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.
It was a disappointing performance all around from the NFC’s No. 1 seed, especially on the defensive side. Now they’ll get to watch Daniels and the Commanders in the NFC title game as they await the winner of Sunday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles. Washington advanced to the NFC title game for the first time since 1991.
Here are the key points that decided the outcome of the game.
Daniels dazzles in shootout to continue historic rookie year
Daniels could do no wrong while he punished the Lions’ defense for four quarters. After building momentum in a chaotic second quarter, Daniels and his offense pulled away midway through the quarter by flustering a shorthanded Lions defense with a productive running game and dynamic passing attack. Daniels went 22-of-31 for 299 yards and two touchdowns, and had 15 carries for 52 yards. Most importantly, the Commanders had no turnovers while the Lions had five.
It was a complete performance from Daniels’s offense, which many believed didn’t have enough talent to keep pace with Goff’s many weapons. Terry McLaurin (four catches, 87 yards, TD), Dyami Brown (six catches, 98 yards) and Zach Ertz (five catches, 28 yards, TD) stepped up in the passing game, and the duo of Austin Ekeler (88 total yards) and Brian Robinson Jr. (15 carries, 77 yards, two TDs) did their part on the ground. Throw in Daniels’s athleticism, and there was nothing the Lions could do about the 40-burger dropped on them in front of Detroit’s fans at Ford Field.
It was one of the biggest postseason upsets in recent memory, giving Daniels an early signature moment in his young career.
Commanders’ unheralded defense frustrates Goff
The Commanders are a lot more than Daniels and McLaurin.
Coach Dan Quinn’s defense played fast and made several savvy plays to limit Goff’s options in the passing game, forcing Detroit into the aforementioned five turnovers. Dorance Armstrong and Frankie Luvu teamed up for an early Goff fumble, just one of many plays from the veteran defenders that allowed Daniels’s offense to build a double-digit lead. Second-year safety Quan Martin had a pick-six, All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner was quick to read plays and cornerback Marshon Lattimore hung with Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Dante Fowler Jr. nearly had a clutch tackle for loss against running back David Montgomery on third-and-2, but the officials nullified it due to a phantom face mask call—feel free to decide for yourself. The Lions capitalized on the second opportunity after Jahmyr Gibbs scored an eight-yard rushing touchdown to trim Detroit’s deficit to 31–28 with 6:57 left in the third quarter. But the Commanders, who played complementary football most of the night, lifted their defense with a 15-play, 70-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter to extend the advantage back to 10 points.
The Lions generated the quietest 521 total yards because of the five takeaways from Washington’s defense.
Lions’ shorthanded defense ends up costing them in the end
The Commanders dropping 31 first-half points was a reminder that the Lions’ defense had real concerns after their 48–42 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 15.
At the time, the Lions appeared vulnerable because it seemed their shorthanded defense wouldn’t be able to generate enough stops in the postseason. But the concerns went away after defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn produced a masterful game plan to shut down the Minnesota Vikings’ offense in Week 18 to clinch the NFC’s No. 1 seed. But there was no master plan Saturday as the Lions’ defense was in desperate need of injured stars Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill and a few other defenders.
It also didn’t help that cornerback Amik Robertson was ruled out early with an elbow injury. Robertson’s sensational performance against Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson allowed Glenn to increase the pressure against Sam Darnold. Glenn didn’t have that luxury against Daniels, who wasn’t sacked once in the game and didn’t take a hit in the first half.
Goff’s turnovers didn’t help, but the Lions’ defense failed to get stops after the offense produced touchdowns to stay within striking distance of Daniels’s red-hot offense. Detroit allowed 481 total yards and only forced one punt.
Six touchdowns occur in wild back-and-forth second quarter
So much action occurred in a bonkers second quarter that it was easy to forget Teddy Bridgewater played for the entirety of a three-play touchdown drive.
Six touchdowns were scored, including three that went for more than 40 yards. After the teams traded two normal-paced touchdown drives, the explosive plays picked up after McLaurin broke free for a 58-yard catch-and-run touchdown near the left sideline to give Washington a go-ahead 17–14 advantage. A few plays later, Martin returned a Goff interception 40 yards to extend the lead to 10 points with 5:25 left in the second quarter. Goff left the field to be evaluated for a potential concussion after taking a hit to the helmet during the intercepted pass.
It was a brutal first half for Goff, who had two interceptions, a lost fumble and 31–21 deficit heading into the locker room. But the damage would have been worse if it weren’t for Jameson Williams’s 61-yard touchdown run on an end-around play that started with Bridgewater, who was coaching high football not that long ago, handing the ball to Gibbs before it made its way to the dynamic wide receiver.
Also lost amid the scoring explosion, was a beautiful 38-yard dime from Daniels to Brown before the rookie quarterback hit Ertz for a five-yard touchdown to answer Williams’s touchdown run.
Jahmyr Gibbs’s elite speed allows Lions to hang around
Not much is prettier on a football field than watching Gibbs accelerate after juking defenders.
Gibbs’s ability to combine elite speed and vision to churn yards helped ignite the Lions’s offense after a rare slow start and kept them in the game during the shootout that occurred in the second quarter. The second-year running back finished with 105 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and added six catches for 70 yards.
At one point, Gibbs averaged a whopping 11.7 yards after gaining 70 yards on six carries. Gibbs, who had 134 total yards at halftime, recorded 48 of the Lions’ 71 yards on the six-play touchdown drive that put Detroit ahead 7–0 in the first quarter.
Perhaps the Lions should have given Gibbs more carries instead of putting that ball in Goff’s hands during a shaky performance. Also, the Lions struggled to get Montgomery going in his first game back since injuring his knee in Week 15.
As it turned out, Daniels had plenty of weapons to make a deep postseason run, while Goff’s struggles turned the high-scoring Lions’ offense into a one-man show, with Gibbs doing his best to keep pace before Washington pulled away.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Divisional Rapid Reaction: Jayden Daniels Dazzles, Commanders Shock Lions .