago. Without Parsons, the Packers probably would be clinging to their playoff life.
“It’s just really being championship football games, division games,” he said. “I just have to step up my level of play and just be the person they brought me in to (be).”
3. Another Killer Injury
The NFL is a game of attrition. Losing Tucker Kraft, obviously, was a major blow for the offense. It could be the same on defense with Devonte Wyatt’s ankle injury.
Wyatt had a sack in each of the first two games before being sidelined by a knee injury. It took him a while to get rolling but he had two sacks against the Vikings last week. On Thursday, he had a tremendous bull rush on Micah Parsons’ third-and-goal sack. It was that play when Wyatt was injured.
“You guys see the difference he makes when he got back out on the field,” Parsons said.
With TJ Slaton leaving in free agency and Kenny Clark going to Dallas in the Parsons trade, defensive tackle looked like it would be the team’s weak link. Instead, it’s been one of the team’s bigger surprises.
Without Wyatt, the Packers are incredibly thin at the position. The last four standing are third-year pros Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks and rookies Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse.
The Eagles won last year’s Super Bowl behind a powerhouse defensive line. Can the Packers win a championship without an impact defensive tackle and with perilous depth?
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