Picking up the pace: How will the holiday games go?

Welcome to the Thanksgiving Week edition of Snaps, Pace & Stats, where we examine trends in snap totals and no-huddle usage. It is meant as a 30,000-foot view of upcoming games, with the goal of identifying which matchups will — and which will not — be played on fertile fantasy soil.

This week we will take a snaps-based look at the three games on the holiday slate, as well as a pair of weekend matchups of note from a pace perspective, and a few no-huddle notes. Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions

The Thanksgiving slate eases us into the action with a slow-paced NFC North matchup hosted by a Lions team running the league’s third-fewest plays per game (59.4) and allowing the fifth-fewest (61.9). Since Detroit ditched the no-huddle in Week 5, they produce even fewer plays (56.7) and average a slothy 29.6 seconds per snap. They are slowing down their mediocre offense (17th-highest-graded) to hide a defense that grades second-worst, and it’s working. Detroit is allowing the fifth-fewest points per snap over the last month (0.29).