Despite injuries, Detroit Lions offense puts on a clinic in Week 2 win over Washington

Most of the Detroit Lions were still celebrating the first win of the season, a 36-27 thumping of the Washington Commanders, in the locker room as the first player walked into the postgame media room.

Jared Goff had thrown four touchdown passes. Amon-Ra St. Brown set both team and NFL records for catches and consecutive games with a touchdown reception. No. 2 overall draft pick Aidan Hutchinson became the first rookie in the organization's history to record three sacks in a game.

But none of them were the first to meet the media.

Instead it was offensive lineman Dan Skipper, the 6-foot-9, 330-pound longtime practice squadder the world saw get cut on the final episode of HBO's "Hard Knocks," who strolled in for his first time.

"This is new," he opened with. "(But) that’s what this gig is about. Show up every day, put your hard hat on, go to work and good things happen."

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Skipper represented the interior of the offensive line, which wasn't expected to excel due to accumulated injuries this week.

The Lions' starting guards and center — Jonah Jackson (finger), Frank Ragnow (groin, foot) and Halapoulivaati Vaitai (back) — were all out for the Week 2 contest, leaving just two-fifths of the organization's expected starters healthy in Week 2. So, offensive line coach Hank Fraley began to shuffle his combinations.

Skipper, generally a tackle, was elevated from the practice squad and slotted in at left guard.

Evan Brown, who started 12 games in place of Ragnow at center last season, again took Ragnow's spot in the middle. Logan Stenberg, who got his first career start in the season-opener in place of Vaitai at right guard, held that spot down again.

"The way we are as a group and as a room, I think everybody is ready to step up whenever their number is called and whenever they're needed," Brown said. "Guys play multiple positions and, you know, you lose a guy here, we shuffle them around, you throw a guy in there and we go perform."

The Lions, including Fraley, frequently spoke of competition at nearly every position group during the offseason. But though the coach said his room was deep, he admitted early in training camp there was a clear "top five."

From the on-field production Sunday, it was hard to tell this wasn't that group. The Lions put up 36 points, marking the third consecutive week (dating back to the final game of 2021) they've scored at least 35. It's the longest regular-season streak for the franchise since doing it four times over the end of the 1952 season and the beginning of 1953.

Goff was 20-for-34 for 256 yards and four touchdowns, with the third-best passer rating (121.7) of his Lions tenure. The rushing attack was even more potent — 24 carries for 191 yards, with an average of 8 yards per attempt.

"We’re all the next ones up," Skipper said. "We’re not the chosen ones, so to speak, but at the end of the day, we go out there and get a win, and that’s all that matters."

Four different Lions — St. Brown, Craig Reynolds, D'Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams — had at least one carry of 10 yards or more. St. Brown and Swift each broke rushes for more than 50. Swift said he was proud of the line and the way they worked together, adding the offense will only go as far as the line takes it.

"Together as a group, the cohesiveness has been built," Brown said. "Whether it was me being up for the games last year or preseason working with those guys. ... We know each other well and how we work together."

The Lions' line wasn't completely in an injury-induced shamble: Their first-round picks in 2016 and 2021 — Taylor Decker on the left side and Penei Sewell on the right, respectively — served as bookends at tackle, . After the media was done speaking with Brown, Sewell chimed in with his opinion: "That's right, Evan Brown is the (expletive) man!"

He wasn't the only one, as the line allowed just two sacks after the game's opening drive.

Though the lack of healthy offensive linemen brought doubts from outside observers — the Lions went from 3½-point favorites in Las Vegas to underdogs after the final injury report — Sewell said there were none among the linemen.

Not only did they believe the line would continue without missing a beat but "that's the expectation."

He added that the Lions were helped by all three backups getting into the game together, because they have cohesion from training camp and practice. After that, it was about getting comfortable with the tackles.

"We just all had to make it work together," Sewell said. "And we did that."

There were plenty of positive moments in the Lions' first victory of 2022. But Sewell's favorite probably went under the radar among them.

"For me personally, it was to see Dan Skipper on a run play, it was going to his side and by the time it finished, he was all the way on the right side," Sewell said with a smile. "I was like, 'Skip, how are you all the way over here?' then I was like, 'Yeah, that means he ran off the ball and pushed a man all the way across the line of scrimmage."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: O-line backups plug in seamlessly in Detroit Lions' mighty performance