The Lions Tried to Do More This Season. Once Again, It Wasn’t Enough.
Detroit entered the playoffs with the no. 1 seed in the NFC, a juggernaut offense, and a defense that had overcome seemingly countless injuries. But after its loss to a surging Washington team on Saturday, it’s back on the outside looking in.
After the Detroit Lions blew a 17-point lead to the San Francisco 49ers in last year’s NFC championship game, Dan Campbell could have promised his young group that they’d be back there one day. Instead, he did the opposite.
“I told those guys, this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said at his postgame press conference. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality. … You’re not hiding from anybody anymore. Everybody’s gonna want a piece of you.”
By April, the theme of that speech had become the Lions’ motto for the 2024 season: “It takes more.” Detroit even plastered the saying around Ford Field.
But “more” wasn’t enough. On Saturday night, the Washington Commanders defeated Detroit 45-31 in the divisional round, a stunning upset for a Lions team that held the no. 1 seed in the NFC and seemed destined to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. Instead, Detroit’s season is over, and Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is one win away from the Super Bowl—and perhaps the greatest rookie season in NFL history.
The Lions died as they lived on Saturday: by deploying trick plays, aggressive defense, and perhaps too much faith in their players. The lasting image of this game just might be receiver Jameson Williams throwing a deep interception with the Lions down 38-28 in the fourth quarter.
But the trick plays aside, Washington beat Detroit for two reasons: First, Daniels, not Jared Goff, looked like the veteran quarterback on Saturday.
And second, Detroit’s decimated defense stayed hyperaggressive and rigid in its approach even as it became clear that Washington was more than prepared to shred it.
It’s hard to overstate how injured the Lions defense was, throughout the season and in this game specifically. Detroit’s had a dozen defenders go down at various points, including its entire starting defensive line from August and its best cornerback, Carlton Davis. Add in cornerback Amik Robertson, who hurt his arm early in Saturday’s game, and dynamic defender Brian Branch, who was injured late, and the Lions were destroyed on that side of the ball. (On the other side, starting guard Kevin Zeitler had to be replaced by a rookie on Saturday due to a hamstring injury.)
In theory, that many injuries should have threatened Detroit’s ability to play aggressive man coverage. Hurt pass rushers plus hurt defensive backs equals worse cornerbacks playing man-to-man coverage for an extended period of time—a classic recipe for disaster.
The Lions didn’t care. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn stayed true to his game plan all season despite the overwhelming number of injuries to his unit, and it largely worked. But Daniels has been shredding blitzes and man coverage since Monday Night Football in Week 3. Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury saw Detroit’s injured secondary and seemingly treated it like a matchup with a Big 12 opponent—he trotted out perimeter screens, RPOs, and calculated deep shots, and he trusted Daniels to make the right decisions. Daniels did. The quarterback completed 22 of 31 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns, plus 16 carries for 51 yards. He is the first rookie to ever have 300 total yards in two postseason games.
While injuries are obviously the main reason Detroit lost this game (being down 13 of your top 22 defenders will do that), the Lions’ unwillingness to adapt certainly didn’t help. Fox announcer/Raiders part-owner/automaton Tom Brady was all but begging Glenn to play more soft zone in the second half and force Washington to dink and dunk its way down the field. (Brady also noted that, after he said that, Detroit sent man-coverage blitzes on the next four plays.) Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin’s 58-yard touchdown in the second quarter came on a perfectly timed screen as Branch was blitzing, giving two Lions defenders the job of beating three Washington receivers on the perimeter. McLaurin broke through so effortlessly that safety Kerby Joseph’s pursuit angle looked comical.
McLaurin finished the game with four catches for 87 yards and one touchdown in a dominant performance. And Washington overall was the far superior team on Saturday. The Commanders scored 45 points, their most ever as a road team in the playoffs in franchise history. They forced five Detroit turnovers on defense and gained almost 10 yards per pass attempt (9.6) on offense.
The Lions offense, meanwhile, seemed to be infected by the issues of the defense. Brady noted that Goff got jittery in the pocket when his first read wasn’t there—something that’s hard not to take stock of considering Brady beat Goff in a Super Bowl in February 2019. Brady also said that being down in the game could force the Lions to be too aggressive. Shortly after, Goff forced a bad throw that turned into an interception. Goff completed 23 of 40 passes for 313 yards and a touchdown in the game, but he also lost one fumble on two sacks and threw three interceptions.
But the Lions still managed to put up 31 points, a sign of just how explosive this offense can be. Jahmyr Gibbs was unstoppable, accruing 175 yards on 20 touches while seemingly single-handedly leading two different Detroit touchdown drives by combining his special acceleration with an ability to set up blocks. Tight end Sam LaPorta made a ridiculous one-handed catch in the end zone to reel in a pass that Goff made while being tackled. And Williams, the player who tossed that long interception late in the game, was the same one who breathed life into Detroit early with a 61-yard touchdown while Goff was being checked for an injury and Teddy Bridgewater (who was coaching high school a few weeks ago) was on the field. Jameson giveth, and Jameson taketh away.
That wasn’t enough to stop Daniels, though. It is hard to overstate how well the rookie QB is playing right now. Daniels is 24 years old going on 34, with all of the brilliant athleticism of youth and, so far, none of the decision-making pitfalls. In the regular season, Daniels led the Commanders to their most wins since 1991 and broke Robert Griffin III’s rookie rushing record for a quarterback while leading half a dozen game-winning drives. Now, he has as many playoff wins as the team did in the entire Dan Snyder era—which lasted for a quarter century. Daniels has been so good, he no longer needs the rookie qualifier on many of the stats he’s putting up and heights he’s reaching. How many more quarterbacks would you trust to lead a game-winning drive? Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow. That may be the list. Right now, it’s hard to pick anyone else over him.
Meanwhile in Detroit, it is hard not to think of Campbell’s words at the end of last season and how they apply to this one. Not only could the Lions not make it back to the NFC championship game, but they’re about to undergo some changes. Detroit may lose both offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to head coaching jobs—perhaps as soon as this week. Those two were crucial to building Detroit’s identity on both sides of the ball, and they both returned to the team this season despite having outside interest after the NFC championship run. It doesn’t appear that’ll be the case this time around. And as far as the roster goes, the Lions have a number of players who’ll become free agents this offseason. On the defensive side alone, cornerbacks Davis, Khalil Dorsey, Kindle Vildor, and Emmanuel Moseley and defensive linemen Levi Onwuzurike, John Cominsky, Marcus Davenport, Kyle Peko, and Za’Darius Smith will all be free to walk come March.
Detroit will inevitably re-sign many of these guys, and the defense will almost certainly be healthier next year. But the offense was also incredibly healthy this year—the Lions had 10 of their preferred starters on offense in this game. And they’ll likely be going from two of the most tenured and celebrated coordinators in the NFL to two new ones.
Campbell, for his part, looked crestfallen in his postgame press conference Saturday night (and Campbell, of all people, is a particularly painful person to see dejected). “A lot of people don’t know what they go through,” Campbell said of his players. “You have to get up, your body’s beat to shit. You know, mentally stay locked in and do those things. Long season.”
Going forward, it will be a tremendous test for Campbell to try to maintain Detroit’s winning ways and good vibes, likely without both coordinators and some players. And while Campbell has certainly created a winning culture with the Lions after three decades of losing, that’s not an easy thing to preserve when you’re staring down roster and staff turnover. This is not betting against Dan Campbell or doubting him—it is listening to him. Getting back to the heights this team has reached the past two seasons—a 17-point lead in the NFC championship game last year and the no. 1 seed in the NFC this year—is hard. This season may have been their best chance at a title run. If Detroit is going to make its first Super Bowl, it’ll have to find a way to do more with less. Unfortunately, you usually do less with less.
