Monday, January 20th, 2025

This Given Sunday: Commanders shock the world

Thomas Ritchie

This Given Sunday: Commanders shock the world

Thomas Ritchie NFL

The best weekend of the NFL season promised a quarterback matchup for the ages, a pitched battle in inclement weather, a potential shootout in the Motor City and the chance for a young quarterback to upstage the league’s reigning champ.

While some of those expectations were met, others fell a little flat. In Detroit, Jayden Daniels took the football intelligentsia’s predictions and shoved them back in our collective faces, authoring an underdog victory for the history books. When the dust settled, the Championship games were booked. Mahomes vs Allen IV, and a battle for NFC East supremacy.

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NFL DIVISIONAL ROUND SCORES

Houston Texans (10-7) 14 @ Kansas City Chiefs (15-2) 23

Washington Commanders (12-5) 45 @ Detroit Lions (15-2) 31

Los Angeles Rams (10-7) 22 @ Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) 28

Baltimore Ravens (12-5) 25 @ Buffalo Bills (13-4) 27

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Game of the Week:
Washington Commanders 45 @ Detroit Lions 31

Throughout the 2024 season, the Detroit Lions have seemed unstoppable. There were games won on the ground, through the air, via the unflinching commitment to pushing the envelope on fourth down, by trick plays, expertly crafted defensive gameplans and just sheer talent. It seemed America was rooting for Detroit to finally get over the hump, to attend their first NFL Championship game since 1957. It seemed like it was their time.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s Jayden Daniels’ time. Washington’s rookie quarterback demonstrated a rare blend of mental acuity, physical talent and — for lack of a better word — the cojones, to author a 45-31 win for the Commanders in the Motor City. Daniels’ offense was remarkably efficient. After their opening drive was halted by a Detroit stop on fourth down, the Commanders went field goal, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown to end the half. After the break, they again sustained two lengthy touchdown drives, chewing clock and asserting their dominance.

Daniels was ably helped by, and also contributed to, a varied rushing attack. The Commanders bullied an ailing Lions defense to the tune of 182 yards, while also netting 9.6 yards through the air. Crucially, Daniels looked after the football, delivering a turnover-free performance.

His opposite number couldn’t match that feat. Jared Goff threw three interceptions and Jameson Williams added another to the team tally on a trick play after Ben Johnson went in his bag one too many times. Johnson had sprinkled in reverses, flea flickers and running back passes to some success, but ultimately moved away from his team’s most dominant tactic. Jahmyr Gibbs tallied 105 yards and two scores on his 14 attempts, again showing remarkable efficiency in routinely gashing the Commanders’ front seven. Where the Lions panicked, Washington showed remarkable clarity of thought and sheer determination. Their victory sets up an inter-division battle with the Philadelphia Eagles, a team Daniels and his peers know they can beat.

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MVP of the Week
Eagles offensive line

You simply can’t grade the Eagles offense by conventional metrics. In two weeks, the Birds’ passing attack has generated 186 yards, A.J. Brown has read more pages of Inner Excellence than he has catches, and Jalen Hurts has been sacked nine times. This hardly screams efficiency.

While the young Rams defensive line found success in stymieing the faltering air attack, they could do little to combat the Eagles’ behemoths in the ground game. Philadelphia averaged 8.5 yards per carry on Sunday, with Saquon Barkley again demonstrating his breakaway speed en route to 205 rushing yards and two scores of 60+. Before Hurts sustained a knee injury in the third quarter, the signal caller also contributed a 44-yard score, and generated 70 yards on three designed runs.

Barkley rightly deserves the plaudits for his stellar season thus far, but the Eagles offensive line are setting the table for his greatness. On Barkley’s first score, Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson opened a chasm for the speedy back to race through. When the blizzard arrived in the second half, both teams turned to their run game to avoid mistakes pushing the ball down the field. The Eagles offensive line grew into the game, where the Rams struggled to instigate any momentum. This was compounded when Kyren Williams and Matthew Stafford both coughed up the ball, allowing the Eagles to extend their lead through Jake Elliott field goals. Even with their late-game heroics, the Rams simply fell behind when the game slowed down due to the weather, where the Eagles were able to stick to their punishing gameplan.

Winner
Travis Kelce

It’s 2nd-and-10 on the Chiefs 45-yard line. A little over halfway through the second quarter, neither the Texans nor Kansas City have generated much offense. But Patrick Mahomes drops back, finds a wide open Travis Kelce and the star tight end turns up the field. What ensues is one of those bizarre moments in sport where everything seems to be happening in slow motion. Kelce sidesteps an oncoming safety, shrugs off the tackle of Azeez Al-Shair and ‘sprints’ down the field for a 49-yard gain. It’s Kelce’s first play of 20 or more yards after the catch this season.

To say he’s lost a step would be an understatement, but the wily veteran clearly had one to lose. Kelce logged seven catches for 117 yards, turning up when his team needed him the most. A vital safety valve for an under-pressure Mahomes, it validates that nagging feeling you had at the back of your brain all season long: the Chiefs will turn it on in January.

There are still signs of trouble however. The running game was ineffective and Xavier Worthy was the only wideout to trouble the box score. If the Chiefs are to halt the Bills’ progress once again, they’ll need their defense to reproduce their eight-sack performance on Saturday, but also improve on the ground. The cynical among you might say Kansas City will be okay if they continue to accrue questionable calls from the referees, but I will plead the fifth on that front.

Loser
Mark Andrews

The final game of the weekend was billed as a legacy-defining battle between two of the NFL’s pre-eminent quarterbacks. Both Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen’s careers have been defined by gutting postseason losses and, while it would be reductive to lay the blame for defeat solely at the feet of the respective signal callers, the narrative heading into the game made it almost certain one of these men would come out of Sunday’s game a ‘loser’, the other a clear ‘winner’.

In reality, neither man was the deciding factor. Buffalo played a steady, but unspectacular game on offense. Allen was held to just two yards per carry, and could only accrue 127 yards through the air. Crucially, the Bills were able to hold onto the ball, making the most of the opportunities given to them by their opponent.

By the numbers, Jackson was the better player. His 254 yards of passing was supported by an efficient ground game. Jackson, Justice Hill and Derrick Henry all eclipsed five yards per carry on the evening. The Ravens will rue several key mistakes, however. Jackson was picked off in the first quarter, and fumbled on a Damar Hamlin sack. The resulting return by Von Miller gave Allen a short field, and the resulting ‘tush push’ score gave Buffalo a lead it wouldn’t relinquish for the remainder of the game.

The crucial mistakes were made by Mark Andrews. A drop on a catchable ball over the middle and a fumble in the fourth quarter halted two promising drives. Still, Jackson put his team in position to tie the game on the final drive. The eight-play, 88-yard march showed the likely league MVP was capable of performing in the biggest moments but, when Andrews dropped a dolly in the flat on the ensuing two-point conversion, the Ravens fate was sealed.

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Stats of the Week

  • Saquon Barkley’s 205 yards is the fifth best rushing performance of any player in the NFL postseason. His 255 yards against the same Rams team in Week 12 of this season was the ninth best display by a running back in regular season history.
  • The Commanders were eight-point underdogs at the opening whistle in Detroit, before causing the biggest playoff upset since the Titans (+10) beat the Ravens in 2019.
  • Kansas City will appear in their seventh straight Championship game. They are now one game behind the Patriots eight consecutive AFC Championship appearances (2011-18).

WHO YOU GOT?

Well, we’ve put our necks on the line, but what do you think? Eagles at a (tush) push? Chiefs complete the...