The Detroit Lions have a well-deserved bye this week after earning the one seed in the NFC, and it didn’t come easy. The Lions had to scratch and claw until the final game of the regular season to secure the top seed in the conference. Now, they know who they will be playing in the divisional round. The Washington Commanders took down the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night, and Washington will head to Detroit for a matchup with the Lions on Saturday night.
Washington is the six seed in the NFC, but they had a better record than the Buccaneers. The Commanders finished the season with a 12-5 record behind a sensational rookie year from quarterback Jayden Daniels. Daniels has already won one road playoff game, and he is trying to make it two.
“He’s dangerous, he poses a major threat,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Jayden Daniels, according to an article from Fox. “He does not play the position like a rookie quarterback. He’s composed, he’s a dangerous runner, he’s smart. And then he’s got weapons around him. He’s a difference maker.”
Dan Campbell knows that QBs like Daniels provide another element. Daniels is obviously very talented with his arm, but he can also use his legs. It won’t be easy for the Lions to keep him in check.
“I know this – running quarterbacks are hard,” Campbell added. “They’re hard to defend. It’s like, somebody tells you that, ‘We don’t handle running quarterbacks very well.’ Tell me the team that does. When you’re trying to deal with Lamar [Jackson] and a guy like this (Daniels) and Josh Allen. It’s a lot of teams that struggle against those guys. They’re not easy to stop. And there’s a reason for that. He may make a run. He may pop a run or two, you know, that’s just the nature of the game. But that that doesn’t mean that you win the game.”
Ahead of Wild Card weekend, it was looking like the Lions might face a team that they already played in the regular season. With the Commanders win, that won’t be the case, and the Lions are ready for it.
“I think there’s a level of excitement,” Campbell said. “(If) you see another team you face twice, you know each other, you know them, they know you. Whereas the opponent you haven’t faced yet like that’s that’s exciting too, because you don’t really entirely know them. They don’t entirely know you. And so now you kind of start from scratch.”
This matchup definitely isn’t going to be an easy one for the Lions. Dan Campbell knows what it takes to win in the playoffs, and he knows what can cost a team a game. Campbell is stressing the importance of being ready for the moment.
“I showed the team a snapshot of what happened (every game),” Campbell said. “You look at what could have cost the team. Whether it’s a drop here, whether it’s a penalty, a situation, whatever it is. That’s what the playoffs are. That one extra play, just doing your job in the heat of the moment. If you do that, you give yourself the best odds. If you don’t, the other team is going to.”
The Lions are going to have their hands full with Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, and it should make for an exciting matchup with a spot in the NFC Championship on the line.
