It’s no secret that the Detroit Lions loss to the Washington Commanders was shocking. Considering the way the Lions played for most of the season and getting home-field advantage in the playoffs, they seemed destined for a deep playoff run.
Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders had other plans.
Despite being a rookie quarterback on the road, Daniels shredded the Lions. He was calm, cool and collected under pressure. Despite facing a 36% pressure rate on his dropbacks, Daniels completed 77.8% of his passes under pressure.
One of the strengths of the Commanders offense against the Lions was getting rid of the football quickly. They found the weak spots in the Lions defense and exposed them with quick passes such as slants, hitches and designed screens. When the time was right, they would take deep shots downfield. Let’s dive into some tape to look at how the Lions defense picked the wrong time to play their worst football on the season.
Missed tackles were something that really stood out from the Lions defense on Saturday night. This missed tackle on 3rd and 14 should have only been a gain of 4 to 6 yards but it ended up being a gain of 13 yards. #OnePride pic.twitter.com/pUIauJWly7
— Russell Brown (@RussNFLDraft) January 23, 2025
Starting with the missed tackles, it was less than ideal to sit and watch this happen over and over again for the Lions defense. Especially since the Lions graded out as the top tackling defense in the NFL this season, per PFF. They earned a 71.7 overall grade this year.
Looking at the clip above, the Lions defense is on a key down and distance of 3rd and 14. If they get a stop, they get off the field and put the ball in the hands of their high-powered offense. However, that quickly changes when Brian Branch (DB #32) misses an open-field tackle.
If Branch would have made the initial tackle, it would have been a gain between 4-to-6 yards. Once he missed the tackle, an additional gain of 6 or 7 yards happened, and this set the Commanders up with a very manageable 4th and 1.
Missed tackles man. What should have been a minimal gain turned into a 6-yard gain for the Commanders. Rather than facing 3rd and 10, it turned into a much more manageable 3rd and 5. pic.twitter.com/CwPTJcAR9b
— Russell Brown (@RussNFLDraft) January 23, 2025
Staying on the discussion of missed tackles, we move ahead in the game. This time, the Commanders are faced with 2nd-and-10 on the Lions 25-yard line. The Commanders align in a twins left formation out of shotgun with their ’22’ personnel (two running backs and two tight ends).
Prior to the snap, Jayden Daniels puts running back Austin Ekeler into jet-motion. Faking the hand-off to Ekeler, Daniels looks downfield but notices that the deep routes are covered quickly. With that, he checks the ball down to Ekeler.
Despite catching the ball before the line-of-scrimmage, Ekeler is still able to turn this into a much bigger gain than it should have been. Much of that is due to a missed tackle from Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold. As you can see, Arnold gets hit with a juke move and six yards were gained after the catch.
If Arnold made the tackle, it would have set up 3rd-and-10, but instead, this became a very manageable 3rd down for the Commanders. Essentially, it became two-down territory for them because they were more than willing to go for it on 4th down.
Going through notes and film from last night. This defensive alignment is just bad. It’s 3×2 with safety help coming late. You can’t put two defenders in a horrible spot like this and expect them to make a play that is already really tough. https://t.co/nYZVrFRvGG
— Russell Brown (@RussNFLDraft) January 19, 2025
Moving on from the missed tackles, let’s take a look at the poor alignments from the Lions defense. There was not a worse alignment than the play above from the Lions this season. Looking at that play, the Commanders come out with a trips bunch formation to the left of the ball.
With 8 defenders in the box, it’s clear that the Lions are worried about stopping the run. Which, in most cases, would make sense if the quarterback couldn’t throw or didn’t make adjustments prior to the snap. However, Jayden Daniels has shown that he could throw and make those adjustments all season.
Against the bunch formation, the Lions essentially have one defender there (poor Kindle Vildor). Coming down late was safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, but the Lions were still outnumbered (3×2), and it’s a tough task for safety Kerby Joseph to pursue from the middle of the field. You can see that after the catch.
Once the ball is snapped, you can see disaster was set to happen for the Lions defense. Daniels fired this pass to wide receiver Terry McLaurin on a designed screen. With both perimeter defenders getting blocked, he was able to slip between them and from there, he was off to the races. This led to a 58-yard touchdown that was scored in one minute and 21 seconds. The Lions went from having a 14-10 lead to being down 17-14 in the snap of a finger.
Overall, it’s all very confusing from the Lions defense. Everyone is destined to have an off day, but this was the worst time of the season to have that off day. It looked like the Lions weren’t prepared for any type of no-huddle or high-tempo style of play from the Commanders. They were constantly caught off guard and with the amount of injuries sustained on the defense, the Lions were substituting on almost every play.
While it kept guys fresh and put certain defenders on the field for certain types of plays, the Lions were still lost coming out of their defensive huddle. It shows with the missed tackles and the missed alignments from their defense. Certainly, their offense did them no favors by turning the football over five times (one for a touchdown) but their defense allowed 481 total yards.
Additionally, they never sacked Daniels and they allowed the Commanders to go 4-for-4 in the red zone. Prior to halftime, the Commanders offense scored 14 points on two offensive drives in 3 minutes and 36 seconds…combined.
That just can’t happen, especially for a team that entered the playoffs as Super Bowl favorites. The regular season was great to watch. There’s certainly talent on this Lions team, including their defense. They just picked a bad day to have a bad day.