What the Lions should expect from Marcus Mariota and the Commanders' offensive line

The Detroit Lions will take on the Washington Commanders on Sunday in a rematch from last year's Divisional round. That game did not go well, and some Lions players have already said there is an element of how personal this one is.

The thing is, the Lions aren't really playing the Commanders team from last year. Washington is dealing with a lot of injuries right now, and quarterback Jayden Daniels won't be playing. Receivers Terry McLaurin, Luke McCaffrey, and Noah Brown won't be playing in this game either.

So what are the Lions getting from this offense? We talked with our Commanders' beat writer, Josh Taylor, about a couple of things to get an idea of what the Lions defense can expect. Let's start with the quarterback.

What are the Lions getting with Marcus Mariota under center in Washington?

"The great thing about Mariota is that the offense doesn't change at all with him, and he brings that veteran presence. The issue, however, is that the passing offense has been bad all season with injuries. Terry McLaurin is very unlikely to play, according to Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, Noah Brown has been injured for the majority of the season, and now Luke McCaffrey is out for the rest of the year. Mariota doesn't have any help outside of Zach Ertz and Deebo Samuel, and the defense is too bad to try to establish a run game when Washington goes down double digits early in the game."

Samuel might not be the guy he once was, but you still have to be on guard with a player like that. Ertz, the former Lions tight end, is on the older end of things, but he's schemed well over there, and he's a pretty sure catcher. The thing that really caught my eye was the run game. Is it good?

Right now, the Commanders don't have much of a rushing attack. They just lost their second-best rusher with Daniels, and they rely on Jacory Croskey-Merrit as their lead back. He does lead the league in rushing success rate, but he's pretty low on the totem pole in rushing for first downs, touchdowns, and rushing yards altogether.

Is that a product of he offensive line? We asked Taylor to break things down in that area as well.

Where can the Lions attack the Commanders' offensive line?

"The offensive line is another unit that hasn't played well over the last two weeks, and rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. has struggled against top pass rushers this season, which bodes well for Aidan Hutchinson. The left side with Laremy Tunsil and Chris Paul has been the strong side, so attacking the right side is the best bet for the Lions."

So far, the Commanders are allowing the ninth-most sacks in the league with 24. That's not too bad. The Lions are 20th with 18 allowed, in case you were wondering. As Taylor mentioned, Conerly is having some trouble for sure. He's allowed 31 pressures and six of those 24 sacks.

What Taylor didn't note is that the Commanders are allowing pressure from the middle. Center Tyler Biadaz has allowed 12 pressures and three sacks this year. The Lions may try to attack if Alim McNeill gets one-on-one opportunities due to the usual double-teaming of Hutchinson. We'll see what happens there on Sunday.