The Detroit Lions rolled up 36 points on Sunday, vanquishing the visiting Washington Commanders with an overwhelming amount of points. The Lions posted 425 yards of offense on just 61 snaps, gashing the Commanders defense for several large gains.
In his postgame press conference, Commanders head coach Ron Rivera tipped his cap to the Lions for being difficult to defend.
“Big plays. The other team gets paid too, let’s be honest about that,” said Rivera. “We gave them some big plays because we didn’t do our job first and foremost. Secondly, we’ve got to give them some credit too.”
Coach Rivera later added,
“They still ran against us. You’ve got to give them credit, that’s a very gritty football team that came out, they had a lot of energy early on. They fed off the energy around the crowd, and they made a couple things happen and we didn’t respond.”
The Lions ran for 191 yards on 24 carries, including two runs of at least 50 yards. Detroit also throttled the Washington run offense nicely a week after being gashed by the Eagles and QB Jalen Hurts. Rivera credited Lions head coach Dan Campbell for aggressively adjusting and the Detroit players for executing a lot better against his team.
“Again, like I said, that’s a very gritty football team over there,” Rivera said. “I think what Coach Campbell is doing over there is really solid”
Safety Darrick Forest, who led the Commanders with 10 tackles, was a little more direct in crediting the Lions offense.
“It was scheme,” Forest told reporters after the game. “I felt like they knew exactly what we were in. It was great offensive play-calling.”
That reflects upon rookie offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. His ability to dial up big plays has the Lions offense tied with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in leading the NFL with 71 points scored through Sunday’s games of Week 2.
