It was an unbelievable season for the Detroit Lions: a 15-2 season, the first seed, and the NFC North title. Unfortunately, the Lions made many mistakes, and injuries finally caught up to them in their 45-31 loss to the Commanders.
Goff Report
A nightmare first half for Goff. He fumbled in the red zone, threw a pick-six, and took a big hit trying to get the stop on that play and had to be evaluated for a concussion and then threw another interception. Just the worst possible time to have a bad night. The second half didn’t go too much better. He and the rest of the team couldn’t overcome the problems from the first half.
Bridgewater Report
Seeing Teddy Bridgewater play for the Lions in the Divisional round of the playoffs is not at all something I had on my bingo card at the beginning of the season. He was retired and that was that. Then he came back a few weeks ago and was able to lead the Lions to the end zone in the second quarter.
Jamo Report
Jameson Williams is not a quarterback and it showed in this game. Not that the pass was bad or something. It looked good in the air. The problem is that he shouldn’t have thrown it when the guy he was throwing it to was in triple coverage. It got picked. He had to know not to do that, but you can understand him wanting to go through with the play call.
Penalties and turnovers
This is a whole different game and experience if the Lions didn’t execute really poorly and make some bad mistakes. Three turnovers hurt a lot. That gave the Commanders 10 points right there. Add the third interception from Williams and it was a nightmare.
Then 12 men on the field on fourth and short with the Commanders in the red zone and Kerby Joseph with a defensive pass interference call in the red zone. It’s just hard to overcome that stuff.
Lions finally crumbled under the pressure of the injuries
The Lions have been dealing with defensive injuries all season long and they fought valiantly through them for much of the season, but when it came to playing against a quarterback that can run all over you, the Lions couldn’t stop it from happening. They couldn’t stop much of anything in this game. The Lions need to go into the offseason and get healthy and then continue to build up their defense.
Ben Johnson overthought things at the worst possible time
We know Johnson has been a mad scientist and had some really great moments, but we’ve also seen multiple moments in Detroit where Johnson overthinks things and stubbornly stays in that mode. It’s never killed the Lions before, but this time it did.
Down 10 points there is just no reason to have Jameson Williams out there throwing a pass. Jahmyr Gibbs had a hell of a game and Amon-Ra St. Brown is so trusty. Why get cute? Just go to your guys that you know you can trust and be smart. The moment cost the Lions another seven points and the game was pretty out of reach.
We don’t know what the future looks like for Johnson and if he is coming back to Detroit, but if this was the end for him, he went out in a really bad way.
Amik
Such a tough loss for the Lions in this game. It happened almost immediately. Robertson was such a big part of this defense in the final weeks of the season and had shown himself to be the Lions’ top cornerback in that time. To lose him in that moment hurt a lot
On to Cancun
It sucks that this is how the season ends when there was so much hope and faith in this team. It’s not over though. The window is still very much open and once this team gets healthy and adds some more great players, they’re going to be right back here next year. Until then, enjoy the time off and get right.