Jeremy Chinn and Mike Sainristil turned and began waving goodbye as the rest of the Detroit Lions fans who had stayed until the end finally started heading to the exits.
Chinn jumped in front of a Jared Goff pass intended for Tim Patrick at the goal line for the Washington Commanders’ fourth interception and fifth forced turnover. The interception sealed Washington’s shocking 45-31 upset over the Lions in the NFC divisional round at Ford Field.
The Lions shot themselves in the foot all night and watched an early lead turn into a double-digit deficit and, eventually, a two-touchdown loss to end the best season in franchise history.
“At the end of the day, we just didn’t play clean football,” center Frank Ragnow said. “And, especially in the playoffs, you just can’t win like that.”
The Lions seized the momentum early by stopping the Commanders on fourth down on their first possession, leading to Jahmyr Gibbs’ first rushing touchdown. But, things went sideways from there.
Goff fumbled on the next possession and the Commanders capitalized with a touchdown to take their first lead. The Lions responded, but the Commanders struck with two touchdowns within a minute to take command of the game until the final whistle. Detroit had chances late, but could not get out of their own way.
Instead of marching into the next round of the playoffs as expected, the Lions are stuck wondering what they could’ve done differently Saturday night.
“I’m so painfully disappointed and sorry to our fans,” Goff said.
Here are five moments that sunk the Lions in the divisional round loss to Washington.
Goff fumble leads to Robinson TD
The Lions were on the verge of taking a 14-3 lead in the first quarter with a third-and-1 from the Commanders’ 17-yard line. Goff dropped back to pass, but defensive lineman Dorance Armstrong broke through the left side of the line and hit his arm before he could throw it, forcing a fumble Frankie Luvu recovered.
“The first one we had, we’re going to Saint (Amon-Ra St. Brown) and Saint just kind of trips a little bit, and then Goff has got to move back in the pocket and reset, and then he ends up getting sacked, and the ball gets knocked out, and they recover it, it was just a — it’s a chain reaction,” coach Dan Campbell said.
Washington connected on a 42-yard deep cross to Dyami Brown after he beat Terrion Arnold a few plays later to set up Brian Robinson’s first rushing touchdown.
Missed tackles lead to Terry McLaurin TD
The Lions shook off the fumble and drove down to re-take a 14-10 lead on a diving, one-handed touchdown catch by tight end Sam LaPorta.
But that lead only lived for three plays.
The Commanders ran a screen left to McLaurin out of a tight trips set. Cornerback Kindle Vildor and safety Ifeatu Melifonwu got to the blocks immediately, but could not shed the blocks as McLaurin burst through. Kerby Joseph was the last line of defense, but could not keep up with Washington’s top receiver.
“We just gotta try to get off the block,” Vildor said. “That was tough right there. … It was a two-on-two. Got to get off the block and try to get him down there for sure.”
Quan Martin intercepts Goff for pick-6
The most glaring mistake from the Lions quarterback came when they needed to find an answer to McLaurin’s house call.
The Lions had second-and-14 from their own 18 when Goff tried to fit a pass into a tight window to his big target, receiver Tim Patrick. But Goff’s pass sailed above Patrick’s 6-foot-4 frame and directly into the arms of Martin lurking at safety. He got a running start as he caught it and took off down the right sideline with a convoy of blockers in front of him. Luvu leveled Goff, who had to briefly enter concussion protocol after the hit, while Martin walked into the end zone to make it 24-14, Washington.
“I wish I played a little bit better, wish I could have taken care of the ball a little bit better. Obviously, the pick-6 is really the one I’d really like back,” Goff said. “That was just a poor decision by me.”
4th-down failure on defense when trailing 31-28
The defense couldn’t come up with another stop on the next drive after the offense cut it to three. Washington drove 70 yards over 15 plays to take more than eight minutes off the clock and push the lead back to 10 with another Robinson touchdown.
Washington converted one third down and two fourth downs on the drive. Both fourth-down conversions came inside the red zone. First, Daniels kept it himself on a bootleg run, and Arnold lost contain to allow him to convert on fourth-and-2. On the next set of downs, Detroit forced a fourth-and-2 again, but tried to sub on Trevor Nowaske late in the play clock, and cornerback Stantley Thomas-Oliver did not get off the field, leading to a 12-men-on-the-field-penalty and automatic first down inside the 2-yard line.
“It’s my fault,” Campbell said of the substitution.
Jameson Williams throws INT on trick pass
On the next drive, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson dialed up a trick play to play off Williams’ 61-yard touchdown run on a reverse in the first half. The Lions ran a double-reverse pass on first down with Williams ending up as quarterback, but the receiver threw it to Gibbs in heavy coverage and Sainristil, a rookie out of Michigan, pulled down his second interception.
“I would’ve liked for him to run, but listen, take a risk, and it didn’t work out.” Campbell said.
The Commanders ran off a couple of minutes before Jeremy McNichols punched in what ended up being the dagger with 7:31 left to make it 45-28, Washington. The Lions went into their two-minute offense and got a field goal, but ultimately ended the game with Goff’s third interception and the team’s fifth turnover.
“It’s too hard against a team like that to come back, and we tried, we just couldn’t quite get over the hump,” Campbell said. “We knew if we could just pull it within one score we’d have a chance here. We just could not get over the hump.”
Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at[email protected].
