Survey results!!
Who wins tonight?
Opinions vary about the outcome of tonight’s Commanders-Lions divisional round NFC playoff game.
In the graphic above, you’ll see the polling results from three different groups of respondents.
On the left, a majority of Hogs Haven readers (53%) believe that the Commanders will prevail tonight and move onto the NFC Championship game. Of the minority of respondents who are picking the Lions to win, only 11% think the Lions will cover the 9.5-point spread.
The middle graphic shows a confident fan base for the top-seeded Lions, where 53% of respondents pick the Lions to cover the spread, and only 9% concede a Commanders victory.
These partisan results skew towards the Lions overall, but the graphic on the right shows the results of an email survey sent to fans of all 32 NFL teams this week. By a ratio of about 2:1, respondents in the national poll not only pick the Lions to win, but to cover a slightly smaller 8.5-point spread.
Clearly, the Lions are heavy favorites against the only wild card team remaining of the six that entered the playoffs a week ago.
Many NFL fans see the Lions as the most likely eventual Super Bowl champions, but the Chuck Norris cult-style belief in the powers of Washington’s rookie QB Jayden Daniels has many Washington fans believing, many Lions fans nervous, and a nation of NFL fans anxious to see what he can do tonight.
That kid
That belief in “that kid” is widespread among fans of the burgundy & gold, and for good reason.
“That kid has poise… I think he grew up tonight.”
Terry McLaurin with high praise for his rookie QB Jayden Daniels
(via @JPFinlayNBCS)pic.twitter.com/uY01K1ux6s
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) September 24, 2024
The Clutch Commanders
6 minutes of epic Jayden Daniels finishes but they get increasingly more clutch @Commanders pic.twitter.com/WmHhyoTuTS
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) January 17, 2025
Player of the game
In this week’s Reacts survey on Hogs Haven, we asked who the Player of the Game was versus Tampa Bay last Sunday, and who it would be in tonight’s game at Detroit.
The most common answer to both questions was the same, and, I guess, no surprise.
That kid Jayden Daniels has been the Player of the Season for the Commanders, and for them to win at Ford Field tonight, he will likely have to be the best player on the field for the Commanders yet again.
Talking w @BaldyNFL about Jayden Daniels: “That kid is unflappable…Nothing really seems to bother the kid. His suddenness to avoid pressure, to avoid hits, it is second to none…I cant think of anybody that has come in and played like this.” pic.twitter.com/3iFi3pNSQX
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) January 14, 2025
Over/under
The Commanders and Lions are two teams that know how to score points, boasting the #1 and #5 scoring offenses in the NFL this season at 28.5ppg and 33.2ppg respectively.
Those numbers make the FanDuel over/under mark of 55.5 points used in our Reacts survey look downright conservative.
Of course, the Buccaneers entered last week’s wild card game in Tampa as the #4 scoring offense in the league at 29.5ppg and the Commanders held them to 20 on the scoreboard, so maybe, on reflection, the lower number is warranted.
With two teams that like to play ball control football based on extending drives with aggressive approaches to 4th down, it feels like this over/under could go either way.
If one or both teams produce a few explosive scoring plays on offense, defense or special teams, the over seems very likely.
But it’s also possible that we see a repeat of the 43-point Commanders-Buccaneers game in which Washington’s multiple extended scoring drives ate up the clock, limiting the two teams to 7 offensive possessions each. This Washington-Detroit game could turn into a contest of two teams grinding out extended drives that limit the number of scoring opportunities and keeping the total points scored below 50 points.
There are three other games this weekend
In the national email survey, the results from fans were basically ‘chalk’ in two of the games, with 58% of fans picking the top-seeded AFC Chiefs to cover a 7.5-point spread against the Texans, and a majority picking the #2 seeded Eagles to cover the 5.5-point spread against the 4th seeded Rams in the NFC.
Personally, I’m a little surprised that the Ravens were favored against the Bills in Buffalo in January, and it looks like many other fans were too, with only about 1 in 3 respondents in the national survey picking the Ravens to cover a modest 1.5-point spread.
Kickoff for the highlight game of the week
The Commanders-Lions game is scheduled for 8pm tonight at Ford Field in Detroit.
The game will be carried live on FOX, with Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady calling the game.
For slightly more enthusiastic play-by-play, you can tune into Bram Weinstein and London Fletcher on the radio call at Big 100(iHeart Radio) or the Washington Radio Network.
Equally enthusiastic Spanish language broadcast is available from Moisés Linares (play-by-play) and Juan Romero (analyst) at Español: XM/SXM 227, Internet 832.
Let’s watch the Commanders add to the Washington legacy tonight!
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