Lions vs. Commanders quick thoughts: What just happened?

That was fun. Winning is always a good time. The Lions’ offense put on another show, as they dusted up Jack Del Rio’s defense on their way to a 36-27 win. The Lions are now at .500. Sweet, sweet .500!

As always, I have thoughts on this game. These are those thoughts:

This offense is really good. They’re so close to being great.

The Lions are averaging 35.5 points per game after two games this season. They just get out there a move. Still—and we’ll revisit this later—the Lions could be better. You can’t help but feel like they could have scored in the forties in the last two games. There’s stuff to clean up. Let’s not get too pessimistic, though. The Lions put up 425 total yards, they scored 36 points, and they didn’t turn the ball over. You gotta love it.

Swift

This man is special, and he was dealing with an ankle injury all game. You certainly couldn’t tell. The dude rattled off a big 52-yard play in the first half and then when the Lions needed someone get off of their ass and score a touchdown in the third quarter, Swift literally did just that on this insane play.

Swift is a flat out super star in the making. We are watching something truly special here. He ended up finishing the game with 87 total yards and a touchdown.

Aidan Hutchinson is the real deal

Be honest, were you concerned about Aidan Hutchinson’s quiet debut against the Eagles? Well, you shouldn’t have been. On Sunday, Hutchinson showed exactly why you shouldn’t have been when he recorded his first sack. Then, he showed you again when he recorded his second sack. Just for good measure, he showed you one more time when he recorded his third sack. There’s room for concern regarding the limp he played with for much of the game, but Hutchinson played through it and put up a monstrous performance.

Goff

A much better outing for Jared Goff in this one after a rough outing against the Eagles. Still, Goff left way too much money on the table. There were many situations where the Lions could have had some big plays and put more points on the board, but Goff either overthrew or underthrew his target. Pick your poison. He’s got to stop making these mistakes and get things under control. These minor mistakes add up, and could be the deciding factor as to whether the Lions will keep him as their starter moving forward, or move on to someone else sooner rather than later. As we’ve mentioned a million times already, the Lions are in a position to do that after this season, with the way Goff’s contract is structured.

Amon-Ra 8. Brown

Amon-Ra St. Brown just continues to put up big performances. He is so much fun to watch that you can ignore the fact that the Lions are probably going to have to make him the league’s highest-paid receiver relatively soon. We’ll worry about that later. As for today, St. Brown had another big game on Sunday and tied the NFL record for most consecutive eight reception games. He has a shot to set the new record against the Vikings in Week 3.

Oh yeah, he also caught 9 passes for 116 yards and 2 touchdowns. Big things all around for the second year guy.

Patchwork offensive line makes good

The Lions were down three of their starters on the offensive line with Frank Ragnow, Jonah Jackson and Halapoulivaati Vaitai all out. Evan Brown filling in wasn’t much of a concern—he’s proven that he can be a reliable backup—but Dan Skipper playing guard for the first time since the 2018 preseason was. He more than held his own and was actually kind of impressive. Check this out.

Don’t be shocked to see Skipper play guard again in Week 3 if Jonah Jackson’s health doesn’t improve.

Tale of two halves

The Lions looked like the most dominant team in the world in the first half. They went into the locker room up 22-0 and had only allowed two first downs from the Commanders. Then in the second half, the Lions allowed the Commanders to come back into the game. The Lions have to be consistent on both sides of the ball for four straight quarters. They made it work in this game, but they may not be so lucky against better opponents.

Dare I say good luck pup?