Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images The Lions will have their toughest challenge yet against scrambling quarterbacks on Saturday against Jayden Daniels. Why slowing him down is a must. There are some similarities between the Washington Commanders this season and the Detroit Lions of last year. Both had expectations, nothing big but an improvement from the year before. When both made the playoffs, their fanbase just wanted a win to call the season a success. The Lions got two wins and were just a half away from making it to their first ever Super Bowl. On Saturday, Detroit hopes the Commanders don’t go on a similar run as they did last year. The play by their first-round pick from the 2024 NFL Draft, quarterback Jayden Daniels has propelled the Commanders to early success under their new regime. Daniels is the favorite to win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award and rightfully so. He has led the Commanders to four game-winning drives this season and finished with a 12-5 record. For the Lions to hold off the upset from the Commanders, Daniels can’t play like he has for most of the season. Here’s why the Lions must contain Daniels to move onto the NFC Championship game. Offensive line struggles For Daniels to have his best game, he has to have time to throw the ball. The Commanders are tied for the seventh-most sacks allowed in the NFL (50). According to PFF, the Commanders have the 11th-worst pass-blocking grade (63.4), with the best performer being right guard Sam Cosmi (73.6). Despite being the highest-graded, he has the most penalties among the starters with six. Another issue with this line is rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman, who is the lowest-graded starting offensive lineman (58.7). According to PFF has given up nine sacks and the second most pressures (35). The Lions defensive line will need to generate pressure on Daniels, especially on the left side of the line, as Coleman and left guard Nick Allegretti are the lowest-graded players on the starting line. Blitzing can be an option, but I think defensive end Za’Darius Smith should be lined up against Coleman to have the best option to take down Daniels. Coleman was also added to the injury report on Wednesday with a shoulder injury. Even though he practiced fully, that certainly won’t make things easier for him. Be wary of blitz Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn loves to blitz, as according to Pro Football Reference, Detroit blitzed on 34.6 percent of plays this season, only behind the Minnesota Vikings. So with Detroit being the heaviest blitz team left in the playoffs, they certainly won’t shy away as to what got them here. Per PFF, Daniels holds onto the football for an average of 2.98 seconds, the fourth-highest among quarterbacks left in the playoffs, and seventh among all NFL starters. But when he is blitzed, he plays better than when he isn’t. He has thrown for 12 touchdowns and three interceptions when blitzed, and 15 touchdowns and six interceptions when not. So Detroit shouldn’t just do an all-out blitz to try and slow Daniels down as he can play better when his back is up against the wall. When blitzing, the Lions will have to adjust their goal. The priority must be to contain over attack. Daniels is dangerous with his legs, so keeping him inside the pocket is the biggest goal. But Detroit will have to send extra guys to do that. “You have to do a lot as far as being disciplined in your rush, obviously sending more people at him so you can make sure you close up as many lanes as you can,” defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said this week. QB contain hasn’t been horrible The biggest headache for any team when facing a mobile quarterback is worrying about their legs and what they can do with them. Whether it’s running designed plays on the ground, read options, RPOs, scrambling when nothing is there, or running around to keep a play alive, there is a lot to defend. Lions head coach Dan Campbell challenged the media to try and find a team who’s good at defending mobile quarterbacks, because nobody has it figured out. The Lions have allowed 6.2 yards per carry against quarterbacks, second worst in the league. But when you look at the quarterbacks they’ve faced, they honestly haven’t done bad. Baker Mayfield: Five carries for 34 yards and a touchdown Kyler Murray: Five carries for 45 yards Geno Smith: Five carries for 38 yards Dak Prescott: One carry for 1 yard Jordan Love: Seven carries for 23 yards (two games combined) C.J. Stroud: One carry for 5 yards Anthony Richardson: 10 carries for 61 yards Caleb Williams: 10 carries for 73 yards (two games combined) Josh Allen: 11 carries for 68 yards and two touchdowns The worst performance is against MVP candidate Josh Allen, but outside of that, it’s not a bad performance for this defense. Richardson found success early in the game with his runs before the Colts went away from it. Daniels will get his yards, they will have to accept that. They need to limit how much damage he can do with them overall. If Daniels is going to be causing havoc and getting easy chunks constantly, it will be a long night for the defense. If Detroit can get a few sacks or simply close up his escape lanes, Daniels will be forced to beat Detroit with his arm. Another way the Lions can shut down Daniels’ legs is with their offense. If the Detroit can get a big enough lead in this game—and I think they can—the running game for Daniels will have to change. The clock will turn into their enemy, and they will have to try and score quickly to keep up with the Lions offense. With that, fewer runs will be called, keeping their offense one dimensional. If Detroit can do that, it will keep Daniels in the pocket,

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images The Detroit Lions will take on the Washington Commanders in the Divisional Round of the 2024-25 NFL playoffs. They have a brand new coaching staff in 2024, but it’s full of a lot of familiar faces. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Dan Quinn,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said on Monday. “I’ve known Dan—from afar I know him, but it’s not like we hang out on a daily basis or anything or talk like that—but I’ve known him for a while. And certainly, when he was in Atlanta, having to play him twice a year, I mean, you gain a high level of respect for what they do. “And Joe Whitt, the defensive coordinator, I mean, those guys were all there. And so, inevitably, his teams are always going to be competitive and they’re going to be ready to go. And they’re going to try to do things the right way, so I’ve got a lot of respect for what he’s done, and I’m not surprised that they’re where they’re at just knowing kind of the way he builds things, the way his attitude is. So, it’s impressive.” Let’s take a look at the Commanders’ coaching staff and how their offensive and defensive schemes operate. Commanders head coach: Dan Quinn Quinn began coaching at the college level in 1994 and entered the NFL in 2001 with the 49ers (coaching the defensive line), followed by stints with the Dolphins, Jets, and Seahawks. After two years as the University of Florida’s defensive coordinator, Quinn jumped back to the NFL and was re-hired by the Seahawks this time as their defensive coordinator—where he laid the foundation for their “Legion of Boom” defense. It wasn’t long before Quinn was hired as the Falcons head coach, and while he led them to Super Bowl 51 (the infamous 28-3 collapse game), his overall record of 43-42 led to him being fired early on into his sixth season (2020). Quinn would go back to being a defensive coordinator, this time with the Cowboys under (then) head coach Mike McCarthy, and helped turn Dallas’ defense into a solid unit. When the Commanders were performing their coaching search, it was believed to be down to Quinn and Lions offensive Ben Johnson, and when Johnson removed himself from consideration, it wasn’t long before a deal was made to make Quinn their next head coach. Offensive coordinator: Kliff Kingsbury Kingsbury played quarterback at Texas Tech in a high-octane, Air Raid offense and was drafted in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL draft by the Patriots. By 2009, he was out of the NFL and coaching at the college level. He developed several NFL quarterbacks along the way, including Case Keenum at Houston, Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M, Baker Mayfield (for his freshman season) and Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. His offensive success landed him a head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals, and while he drafted Kyler Murray, he was fired after just three seasons. After a year at USC as an offensive analyst—and working with 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams—Kingsbury was hired by Quinn to be the Commanders’ offensive coordinator, where he is tasked with developing rookie Jayden Daniels. Offensive scheme Virtually everything about the Commanders’ offensive scheme is designed to optimize Jayden Daniels, and Kingsbury has modified his previous schemes to help the rookie succeed by forcing defenses into more basic concepts While there are still influences from Kingsbury’s Air Raid and West Coast concepts—like pre-snap motion, play-action, screens, and bunch formations—this version of his offense focuses on running the ball first and foremost. For the most part, Washington has been highly successful running the ball (run EPA per play of +0.13 is the best in the NFL, per Next Gen Stats). Some of that production can be attributed to early-season success from their running backs, but Daniels’ ability to execute designed quarterback runs—like power and RPOs—as well as knowing when to scramble, has this approach leveled up. With Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler in the backfield to complement Daniels, the Commanders have their thunder and lightning combination most teams aim for. In addition to each back having plays designed for them, Kingsbury also has several plays that feature both backs on the field at the same time—which they deploy over 10% of the time when Ekeler is healthy. In recent weeks, the Commanders’ running back play has regressed, but Daniels’ success has kept things moving forward. For example, Ekeler was averaging 4.8 yards per carry, but since returning from his injury that’s dropped to 4.0 YPC, and he averaged 3.4 last week against the Bucs. Robinson’s even worse, as he is averaging 4.3 YPC on the season, but over the last month, that number dropped to 3.24 YPC, and last week, he only accounted for 1.6 YPC in the Wild Card. Meanwhile, Daniels averages 6.0 YPC on the season, and over the last month of the regular season, with Ekeler out and Robinson struggling, he increased that average to 7.5 YPC. That being said, the Bucs did hold him to 2.8 YPC last week, so there is a fresh game plan for the Lions to source. In the passing game, their main focus is to have success on first downs in order to set them up into manageable second and third downs. That means high-accuracy plays that produce on short and intermediate routes and take their shots downfield on the later downs. Additionally, the Commanders like to push the pace on offense, while maintaining ball control. While that may seem counter-intuitive, the drives where they feature no-huddle focus less on speeding up to the line of scrimmage to get off a quick snap, and instead, do this to put the defense in difficult and basic spots. Here are some of the advantages of the Commanders’ no-huddle strategy: The defense can’t change personnel, so if you’re caught in the wrong set, Washington can exploit mismatches. The Commanders will run

The Eagles QB talked about preparing for the Rams, spreading the ball around to everyone, including A.J. Brown, and what makes Saquon Barkley so special. The Eagles were back to work on Wednesday and quarterback Jalen Hurts spent some time talking to reporters after practice. He talked a bit about getting into a rhythm, preparing for the Rams, and how he makes an effort to spread the ball around. His message was clear, all that matters is winning, regardless of how it looks. He noted that winning and losing, success and failure is all subjective, but to him, winning as a team is all that matters. Here’s what else the QB had to say: On what it means to get into a rhythm “Every game is different. I think you guys need to understand that I don’t play the game for anything other than to win, and my role in each game will be different. And the approach in each game is different. You just want to go out there and do your job, and take advantage of opportunities, obviously, and I think thing are magnified a little bit more because there’s less opportunity in certain areas, but ultimately, it’s about winning the game. We’re talking about playoff football.” On the Rams’ development “Upfront, they’ve always been a great team, and we caught them while they were hot — and we’re catching them when they’re hot again. This is a young team, led by a great coach, great quarterback, great players all around. They got a great defense. They’ve been very disruptive upfront. Just gotta come and execute. I think it starts in the trenches in a game like this, and we’ve been able to run the ball effectively. So, hopefully we continue to impose our will upfront.” Hurts said that the Rams getting nine sacks last week against Minnesota isn’t something they really think about as they plan, they try to focus on the things they can control. They also aren’t relying too much on their game from earlier in the season. Saquon Barkley was able to have a big game, but Hurts noted that each game is it’s own game — they’ll watch the tape, but acknowledge that it’s a different team from the group they played in Week 12. Takeaways from the Wild Card win “I think there were some opportunities — there’s always gonna be something you want back, or wish you could’ve done or taken advantage of, but ultimately, I think we all make plays when we needed to the most, and I think that’s what matters.” On spreading the ball around When asked about the effort to get A.J. Brown the ball, especially coming off a rare one-catch game, and Hurts said that there’s always an emphasis on spreading the ball around. “I think just getting everybody involved is important. Make it an effort to be efficient in what we do, and [A.J. Brown is] a big part of what we do. DeVonta [Smith]’s a big part of what we do. Dallas [Goedert]. Saquon [Barkley]. Everybody. Everybody has a role. And so, I think it comes down to managing everything that we have, and trying to take advantage of everything, being efficient.” Hurts was later asked about other teams trying to take the run game away and to stop Saquon Barkley, but the QB explained that it was a bit of a loaded question because he didn’t recall a game in which it works. “HURTS: I don’t think there’s been a game where he’s been taken away. REPORTER: Right, but they tried to… HURTS: [smiling] They try, you know. He’s a great player, and I think we compliment each other well, and he’s been able to get dirty yards, dirty yards, and soon enough he pops one off. That’s been a big part of our success this year as a team. And that’s a credit to everyone playing a role in that.” The QB later talked about how Barkley is a special player and his ability to be as healthy as he is at this point in the season, and after nearly 400 carries, is not normal. He said the RB came to Philly very hungry, and there have been some things he’s had to battle through, but Barkley is very dedicated. Other notables The QB said he wasn’t trying to send any kind of message by practicing in short sleeves this week and last, and simply noted that he likes to keep things consistent and that’s how he plays games. Hurts was asked about the play in which he took the snap from under center that wasn’t play action, and while the QB noted he didn’t call the play, it’s something he doesn’t mind doing. He added that there are different things he knows he’s capable of doing, it’s just a matter of when it’s needed or used.