The Washington Commanders stunned the Detroit Lions on the road with a 45-31 victory in the Divisional round and advanced to their first NFC Championship since 1991. Here are five takeaways from the wild night.

1. Jayden Daniels shredded the blitz.

It's not a surprise for Daniels to step up under pressure anymore. The rookie did it again in front of a hostile Lions crowd and put up another strong performance with 350 total yards and two touchdowns, all while taking zero sacks. He now has the most total yardage for a rookie in NFL history and is tied with Ben Roethlisberger for the most wins as a rookie.

If there was any sign of how unbothered Daniels was by the noise, the fanfare and the moment itself, look at how he did against the blitz. To sum it up, he was exceptional. NextGenStats pointed out minutes after the game that Daniels was 12-of-16 for 191 yards and a touchdown against the blitz, 10-of-16 for 172 yards and a touchdown when given less than 2.5 seconds to throw and 7-of-9 for 109 yards while under pressure.

Give the Lions and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn for trying to get Daniels off his spot. They blitzed him on 60% of his dropbacks, but rather than crumbling under that pressure, Daniels either scrambled and picked up yards with his legs or made the Lions pay with his arm. On the fourth-and-2 Washington faced after Mike Sainristil's second interception, for example, Daniels had three Lions defenders in his face and still threw a 12-yard dart to Terry McLaurin.

And if it feels like the NFL hasn't seen something like this in a while, that's because it hasn't; Daniels' 191 yards against a blitz are the second most by a rookie quarterback since 2016.

2. Ball is life.

It's a phrase that head coach Dan Quinn, defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. and the rest of the defensive coaching staff have been preaching all season. They have a goal of getting three turnovers a game. They came close in the regular season, but dropped interceptions and missed fumble opportunities led to them fall short.

They waited until they saw one of the league's most explosive offenses -- which had committed the fifth-fewest turnovers -- to do it.

Washington forced the Lions to cough up the ball five times, four of which came from Jared Goff. Three of those turnovers led directly to points. A 78-yard scoring drive followed the strip-sack forced by Dorance Armstrong and recovered by Frankie Luvu; Quan Martin returned Goff's first interception 40 yards to the end zone; and Sainristil's pick on a trick play led to a 66-yard score that put them up by 17 points.

You have to go back to 2016 to find another game in which Washington forced five turnovers. The hope is that the defense had a breakthrough Saturday night, and the team won't have to wait another eight years to put up that number again.

3. The offense rediscovered the run game.

The run game has been noticeably absent for the Commanders since their Week 13 win over the Tennessee Titans. Sure, they put up at least 100 yards in six of their last seven wins, but anyone watching could see that much of their ground production came from either Daniels or Marcus Mariota's scramble yards rather than through traditional means.

It wasn't always pretty, but Saturday's win over the Lions was a return to normalcy for the Commanders. They rushed for 182 yards -- their most since Week 13 against the Tennessee Titans -- on 42 carries. The most impressive part was that they did it against a top-five defense against the run that had only allowed two teams to rush for 100 yards since Week 9.

Daniels played his part on the ground by carrying the ball 16 times -- tying his season-high -- for 51 yards. However, it was Brian Robinson Jr. who paced the team with 77 yards on 15 attempts, both of which were the most he's had in about a month. He scored two of the team's touchdowns but also found running lanes that had eluded him in earlier games. His first carry was a 14-yard run that moved the ball to the Lions' 29-yard line and later set up a field goal from Zane Gonzalez.

Austin Ekeler also got in on the action with 47 yards on six carries, although most came on one run in the fourth quarter. Ekeler opened a drive with a 35-yard pickup that moved the ball from Washington's 34-yard line to Detroit's 31. That set the tone for the series that ended with another rushing touchdown -- this time by Jeremy McNichols.

Washington's ground game accounted for almost 40% of the offense's 481 yards on the night -- the second-best postseason outing in franchise history.

4. Dyami Brown stepped up again.

Brown has continued to look like the legit No. 2 threat Washington has searched for throughout their postseason run. In the team's win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he tied McLaurin with 89 yards -- the second-best game of his professional career at the time. He topped that number against the Lions, grabbing six receptions on eight targets for 98 yards.

Brown was known for being a deep threat during his college days in North Carolina, and the Commanders hoped that when they drafted him in 2021, he would help the offense stretch the field with his ability to grab contested passes. It's taken time for him to develop, but that skill has started to show up in clutch moments. He got open on a 42-yard completion with the Commanders facing a second-and-5 to start the second quarter, which helped set up one of Robinson's touchdowns nine plays later. Later in the second quarter, he made a catch for 38 yards, despite a Lions defender grabbing his facemask, that moved the Commanders to the Lions' 6-yard line.

It's been a complete effort from the Commanders' offensive personnel to pull off their last two wins, but Brown's contributions stand out. He leads the team in catches (13) and yards (187) during their playoff run.

5. Why not Washington?

The team can't afford to look ahead, but consider this: the Commanders, which finished the 2023 season 4-13 with the second-worst record in football, are one win away from competing in a Super Bowl. It's a truth that few outside the organization would have believed for a team starting a rebui...recalibration in Quinn's first season, but here they are, waiting to see where they'll go for the NFC Championship.

Washington doesn't have a perfect roster. Quinn and general manager Adam Peters still have plenty of work to do during the offseason, whenever that actually happens for the team. There are holes that need to be filled and players to be re-signed. But that's been an afterthought for the last five months. It hasn't mattered as much because the players believe in each other. And they happen to have one of the best, if not the best, rookie quarterbacks in recent memory-- maybe ever (just look at the numbers to verify).

So, why not Washington? Why can't Washington defy the odds for another week and make it to their first Super Bowl since the 90s? Why can't Washington add another chapter to their magical run and beat whatever team comes out of the AFC in New Orleans? Why can't Washington overcome their roster flaws with the combination of a stud rookie signal-caller and "the power of belief?"

The Commanders have shown, again and again, that they can do all those things. And after beating the team almost universally recognized as the best in the conference, they have the world's attention. We're all just waiting to see what they do next.