DETROIT – The Detroit Lions have squandered their best opportunity at reaching the Super Bowl after a 45-31 upset defeat to the up-and-coming Washington Commanders.
The Lions gave up 45 points at home while coming off of a bye-week against a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels, who put on a show, accumulating 299 yards passing and two touchdowns on 22-31. He outplayed Jared Goff, who turned the ball over four times in the loss.
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The Lions were 8.5-point home favorites and ended up getting blown out on their field in front of an already raucous crowd, but who do fans blame?
Jared Goff
The first person, of course, is Goff, who spotted the Commanders at least 13 points while turning the ball over on pivotal scoring drives.
Goff had over 300 yards passing, but most of those numbers were empty calories as they came when the game was already out of reach.
They had the Commanders’ defense, who was prone to giving up yards on defense and completed 23-40 passes for 313 yards, one touchdown, one fumble, and three interceptions with the chips on the table.
“It sucks,” said Goff during the post-game press conference. “It’s the worst part of this job. You hate it when you feel like you let guys down. You want to win these types of games at home, and it’s just hard to put it in words.”
Coordinators
Coming into the game, the Lions coordinators were considered top candidates for head coaching jobs in the league.
However, neither side of the ball had their best day, as Aaron Glenn’s defense struggled, and Ben Johnson’s play calling was questionable at best.
Not including Goff’s pick-six, Glenn gave up 24 points at halftime and 38 as a whole
“Credit those guys; they played well over there,” said head coach Dan Campbell. “Dan Quinn did a really good job, and they had a hell of a season. They earned that win, and we didn’t.”
The Lions now fall to Washington for the fourth consecutive time during post-season play.
The three previous installments went in favor of the Commanders, who beat Detroit in the 1999 Wild Card Round 27-13 in Landover, Maryland.
The Commanders before that eliminated the Lions 41-10 in the NFC Championship game in the nation’s capital and again in the 1982 strike-shorten season 31-7 inside Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.
The Lions accomplished many things, like going 15-2 for the first time in franchise history and becoming the NFC’s No. 1 team to start the playoffs.
To add to the list of historic achievements, the Lions won the NFC North Division in back-to-back seasons for the first time in franchise history.
Prior to being upset, the Lions won 27 games, including the playoffs, over the last two years. To put this in perspective, they won 26 games from 2018 to 2022.
But Saturday’s (Jan. 18) matchup will live in infamy as the Lions, with all their injuries, were still favored to win the Super Bowl after having a historic season.
