
Detroit Lions photo by Jeff Nguyen
The underdog Washington Commanders simply outplayed the Detroit Lions Saturday night at Ford Field, dashing the city's hopes of its first Super Bowl appearance.
The Lions remain the only NFC team to never go to the Super Bowl.
The Lions lost 45-31. They played some sloppy football, throwing interceptions and fumbling. The defense was mostly ineffective against an impressive Commanders offense that made few mistakes.
"They played well and we didn't," said the Lions' quarterback Jared Goff after the game.
Detroit Coach Dan Campbell said: "We just didn't play good enough and we really never complimented each other. I felt that way going into halftime and it really never got better."
The Lions started out sluggish in the first possession, but then kept scoring, but not enough to overcome an ongoing deficit by an aggressive Commander offense.
During the first set of plays, the defense lost cornerback Amik Robertson, an injury that was indicative of a troublesome season the Lions' defense had.
Here's what some writers had to say:
Jeff Seidel, the Detroit Free Press:
Go ahead, be mad.
Be sick with frustration — because this was sickening.
Be furious and ticked — it’s understandable and warranted.
Or maybe, all you feel is shock — that's understandable, too.
The Detroit Lions had an amazing opportunity — after their first 15-win regular season in franchise history — but it went up in smoke.
Jolan Bianchi, the Detroit News
The Detroit Lions withstood one injury after another en route to their best season in franchise history.
But against the Washington Commanders at Ford Field, it was all simply too much.
The Lions lost cornerback Amik Robertson to a significant elbow injury early in the game and safety Ifeatu Melifonwu to a hamstring injury late in the third quarter, and the Lions simply couldn’t get enough stops against a dynamic Washington offense led by quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Quarterback Jared Goff threw three interceptions, including a pick-six, and a 15-win season ended in a flash with a 45-31 loss to Washington in the divisional round on Saturday night. The Lions end their season with a franchise-record 15 wins and absolutely nothing to show for it after a disastrous defensive showing in the season's biggest moment.
Barry Svrluga, Washington Post
There is no silence quite like the silence that envelops a home stadium in the playoffs when the home team is favored and the home team falls behind. The possibility that a season of unprecedented promise could end in devastation turns the Colosseum into a college library during finals week. It’s stifling.
Welcome to Ford Field on Saturday night. There, the Washington Commanders — the cute newcomers to the serious environs of the NFL postseason — about shut the place up. They ousted the Detroit Lions — the NFC’s top seeds, favorites to reach their first Super Bowl — with an emphatic 45-31 victory that advanced them to their first NFC championship game since the 1991 season and made clear that there is no team they can’t beat, no game they can’t win.
Blink your eyes clear, Washington. This completely new football reality will be the talk of the league — almost regardless of what happens in the two remaining divisional-round games Sunday. Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels was again preternaturally steady and a mesmerizing star, completing 22 of 31 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns and running for 51 more yards.
Gilberto Manzano, Sports Illustrated
It’s time to stop calling Jayden Daniels a rookie because he delivered a superstar performance to send his Washington Commanders to the NFC championship game.
Seven months after becoming the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft, Daniels led five touchdown drives in the divisional round of the playoffs to outpunch the No. 1 scoring offense in the NFL, leading the Commanders to a shocking 45–31 road victory against the Detroit Lions.
Daniels’s poise flashed on clutch fourth-down conversions and sensational downfield shots. But the Commanders’ defense also did its part by forcing Lions quarterback Jared Goff into four turnovers, allowing Daniels to build a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter.
By midway through the fourth quarter, Ford Field was mostly, ghostly quiet. This was the ending no one envisioned, the nightmare performance no one could fathom.
Where did all the noise go? Where did all the poise go? Where did Jared Goff’s throws go? Where did the Lions’ feel-good fervor go?
It left in a staggering deflation that will take the Lions and their fans a long time to sort out. By their ramped-up standards, this was unacceptable, their worst performance at the worst time. Their reign as the NFC’s No. 1 seed with a path to the Super Bowl was over almost before it began, in a crushing 45-31 loss to Washington on Saturday night in their divisional playoff opener.