The game did not get off to a great start. Lawrence Benajmin taking off on a scramble, working to convert a 2nd & 8, fumbles the ball! Commanders recover and take over inside the Lions half. Although Wentz wasn't on the sharpest form, as a few plays later he throws an interception to Cody Barton. Looking to put this behind them, the Lions push a solid few plays. Before a busted coverage lets Lenny Carlson loose, taking it all the way for a 38-yard Touchdown!

The Commanders fire back in the 2nd Quarter. Joey Slye bags two field goals, before Wentz bootlegs out of the pocket, and rushes home to give Washington a 13-7 lead. Benajmin wants to fight back, but throws an Interception. He's looking much more like a rookie today, perhaps trying to be too much of a hero. Half-time is called with the Lions looking a bit rattled.

3rd Quarter sees both teams ending drives with Punts and not a ton of excitement. Jonathan Conrad leaves the game and heads to the medical tent, but the Lions survive without him to get the ball back. Lightning Bolt comes in on a 3rd & 1, punches up the middle and breaks out for about 19-yards of gain! Then it's that man again down the sideline, Lenny Carlson brings down a 22-yard TD catch in the Endzone!

4th Quarter begins with Wentz on another short scramble rushing TD. This is where the absence of Conrad shows, as the Lions cannot generate any real pressure on the QB. The Commanders then go for 2pts, and convert. Luckily Dawkins & Joseph are spearheading strong safety work in the backfield and preventing any deep plays. Benjamin puts his early errors behind him, and leads a good drive, relying heavily on Lynch to pick up short three, four, five yard plays and run down the clock.

2:52 left to play, Benajamin fakes the hand-off to Lynch, breaks out left and rushes his own TD. 21-21 game is tied. The Commanders then go three-and-out on the back of some great play recognition from Tourgas. Lions work through the plays, driving down the field. But from the 23-yard line, Benjamin tries to slide a ball into the endzone, and it's picked-off!

Wentz & McLaurin turn up the heat and push the Commanders back up into Lions territory. They set-up for a 52-yard field goal with 1:00 on the clock. But it's wide! Lions take over, and a quick strike to Redhill puts them in range to kick their own field goal. Lynch struggles to pick-up more yards, but Blankenship puts the Lions ahead 24-21 with just 39 seconds on the clock and no timeouts left for either side.

But the Wentz & McLaurin combo is a match for the Benjamin & Carlson pair. The Commanders pick apart the Lions deep coverage, and with just 8seconds to play, Joey Slye makes a mends with a 50-yard field goal to tie the game 24-24. And it's on to Overtime!

Washington wins the Toss and Receives the ball. If they score a TD they win. Except they have to punt away. A TD or FG wins it for Detroit. Who also have to punt. And the Commanders punt again. This OT is a mess! 2 minutes on the clock, the Lions have one last drive here to win the game. No heroics from Benjamin, relying again on his running backs, Lynch & Bolt to take easy yards. And from 23-yards out Blankenship kicks the 3points.
Lions win back-to-back thrillers 27-24!



This was an overall messy game. Some spalshy plays, some ugly ones. Benjamin ends with a stat line 22/33 for 311yards, 2TD, 2INT as well as 28yards rushing, 1TD and 1Fumble. So yeah, he has the highs and lows.
Lynch was less effective, but the Commanders are one of the best defensive lines, so his 78-yards is respectable, and was needed. Carlson once again the true star, 121 yards and 2TD, the receiver leads the league in Yards and TD's! Redhilll again with a strong 77yards.

The big defensive news is Conrad. He left the game early, but good news post-game! Whilst he strained his shoulder in the game, there's no lasting damage and D-Lineman will be back for Week 3.

Next up, the 0-2 Vikings in our first Divisional match-up. Expectations are rising for this Lions unit, but any NFL Fan can tell you Divisional games, away from home, are about as tricky as they get.

Ollfardh wrote:
Maybe some video next time, like in Daily Destroyers?

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
Enjoyed the report a real back and forth game. Teams in the NFL are all pretty evenly matched so got to be able to pull out the ugly ones

For back-to-back weeks, Lawrence IV turns the ball over on the Lions first possession! A fumble against the Commanders, and today he throws an Interception. Booth returns it alll the way to the 6-yard line. It's only the hard work of Aidan Hutchinson that saves us, sacking Cousins for big loss and forcing the Vikings to kick a field goal.

Things don't get much better. Lawrence is erratic and inacurrate. Lynch takes a big hit, and heads down the tunnel for some medical check. In his absence Bolt can't take his chance, generating 5-yards only on three carries. Lions end up punting. No such problems for the Vikings! Cousins leads a pin-point accurate drive up to halfway, before Dalvin Cook busts through the defence for massive 45-yard TD run.

Into the 2nd Quarter, Lynch is still on the sidelines. Lenny Carlson, the superstar of the first two games, pulls down a big 21-yard catch. This invigorates the offence, as Lawrence relaxes with good simple passes to Peleke, Reynolds and Carlson. In the Redzone, Benny Redhill gets separation, makes a 10-yard catch and has his first ever Touchdown! Celebrations short lived as Cousins again dissects the defence, to set up Rosas for another Field Goal. End of the Half, Lions 7, Vikings 13.

This is where the game turns. Dalvin Cook takes charge, and Cousins finds another geaer. We can't stop the run or the pass. Cook gets his 2nd TD. Lawrence throws his 2nd Interception. Cousins & Jefferson prove why they are one of the best duo's in the league. In fact Kirk Cousins is 19/19 as the 3rd Quarter ends, and Cook over 100yards rushing.

Cook makes Fantasy managers happy with his 3rd TD. And Lawrence makes them angry with his 3rd Interception. The young QB is trying far too hard to be the hero and force balls. A real regression in his game today, clearly spooked by an alert Vikings defence. Counins and Cook kill the game, Vikings win 7-28.



Benjamin Lawrence will want to forget this game fast, 144yards 1TD and 3INT. Lynch exited the game with only 14yards, but the news is not bad and he'll be back next week against the Seahawks and their struggling run defence. Carlson and Redhill combined for less than 100yards, a huge step backwards. And the defence, less said the better as we let Cousins end with a 93% accuracy, and Cook over 200yards and 3TD.

Hopefully the re-tooling Seattle Seahawks can provide the perfect bounce-back game. And at least the Packers also lost, so we maintain joint lead of the NFC North.

TheManxMissile wrote:
Sorry about the delay. The whole video thing sent me down a time consuming rabbit hole, as well as just life stopping me playing a lot lately.

No guarantee when video highlights will appear, but it's being worked on. I'm hoping to have time to play again tomorrow, and post a write-up in the evening. Most certainly not a dead game, just been busy and working on getting it formatted in the best way (I really am not that happy with the Commanders report, so yeah, probably worried too much about being perfect instead of getting on with it)