LANDOVER, Md. — Marcus Mariota and the Washington Commanders are having difficulty replicating last season’s magic that extended well into the playoffs.
The Commanders (3-7), playing without injured quarterback Jayden Daniels and wideout Terry McLaurin, lost their fifth game in a row, 44-22 to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, one season after going 12-5 in the regular season and beating Detroit in the divisional round en route to the NFC championship game.
Washington moved defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. from the booth down to the sideline for this game, but that did little to fix the club’s problems on that side of the ball. As often has been the case this season, the Commanders put up little resistance.
Washington trailed 32-10 early in the second half, marking its fourth straight game that was not competitive — each was lost by at least 21 points. Commanders fans headed to the exits early — as did President Donald Trump, after making an appearance on the game broadcast.
Daniels dislocated his left elbow in Week 9 and sat out his fourth game of the season after not missing any while earning AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
He was replaced by Marcus Mariota, who went 16 for 22 for 213 yards and a pair of touchdowns without receivers McLaurin, Noah Brown or Luke McCaffrey.
“Everyone’s frustrated, upset,” said Mariota, the Saint Louis School graduate and 11th-year NFL veteran who dropped to 1-3 as a starter this season. “Those are emotions you want to feel at this point.”
Meanwhile, Dan Campbell’s Detroit Lions do not lose consecutive games. They simply don’t. And he made sure that three-years-plus streak of following any defeat with a victory would continue emphatically by donning his reading glasses Sunday so he could see the play sheet while taking over his team’s offense.
With Campbell in charge of play-calling instead of offensive coordinator John Morton, Jared Goff threw for 320 yards and three TDs and Jahmyr Gibbs found the end zone three times and ran for 142 yards in a bounce-back victory.
“It’s been a long time since he’s done it. … He was great,” said Goff, who completed 25 of 33 passes with no interceptions and touchdown connections with Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown — who celebrated with a “Trump dance” — and Jameson Williams.
“He’s not just this rah-rah guy,” the QB said about Campbell. “He’s extremely smart.”
With Trump watching from a suite after arriving late in the first half — making him the first sitting U.S. president at a regular-season NFL game since 1978, and just the third ever — the Lions (6-3) put up the first 22 points and never looked back.
They scored on each of their initial eight possessions.
“Shout-out to Dan and how he controlled the game,” said Williams, who had six catches for 119 yards. “It was kind of funny seeing him with the glasses. … It’s a different look, for sure.”
More than enough to keep intact a streak that began in Campbell’s second season in charge and is the longest active such run in the NFL: The Lions have not lost two regular-season outings in a row since a five-game skid ended in October 2022.
After his club’s sloppy performance in last week’s 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Campbell decided during the week to make the change with his offense.
“It was just: Let’s try something a little different,” Campbell said. “Maybe a different play-caller can get us a little more rhythm.”