Jared Goff’s passing line against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night was hardly one of the most impressive of his career. He threw for 275 yards, but he had zero touchdowns and an interception, resulting in a passer rating of 79.4.
His completion rate of 64.5% was plenty good enough, spreading the ball around nicely by hitting eight different receivers with Robert Woods pacing the bunch at six catches for 105 yards.
Overall, it was a clean performance by the Rams quarterback with very few mistakes made on the field. His interception came as he was hit in the helmet by Aldon Smith, Gerald Everett dropped a pass over the middle and some of his incompletions were simple throw-aways when there was nothing available.
Take a look at his passing chart from Next Gen Stats, which shows how Goff took what the Cowboys defense gave him: a lot of screens, a lot of quick outs and very little over the middle.
Goff’s best throw of the night was his 31-yarder to Van Jefferson down the left sideline – a perfect drop-in-the-bucket toss that he made look easy. Other than that, Goff didn’t have a completion beyond 15 yards downfield.
And that’s OK.
The Cowboys limited big plays and forced Goff to throw underneath passes for shorter gains. Fortunately, guys like Robert Woods and Tyler Higbee did a good job picking up yards after the catch, making Dallas pay for playing it safe.
Although Goff had the lowest average intended air yards (4.3), according to Next Gen Stats, it’s hard to fault him for that. Take a look at this play, for instance. If the Cowboys are going to leave Woods wide open on a screen pass, how can you fault Goff for taking it and picking up 31 yards?
The same can be said about this out route to Woods, where he was once again left open because the Cowboys played off coverage with the corner giving him nearly 10 yards of cushion.
Goff took what the defense gave him and made them pay. It’s Dallas’ fault for not adjusting, giving Goff easy throws throughout the night.
The pickings may not be as easy for Goff in Week 2. The Eagles will probably watch the tape from Rams-Cowboys and learn that letting Goff dink-and-dunk his way down the field isn’t the way to go.
If that’s the case, Goff has to hit on some passes in the intermediate-to-deep range to keep the defense honest.
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