Jordan Love celebrated the Green Bay Packers’ win on Thanksgiving by taking a bite of a turkey leg and raising it in the air.
His celebration was well earned.
Last year, Love led the Packers to a Thanksgiving win in Detroit, but he didn’t get a turkey leg afterward, as is common in postgame interviews. This time, his teammates made sure Love got his turkey leg, and he deserved it after throwing two touchdown passes to Jayden Reed in a 30-17 win over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night.
“To be able to come in here, get the win, get the turkey leg after, it was very delicious,” Love said. “Just a little something to celebrate.”
Josh Jacobs brought a turkey platter into the locker room as Green Bay (9-3) celebrated their third straight win. The Packers, who have won seven of their last eight games, built a 27-3 lead and stopped the Dolphins’ comeback attempt with a goal-line stand.
Miami (5-7) continued their struggles in cold weather. The temperature at kickoff at Lambeau Field was 27 degrees (-2.7 Celsius) with 10 mph winds, light snow, and a wind chill of 18.
“I would say, from my standpoint and our team’s standpoint, we’re not going to use any of that as an excuse for why we didn’t get the start that we wanted,” said Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who completed 37 of 46 passes for 365 yards and two touchdowns, despite being sacked five times.
The Dolphins have now lost their last 12 regular-season or postseason games in which the temperature at kickoff was below 40 degrees (4.4 Celsius). Their last win in such a game was a 34-31 overtime victory at Buffalo on December 24, 2016.
Green Bay is playing three games in 12 days. They beat the San Francisco 49ers 38-10 on Sunday and will face the NFC North-leading Detroit Lions next Thursday.
“I thought we played well for it being a short week,” said Packers safety Xavier McKinney. “I thought we came out there and had the right mindset. And we started fast, and that was the key to today’s win.”
Love and Reed connected on touchdown passes of 3 and 12 yards, Jacobs scored from 1 yard out, and Brandon McManus kicked two field goals to give Green Bay a 27-3 lead midway through the third quarter.
Miami tried to come back.
Tagovailoa threw a 14-yard pass to De’Von Achane, and a 2-point conversion pass to Jaylen Waddle cut the Packers’ lead to 27-11 with 2:43 left in the third quarter. After Miami stopped Jacobs for a 2-yard loss on third-and-1 to force a punt, the Dolphins drove again and had second-and-goal at the 1 early in the fourth quarter.
“We fought hard,” said Dolphins defensive lineman Calais Campbell. “We have no quit in us. I really genuinely believed we were going to give ourselves a chance to win at the end.”
Green Bay’s defense stopped those hopes. After Rashan Gary stopped Achane on second down, Tagovailoa couldn’t connect with Jonnu Smith on third down. On fourth down, Quay Walker made a sack with 9:33 remaining.
A 49-yard completion from Love to Jacobs set up McManus’ 33-yard field goal with 5:02 left. Miami scored once more on a deflected 12-yard touchdown pass from Tagovailoa to Tyreek Hill with 3:04 left.
Miami’s slow start allowed the Packers to take control.
After forcing a three-and-out on Miami’s opening possession, the Dolphins gave Green Bay a first-and-goal opportunity when Malik Washington muffed a punt and Robert Rochell recovered at the 9-yard line.
The turnover set up Love’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Reed on third-and-goal.
Green Bay scored again on their next possession, with Jacobs’ 1-yard touchdown capping a 12-play, 76-yard drive that took nearly seven minutes.
The Dolphins had first-and-goal at the 9 in the second quarter but had to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Jason Sanders.
Green Bay then scored 10 points in the final 96 seconds of the first half to make it 24-3.
On third-and-2 from the 12-yard line, Reed caught a pass near the line of scrimmage and used a downfield block from Dontayvion Wicks to score. After Tagovailoa overthrew Achane on fourth-and-5 from the Green Bay 38 with 22 seconds left, a couple of completions from Love to Tucker Kraft helped the Packers get into position for McManus’ 46-yard field goal as time expired.
From that point, it was mostly about making sure Love got his turkey leg.
“That was the one thing that was the most important to me, was making sure Jordan got his leg,” Kraft said.
