10 takeaways from Divisional Round weekend

The Lions got upset, the Eagles survived and the conference championship games are set

© Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

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By Matthew Coller

The Divisional Round of the playoffs featured a ton of drama and a lot of interesting developments. Let’s have a look at what we learned with a Vikings spin….

What the heck, NFC North?

After combining to go 24-3 versus everyone else except each other, all of the NFC North’s supposed juggernauts went down in their first playoff game. Not only that, they all lost by at least two scores.

What happened? Was there something we missed about the best division in football? Were the Lions, Vikings and Packers not as good as their combined +444 point differential?

You can always look back and try to find explanations like the fact that they played the AFC South and ate up a bunch of free wins there or the key injuries that were at the most costly positions like Christian Darrisaw against the Rams pass rush or Christian Watson when Jordan Love needed all his weapons or Amik Robertson when the Lions were already down bad.

The explanation may be as simple as the NFC North squads just drawing the wrong teams. The Packers landed an opponent with the best secondary in the league and no true No. 1 receiver to lean on. The Vikings went into the playoffs with only one of their last five games grading above 60 (out of 100) by PFF in pass blocking after doing so in nine of the first 13 weeks. The Lions turned the ball over on just 8% of drives this year and then Goff was strip-sacked and threw two bad interceptions and they had no defense to make up for the miscues.

Kevin O’Connell has repeatedly mentioned the nature of the single-elimination tournament: Matchups and mistakes determine your fate. The NFC North was on the wrong side of both.

Washington had the answers against Detroit that the Vikings did not

Against Detroit in Week 18, the Vikings made the Lions’ defense look like untamed beast. The Commanders made it look like it had no claws at all. What was the difference? Jayden Daniels was PFF’s third highest rated passer when throwing the ball in 2.5 seconds or less and he’s a gifted playmaker. When the Lions blitzed (47% of the time, per PFF) he ate them alive by getting the ball out fast or scrambling.

When throwing under 10 yards vs. Detroit, Daniels went 16-for-19 with 166 yards and two touchdowns. When the Lions blitzed, he went 12-for-15 with 200 yards and had two scrambles. Daniels was sacked zero times and his average time to throw when he was kept clean was 2.22 seconds. Lightning quick.

Washington also controlled the game with their run game. Austin Ekeler and Brian Robinson combined for 21 runs for 124 yards.

The Vikings struggled to connect on quick throws against the Lions, giving their pass rushers like Za’Darius Smith and Levi Onwuzurike time to take advantage of one-on-one matchups and disrupt the passing game.

It was also hard not to notice Daniels’s calm demeanor in the madhouse that was Ford Field. That was not what we saw from Sam Darnold.

The other difference was that when Washington took the ball away from Goff, they took advantage of it. The Vikings failed on fourth downs or settled for field goals while the Commanders converted their fourth downs and scored touchdowns.

Was that the Lions’ best chance at a Super Bowl?

No one would ever argue that the Lions’ winning window closed on Saturday afternoon because they are bringing back all the bones of their roster including a healthy Aidan Hutchinson. They will have some cap space to work with before all the big contracts really explode but winning 15 games and landing the No. 1 seed is a very difficult feat to repeat, particularly because the Lions will play a difficult schedule next season that includes the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams.

It’s possible that they will just keep swinging until they get there but things can change expectedly in the NFL. The 49ers were in the Super Bowl and then missed the playoffs this year. In 2022, the Eagles went to the Super Bowl and then were eliminated in the first round of 2023.

As great as they have been over the last two years, there has to be some pang in the back of everyone’s minds in Detroit about whether they have the ingredients to get all the way through the postseason. Whether it’s Dan Campbell’s intense style being connected to some of the struggles to stay healthy or Jared Goff’s limitations as a playmaker (notice all the final four QBs are runners).

Or it might just be bad playoff luck and Detroit will be right back here in 2025.

The NFC has its Josh Allen in Jayden Daniels

The poise and playmaking of Jayden Daniels against the Lions has to raise the question: Does the NFC have one of those aliens now?

The AFC is stacked with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen — three playmaking wizards who spend their regular seasons jockeying for MVP and spend their postseasons eliminating each other. The NFC has simply not had one of these fellas since Aaron Rodgers started going on darkness retreats and Drew Brees retired. The door was open to QBs like Goff, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy to make it as second-tier players.

Daniels looks like the type who could quickly become a similar unstoppable force to his AFC counterparts. He already threw for 25 touchdowns to just nine interceptions and ran for 891 yards in the regular season, ranking as PFF’s fifth best quarterback this year. And he can still get better.

You have to wonder if the possibility of Daniels elevating to that level is making the Vikings think about their QB situation. On one hand, a rookie was able to make it deep into the playoffs for the second straight year. Maybe that speaks well of JJ McCarthy’s odds to quickly adapt to the NFL. Also, the Vikings will have to fight fire with fire, meaning take full advantage of the rookie QB contract.

Or would the Vikings, realizing the NFC is suddenly highly competitive, want to have more of a proven veteran at QB to compete with in 2025?

The Rams D-line was that good