The most important and meaningful completion of Jared Goff’s season, and one of the most important and meaningful completions of Jared Goff’s career, came with two minutes left in the Detroit Lions’ 24-23 wild-card win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. The Lions had second-and-9 at their own 32-yard line, and they needed a first down to ice the game. That is a situation, as a head coach, where you want the ball in the hands of the player you trust and value the most.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell had no doubt who that was. Quarterback Jared Goff hit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown on an 11-yard comeback, and that was your ballgame. Three kneeldowns later, the Lions had their first playoff win in 30 years.
“I didn’t go in saying, ‘Alright, at the very end of this game, even if we should run it, we’re just going to put it in his hands, but it was – that was the moment where we need to seal this game and we felt like the right thing to do was put it in his hands and get it to our best player,” Campbell said of that play after the game. “And we did that, man. Those guys executed and he just ran him off and we were hugging and laughing, enjoying it. And we talked about that last play and I said, ‘How many times have we done that over a two-year period year?’ A ton. And he’s made the same play, and he did it again. So a lot of trust in him, lot of trust in that o-line, the backs, and certainly those receivers. St. Brown in that case to make the play.”
Before this season and this game, Goff had lived in a somewhat common constraint — the former first-overall pick who had become an afterthought. He had hit his ceiling, everybody said, in Sean McVay’s Rams offense, and the trade the Rams made for Matthew Stafford before the 2021 season had Goff on the bottom of the pile. Very few people believed at that point that Goff would be a key cog in any Lions re-do, but improbably, that’s what’s happened, and Goff saved the best for his most important game in the Motor City.
Goff said all the right things about a revenge game factor, but you knew it had to be satisfying for him to bring his best and knock his former team out of the playoffs. Not that McVay and the Rams were wrong about Goff at that time, but Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is going to get a head coaching gig in the very near future because he was able to take Goff to a new level we did not anticipate. Heavy personnel, in-breakers all over the place, 6OL play-action — everything Johnson surrounded Goff with maximized Goff’s attributes and minimized his liabilities to the point where Goff was finally able to transcend the “game manager” curse.
“Yeah, it was fine,” Goff said of the hype surrounding this game. “Like I said earlier in the week, it was kind of tracking for this matchup for a while, so I kind of had some time to get ready for the fanfare that would be, and I just kept going back to what this game was about, and it was about us. It was not about them. It was not about me, it was not about my history there, it wasn’t about anyone on their team or any coaches, it was about us. It was about the 53 in this locker room, our coaches and this organization getting a playoff win in front of our home crowd.”
Goff stayed within himself, and that was all the difference. He completed 22 of 27 passes for 277 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 121.8. While Stafford was throwing impossible off-platform missiles all over the place, Goff moved perfectly within the structure of his offense, and turned “game manager” from a pejorative statement to a badge of honor.
Still, Goff had to create explosive plays, and he was perfectly happy doing that. The Lions scored touchdowns on their first three drives, and Goff’s two big-time completions to receiver Josh Reynolds (another former Rams player) had a lot to do with that. The 24-yarder to Reynolds with 13:18 left in the first quarter was Lions standard: 12 personnel (two tight ends), and Goff beating yet another defense with yet another in-breaker. Ball placement doesn’t get much better than this.
Then, there was the 33-yard play with 2:19 left in the first quarter. Now, the Lions were in 11 personnel, and speed motion set the Rams up to flood to the offensive right side, while Goff hit Reynolds on the backside dig.
“Just thought he played top-notch football,” Campbell concluded regarding his quarterback. “He probably had two errors and everything else was – I thought he was on point. He looked loose, he looked relaxed, I thought he threw the ball with conviction, was strong in the pocket, got us into the right play, and he felt that way all week. He just was locked in all week, and he’s really been that way for six weeks now where you really feel like, ‘Whoa,’ he’s really honed in here. So just really proud of him. And what he means to us, and his play today, and I bring it back again. He’s one of the reasons that we won this division and he’s another reason why we just won our first playoff game here in 30 years, so what a stud.”
Goff was so in the zone, he didn’t even realize at the time what Campbell’s ultimate gesture of faith meant on that past pass when it happened.
“No, it was like every other rep we’ve had of that play a hundred, million times. It was [St. Brown] one-on-one with the nickel and go win. And it was pitch and catch and that dude’s as good as it gets and I was able to put it on him. And again, I wish I kind of knew that that would’ve sealed the game and then I would’ve been able to really enjoy that moment, but was excited we got the first down, then I realized the game was over.”
It was easier for Goff to realize what it meant in a more global sense — for himself, and for his team.
“It was surreal. It was something that you kind of imagined for so long. From the moment I got here, you imagine getting that playoff win and having this type of atmosphere in front of our home crowd and being able to sit on the ball like that and finish it out. And yeah, it kind of all hit me there and to be honest with you, I didn’t know it was over once we got the first down until they sent in the personnel and then it kind of all hit me at once. But yeah, kind of had to subdue a lot of emotions this week and was able to kind of enjoy that moment.”
Jared Goff deserves to enjoy that moment, and his season isn’t over yet.
