It was a sleepy afternoon slate in Week 10 of the NFL season, with a trip of NFC contenders all making big statements at the same time. While the Seahawks and Rams were blowing out the opposition in the NFC West, the Detroit Lions were running it up on the Washington Commanders in the nation's capital with Dan Campbell calling the plays.
The Lions had one of their best days of the season on offense, racing out to a 44-22 win to get to 6-3 on the season. Everything was clicking for the offense with Jahmyr Gibbs and Jameson Williams creating big plays and Amon-Ra St. Brown working underneath. The latter wasn't sitting well with the Commanders defenders, and defensive tackle Daron Payne was even ejected for punching St. Brown in the head.
Payne has since been suspended for one game for the incident, but his fellow defensive line teammate Javon Kinlaw doesn't think Payne started it.
When asked if he saw St. Brown hit Payne before the Alabama product retaliated, Kinlaw didn't hesitate.
Javon Kinlaw says St Brown punched Payne first and how the refs handled it was BS pic.twitter.com/BRab2SXM6R
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) November 10, 2025
“Yeah, for sure,” Kinlaw said. “(The refs) did too. S**t was some bulls**t. 100%.”
With or without Payne, the Commanders had little hope of getting a win against a hot Lions team that was absolutely rolling, especially without Jayden Daniels on the other side to help match that firepower. Washington will now head to Madrid in Week 11 without one of its top defenders to take on the Miami Dolphins.
Even if St. Brown did punch first, which cannot be seen on the TV broadcast, it's well-known that officials normally see and penalize the retaliation more than the instigator. Payne should have been smarter in this situation and not gone back at St. Brown.
Kinlaw wasn't without some controversy himself during the blowout loss. The free-agent signing was ripped by color commentator Jonathan Vilma for trash-talking Jared Goff while the Commanders were losing by a lot, only for Jahmyr Gibbs to score on the next play. Such is life for Kinlaw and a 3-7 Commanders team that has had a nightmare season in just about every way.
