Packers Rout Dolphins in Thanksgiving Feast

Jordan Love through two touchdown passes to Jayden Reed as the Green Bay Packers won for the seventh time in eight games by blowing out the Miami Dolphins.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed (11) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Miami Dolphins talked confidently about how this would be the game they’d win in the cold. That they’d beat a good team.

Not against these Green Bay Packers.

The Packers turned the Dolphins into turkeys with an overwhelming 30-17 victory at frigid Lambeau Field on Thursday night. The Packers scored a touchdown on their opening possession and never looked back to win on Thanksgiving for the second consecutive year.

It was 27 degrees at kickoff. The Dolphins had lost six consecutive games with a kickoff temperature below freezing dating to 2013 and 11 consecutive games with a kickoff temperature colder than 40 dating to 2016.

Moreover, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was 1-14 in his last 15 games against teams with a winning record.

The Dolphins weren’t equipped to handle the elements or the Packers, who won for the seventh time in eight games.

Jayden Reed scored two touchdowns and Jordan Love was 21-of-28 passing for 274 yards and two touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 129.2.

Josh Jacobs added a highlight-reel reception for the Packers (9-3), who are having a terrific season but couldn’t gain any ground in the NFC North because of the Bears’ horrendous clock management in a three-point loss at Detroit (11-1) earlier in the day.

The Packers will play at the Lions next Thursday night, their last shot at making a run at the NFC North championship and No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.

Tua Tagovailoa threw for 364 mostly meaningless yards for Miami (5-7). Running back De’Von Achane and receiver Tyreek Hill caught second-half touchdown passes.

The Dolphins almost made it interesting. They scored a touchdown late in the third quarter to make it 27-11 and were 1 yard away from potentially making it a one-score game early in the fourth quarter. However, Rashan Gary stopped Achane on second-and-goal, Keisean Nixon broke up a pass on third-and-goal and Quay Walker sacked Tagovailoa on fourth-and-goal.

Moments later, a ridiculous cut by Jacobs highlighted a 49-yard catch that set up Brandon McManus’ 33-yard field goal that restored the lead to 30-11 with 5:02 remaining.

The Packers got the ball to start the game, and Nixon got things rolling with a 43-yard kickoff return out to near midfield. Love, however, overthrew Reed by about 5 yards for what should have been a 58-yard touchdown on third-and-14.

That was about the only thing that went wrong for the rest of the half.

Miami’s Malik Washington muffed the punt, with Robert Rochell recovering at the 9. On third-and-goal at the 3, Love hit Reed for a touchdown.

Green Bay scored another touchdown on its next possession. With Romeo Doubs inactive with a concussion, Tucker Kraft had a 17-yard catch on third-and-3 and Emanuel Wilson had a 15-yard run on third-and-4. That set up Jacobs for a 1-yard touchdown.

The Packers broke open the game late in the first half. First, on third-and-2, Reed picked up blocks from Christian Watson and Dontayvion Wicks on a receiver screen that Reed turned into a 12-yard touchdown.

Tagovailoa threw three errant passes on the ensuing possession, including fourth-and-5 to Achane, who was open inside Green Bay’s 25.

The Packers took over at their 39 with 22 seconds and all three timeouts. Completions of 17 and 9 yards to Kraft set up McManus for a 46-yard field goal to make it 24-3 at halftime.

Situational football and takeaways, as usual, were the keys to the first-half dominance. Green Bay was plus-1 in turnovers (the muffed punt), 4-of-6 on third down (compared to 1-of-6 for Miami) and 3-of-3 in the red zone. The red-zone success was noteworthy. The Packers were at about 48 percent before last week’s game against San Francisco, when they were 5-of-5.

The Packers made it 27-3 to start the second half.

Finally, the Dolphins got warmed up. Tagovailoa hit Achane for a 14-yard touchdown on a well-executed screen, then showed nice touch on the two-point pass to Jaylen Waddle to make it 27-11 with 2:43 left in the third quarter.

Miami’s defense, which had bottled up Jacobs for most of the night, stuffed the Packers’ star running back on third-and-1 to force a punt late in the quarter.

Jacobs was limited to 43 yards and a 2.3-yard average, the Dolphins clearly determined to take away Green Bay’s hard-charging runner. So, Jacobs made his impact through the air with four receptions for 74 yards. The 49-yarder, in which he juked linebacker Tyrel Dodson as one of four forced missed tackles, was the longest of his career.

So, for the fifth time in as many short-week Thursday games, Jacobs finished with more than 110 total yards. 

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