The Washington Commanders hosted the Detroit Lions on Sunday in a Week 10 matchup that was supposed to be a playoff rematch. The Lions surely were looking forward to enacting revenge on the Commanders, and while they got it with a 44-22 win, it probably wasn’t as satisfying against a beat-up Washington team.

Given the state of the Commanders’ roster, it’s really not surprising that they lost. There are so many injuries on both sides of the ball that it’s hard to get any kind of continuity. That said, these are professional football players who should be able to play at the top of their game regardless of who is on the field with them. On this team, the defense especially needs to play better.

It was a big loss, but there were a couple of positives. Let’s take a look at how we graded each unit’s performance in the Commanders’ Week 10 loss.

Offense

The offense actually wasn’t terrible in the Commanders’ loss. They put 22 points on the board, Marcus Mariota played well, earning a 133.3 rating and an 82.9 QBR. Treylon Burks was a bright spot, catching three passes for 58 yards, including two in traffic and one downfield, where he created separation. The ground game was essentially nonexistent, with Chris Rodriguez going down with a shoulder injury and Jacory Croskey-Merritt unable to make headway, averaging 2.7 yards per carry.

It wasn’t a top-tier offensive performance by the Commanders, but it was a clean game with no turnovers.

Grade: C

Defense

This is where the Commanders fall apart every week. The Lions scored on each of their first eight possessions of the game, and could have scored again on their final possession, but Dan Campbell eased off the gas in the fourth quarter. Daron Payne’s punch to Amon-Ra St. Brown and subsequent ejection in the second quarter certainly didn’t help matters, either. The Lions averaged eight yards per play, racking up 546 total yards on the day. The Commanders had no answers, and while injuries have piled up defensively, that’s no excuse. Next man up is a real concept, and if the players can’t do their job, then it’s time to find players who will.

Grade: F

Special Teams

Noah Igbinoghene had his first shot at returning kicks on Sunday, taking over for rookie Jaylin Lane after his continued struggle with muffed punts and kicks. The Lions didn’t punt at all, but Igbinoghene returned seven kicks for 191 yards.

Tress Way played as well as he usually does, punting four times for 200 yards, an average of 50 yards per punt, with two landing inside the 20.

Matt Gay did his part as well, making both the field goal and the extra point he was asked to kick.

Detroit returned three punts for three yards and three kickoffs for 60 yards.

Grade: A

Coaching

This part is getting tricky. The Commanders’ coaching staff is working with a roster that cannot sustain itself and remain healthy this season. The coach’s job is to prepare the entire team for the task ahead, no matter how much playing time they typically receive. The players stepping in for injured players have to do better and show the coaching staff that they deserve to be there, but the coaching staff also has to do its part and prepare them appropriately.

Joe Whitt is definitely struggling to get his defense up to speed without some of its key pieces, and maybe that speaks to his ability to reform this defense. He inherited most of the roster last season, and while some changes were made during the 2025 offseason, clearly those changes haven’t been enough to improve on that side of the ball. So, is this a talent issue or a coaching issue? Truth is, it’s probably both.

Kliff Kingsbury, on the other hand, is doing much better, despite being without Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin. They could use a better ground game, but Kingsbury had Treylon Burks out there catching passes from Marcus Mariota this weekend, something he was never able to do consistently in Tennessee. Environment matters, but so does coaching.

It’s really hard to grade the entire coaching staff on this loss because so many things happened that were out of their control. Like Payne getting ejected. Like Rodriguez getting injured. We’ll give Joe Whitt the benefit of the doubt for one more week, but if the defense continues to play like this, he’s going to be looking for a job come spring.

Grade: C