Five takeaways from Washington’s stunning win over Detroit

The Washington Commanders stunned the Detroit Lions on the road with a 45-31 victory in the divisional round and advanced to their first NFC championship since 1991. Here are five takeaways from this wild night.

1. Jayden Daniels destroyed the blitz.

It’s no longer a surprise for Daniels to step up under pressure. The rookie did it again in front of a hostile Lions crowd and put together another solid performance with 350 total yards and two touchdowns, while taking no sacks. He now has the most total yards for a rookie in NFL history and is tied with Ben Roethlisberger for the most wins as a rookie.

If there was any sign of Daniels’ indifference to the noise, the fanfare and the moment itself, look at how he performed against the blitz. In summary, he was exceptional. NextGenStats pointed out a few minutes after the game that Daniels was 12 of 16 for 191 yards and a touchdown against the blitz, 10 of 16 for 172 yards and a touchdown when given less than 2.5 seconds to throw and 7 of 9 . for 109 yards under pressure.

Give the Lions and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn credit for trying to move Daniels out of his spot. They bombarded him on 60% of his dropbacks, but rather than crumble under that pressure, Daniels rushed in and picked up yards with his legs or made the Lions pay with his arm. On Washington’s fourth-and-2 play after Mike Sainristil’s second interception, for example, Daniels had three Lions defenders in front of him and still threw a 12-yard dart to Terry McLaurin.

And if it feels like the NFL hasn’t seen something like this in a while, that’s because it hasn’t; Daniels’ 191 yards against a blitz are the second total by a rookie quarterback since 2016.