Chicago Bears: Ranking the 5 best Thanksgiving games in team history

3. Bears 31, Lions 14 (1977)

“We were lucky in the first half to stay in the game with all the mistakes we made. But we hung in there and didn’t collapse. In the second half, we just executed better. After they took it to us in the first half, we took it to them in the second.”

Those were the words of Chicago Bears’ head coach Jack Pardee after his team rallied to defeat the host Lions, 31-14, on Thanksgiving Day. The 1977 season was an important one for a franchise that had not reached the postseason since 1963. That was a year in which the Bears captured their seventh NFL title.

It wound up being a third consecutive win for a team that opened the season 3-5 and would close the year with six straight victories while earning a wild card invitation.

On this Thanksgiving Day in the Motor City, the Bears would wind up turning over the ball five times. Chicago was down 7-0 at intermission, but Pardee’s club would get its act together. They outgained the Lions, 425-218, on the afternoon. Quarterback Bob Avellini threw for two scores and ran for another, but he also served up a pair of interceptions.

One of those touchdown tosses resulted in a 75-yard score to Walter Payton. He finished the game with four catches for 107 yards. He also carried 20 times for 137 yards and a TD.