Detroit's winter gets darker, colder

Washington removes the Lions' Super Bowl plans, while the Chiefs keep playing the hits.

Jared Goff, Jayden Daniels

Suddenly the waiting lists are cleared. Flights from Detroit to New Orleans are wide open. Hotels are awash in cancellations, too. Those voids will be filled much sooner than the holes in the hearts of Lions fans, who never thought they’d be leaving Ford Field before the clock struck zero Saturday night. They also never dreamed that the Divisional Playoff, three weeks before the Super Bowl, would be the Mane Event.

But it happened. Washington came to town with fists pumping, beginning with the second play of scrimmage, when Donte Fowler Jr. created his own point of attack, savagely tackling David Montgomery five yards downfield. There weren’t many defensive plays like that, not in a game with 57 first downs and 14 plays of 20 yards or more, but there was no sense of acceptance on the Washington sideline, no concession to Detroit’s 15-2 record or the crusade to reach the first Super Bowl in franchise history.

Instead, the Commanders took a 45-31 victory that rocked the NFC side of the playoffs, to the point that the winner of Sunday’s snowy Rams-Eagles game will be the host of next week’s NFC Championship. And the Lions, Vikings and Packers, who combined to go 40-11, will sullenly watch it all on big screens. That’s one of the ancillary benefits of playing pro football instead of watching it; Jason Kelce hasn’t fully embedded himself into your brain. Yet.

The Lions got homefield by overcoming an injury pandemic that has removed some of their best defensive players, including sackmaster Aidan Hutchinson and inside force Alim McNeill. They lost ace cornerback Amik Robertson during the game. Fourteen others were already on injured reserve. The Lions couldn’t overcome that in these playoffs, not against rookie Jayden Daniels and an inspired running attack. Daniels looks for all the world like the new Lamar Jackson, even though the old one, in Baltimore, still seems futuristic. The rookie was charged with making option decisions, and time and again he let Bryan Robinson and Austin Ekeler rumble. Ekeler, the former Charger, averaged 7.8 yards a pop, and Washington rushed for 182 yards.

The Commanders were 4-for-4 in the red zone and 3-for-4 on fourth down, and after the cosmic Jahmyr Gibbs scored to pull Detroit to within 31-28, they went on a leisurely 70-yard cruise that consumed 8:28 and 15 plays. On fourth-and-2 from the Detroit five, the Lions tried to stop Washington with 12 defensive men, which is expressly prohibited. Instead of getting a field goal and a 6-point lead, the Commanders got a touchdown from Robinson and led 38-28, and the cold hard truth began to land on a crowd that had paid the highest average ticket price ($991) for any game in NFL history that wasn’t a Super Bowl.

But then you shan’t expect to win with five turnovers. Jared Goff threw three passes to Commanders. He also fumbled while being sacked by Dorance Armstrong, and the Washington used that to grab a 10-7 lead. But the fourth interception was the most revealing. The Lions had nearly emptied their trick bag earlier, including a shovel pass from Montgomery to Amon-Ra St. Brown after Goff had lateraled to Montgomery. Now, after the long march by Washington, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson called a pass by Jameson Williams, the blurry receiver who had taken an end-around for a 61-yard touchdown. Williams rolled out and heaved one toward Gibbs, but it was intercepted by Mikey Sainristil, son of Haitian refugees and part of Michigan’s 2023 CFP championship. Such plays tend to lose their surprise when they happen in every quarter. They also sent the implicit message that the Lions knew they were in trouble.

On the very next play Ekeler relieved the home fans of their illusions with a 35-yard run, and Daniels cashed a fourth-down to “Scary Terry” McLaurin, and Jeremy McNichols scored for 45-28. Detroit got in position on the next drive but kicked an uncharacteristically meek field goal on fourth-and-8 from the 10.

The game reaffirmed everything about Daniels, who was picked second in the 2024 draft behind Caleb Williams. He threw for 299 yards with no interceptions. It established the general managing powers of Adam Peters, who hired coach Dan Quinn and sprinkled the Redskins roster with savvy Sunshine Boys in nearly every position room. Bobby Wagner graded out as one of football’s best linebackers this year, and tight end Zach Ertz keeps catching touchdowns. Ekeler and Fowler and Armstrong all helped Washington ride the line between urgency and panic.

The score also reflected the flip side of home advantage. For two weeks — four months, really – Lions fans had embraced destiny. It seemed inevitable that Detroit would win its first NFL title since the days of Elvis and Sputnik, 67 years ago, or at least have that opportunity. Such civic exuberance can filter into a team’s subconscious, no matter how tunneled the players are. In 1994 Pittsburgh fans were making Super Bowl videos and planning their nights at South Beach. The next day, after the Chargers had kidnapped their dreams, they were calling the airlines. Unless you’re the 1985 Bears or the 1984 Forty Niners, the knowledge that you can possibly lose clarifies the mind.

The Meltdown In Motown followed Kansas City’s 23-14 win over Houston, in which Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said he felt it was “us against everybody and I mean everybody” and Will Anderson said he knew it was going to be “us against the refs.” Anybody with a modem knows this is the prevailing theme. To sample the Internet on Saturday was to wonder how angry people would get if Roki Sasaki had signed with the Chiefs.

And, yeah, the arbiters called two roughness penalties on Houston for vigorous but law-abiding hits on Patrick Mahomes. Both allowed the Chiefs to keep driving for scores.

As we all know, Kansas City’s season has been a weekly James Bond episode, with cheeseburgers. For the 12th time in 18 games, the Chiefs won a game by 10 or fewer points. Yet they are 16-2 overall and 16-1 in games where they play members of the varsity, and they’re still alive for an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl win, and they will be until or unless someone can block their defense.

Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud is 23 years old and, to paraphrase Casey Stengel, has a good chance to be 33 in ten years. He also has a good chance to be an ex-quarterback if the Texans continue their negligence. Stroud was sacked eight times, pressured 23 times and hit 14 times in this one. George Karlaftis hit Stroud four times by himself, and Stroud kept trying to hoof it for first downs, each time aggravating a bad knee.

With all that, Houston became the first team to lose a playoff game while committing no turnovers and outgaining its opponent by 100 yards. Anderson was phenomenal, with two sacks of Mahomes and a memorable one-handed tackle of Isiah Pacheco. But Mahomes kept finding happiness in minimalism. He hasn’t thrown an interception since Nov. 17, and he found Travis Kelce for seven catches in eight attempts for 117 yards, same as it ever was.

It’s unclear why the NFL would mastermind a vast officiating conspiracy to benefit the team that plays in the 33rd largest media market (Houston is seventh). But, as we’ve seen, people have an endless capacity to believe what they want. In Detroit, where the rubble met the road Sunday morning, it’s probably too late to stop believing.