Power Rankings: Turkey and football in Motown is sweet

Instead of my usual Thanksgiving Day fare, which would be stuffing my ample gut to the max, then unbuttoning the pants for comfort and spending the day wishing I hadn't devoured so much food and watching plenty of football, I'll be working Thursday.

Thanksgiving in Detroit? Who can resist. (Getty Images)

For the first time in my years covering the NFL, I will be in Detroit for a Turkey Day affair. I can remember many a day in my 20s watching the Lions play the early game, a severe hangover from the night before (after all, Thanksgiving Wednesday is one of the best drinking days of the year, at least when you're young) thinking how cool it would be to be there.

I can remember my brothers and father imploring my mother to time our turkey feast between the early and late games. I can remember my wise-guy brothers and me making fun of John Madden as he gushed over turducken and we wondered if he really wasn't Brett Favre's father.

Now I'll actually be in Detroit. I did Dallas on Thanksgiving a few years back, and that was a fun experience. But Detroit for the early game is what it's all about. Get those damn parades off and let's see some football.

We can only take so much of watching blown-up balloons go passing by. Give me blown-up offensive tackles instead.

What's even better about this year's game is there is a really good team involved, maybe the best in the NFC. Favre plays his last Thanksgiving Day Game Thursday -- unless, of course, he plays into the next decade. Watching him is always a treat, but it's even better when his Green Bay Packers are playing so well.

At 9-1, they're the best team in the NFC right now, in my opinion. Yes, better than the Dallas Cowboys and here's why: They can cover.

Jason Campbell showed that the Cowboys have some issues defending the pass Sunday and the Packers can counter with the best pair of corners in the league in Charles Woodson and Al Harris. They'll be on the Detroit receivers like Madden on a turkey leg.

Those two are a big reason I've kept the Packers ranked ahead of the Cowboys in the CBSSports.com Power Rankings. They're also a big reason why I think the Packers might be able to match up with New England. I said "might," so don't stone me, New England fans.

The Packers didn't get a good hand dealt them by the schedule-maker, though. They play a desperate Lions team on the road Thursday and then come back a week from Thursday to play the Cowboys at Texas Stadium.

If they can win the next two, the division will be over and they will put themselves in a good position to have the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Unreal.

So it's off to Detroit this week for a Turkey Day tradition that will be a first-time event for me. And I promise, I won't unbutton my pants until I get back to my hotel later that night after I tear into my turducken, whatever the hell that is.