Free Press sports writer Rainer Sabin highlights the best and worst performances from the Detroit Lions’ 45-31 loss to the Washington Commanders at Ford Field on Saturday night in the NFC divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
Winners
Jayden Daniels
Earlier this week, Lions coach Dan Campbell raved about Daniels, the Commanders’ young sensation.
“He does not play the position like a rookie quarterback,” Campbell noted. “He’s composed. He understands how to progress. He sees the field well. He can buy time with his legs.”
Those were the observations Campbell had gleaned from watching film.
On Saturday, he saw everything he described first-hand, and it must have been startling. Daniels was terrific, leading one scoring drive after another while delivering accurate throws and making timely runs.
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Daniels finished with 350 yards of total offense – 299 of which came through the air. Throughout the night, he dissected the Lions’ defense while completing 22 of 31 attempts.
All the while he outperformed his Detroit counterpart, Jared Goff.
Jahmyr Gibbs
Gibbs is perhaps the Lions’ most electrifying player.
On Saturday, he showcased his natural gifts during a wasted effort.
At the outset Saturday, it appeared as Gibbs would reprise his role from the Week 18 win over the Minnesota Vikings, when he scored four touchdowns and dominated the stat sheet.
On the Lions’ second possession of the game, he powered his team to the end zone, carrying the offense while contributing 48 of the 70 yards during Detroit’s march to a 7-0 lead.
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It was the start of another brilliant night, when he rushed for 105 yards on 14 attempts and made six catches for 70 yards.
But after Detroit fell behind and the deficit swelled, the second-year star became less of a factor as the offense turned one-dimensional.
Losers
Jared Goff
Goff authored one of his lousiest performances in recent memory at the worst possible time. The Lions’ quarterback, who has experienced a career renaissance in Detroit and was in the conversation for league MVP during this season, committed four turnovers.
The first, a strip-sack by Dorance Armstrong wasn’t completely his fault, as left guard Graham Glasgow whiffed on a block. But the second had his fingerprints all over it, and it was devastating.
In that moment, Goff overthrew Tim Patrick and watched the ball sail into the arms of Washington safety Quan Martin. Martin then slalomed his way to the end zone on a 40-yard return to push the Commanders ahead, 24-14, with 5:25 left in the second quarter.
To make matters worse, Goff suffered a brutal hit on the play that forced him miss one series while he was being evaluated for a concussion. Then, not long after returning to action, he was picked off again – this time by former Michigan football standout Mike Sainristil. Just as Goff’s pass reached the end zone, Sainristil swooped in front of Jameson Williams to snatch the ball – killing off a promising drive just before halftime and silencing a crowd that grown increasingly nervous.
Although Goff played better in the second half, the damage was done. He finished with an ugly stat line: 23 of 40 for 313 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Given how bad things went for him and the Lions on this night, it seemed fitting that his last throw of the game was picked off on the edge of Washington’s goal line. Brutal.
Lions defense
If this is indeed Aaron Glenn’s last game as the Lions’ defensive coordinator, he’ll want to burn the tape of this debacle on his way out the door. The Commanders went up and down the field for most of the night, scoring on six of their ten possessions as Daniels, their precocious rookie quarterback, contributed 350 of their 481 yards of offense.
After starting cornerback Amik Robertson was lost for the game with a serious elbow injury on Washington’s second play from scrimmage, Glenn’s unit failed to regroup. The Lions routinely missed tackles in space and struggled to hold up in coverage, as Daniels sliced and diced Detroit’s secondary.
A 58-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin in the second quarter summed up the disastrous night. Washington’s star receiver caught a quick flare to the sideline and then barged through a small gap between cornerback Kindle Vildor and Ifeatu Melifonwu before running all the way to the end zone. Yet that was just one of many bad moments for a defense that looked clueless at times.
The Lions allowed the Commanders to convert three of their four fourth-down opportunities, and that didn’t even include one do-or-die situation when Detroit lined up with 12-men of the field at its own five-yard line early in the fourth quarter. The penalty extended the drive, and two plays later Washington’s Brian Robinson surged into the end zone to give the Commanders a 38-28 lead.
With the season on the line, the Lions’ defense suffered a collapse. End of story.
