Before Jared Goff went out for the final drive against the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions quarterbacks coach Mark Brunell gave him one not-so-simple command: “Go win this game for us.”
Goff’s reply: “Yes, sir.”
“That was it,” Brunell said Wednesday. “ ‘Go win this game for us,’ and he did that, which, it was fun. It was really a cool moment. I’ve been around a lot of big games and I can think back on some moments in my career where games really stand out, special games that you’ll remember forever. This one cracked my top 10.”
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Goff played perhaps his best football of the season against the Vikings, throwing for 296 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning score to Amon-Ra St. Brown as time expired.
He completed 9 of 14 passes on the final drive — two of his incompletions were spikes — was masterful in a two-minute situation when the Lions did not have any timeouts, and was rewarded Wednesday when the NFL named him NFC Offensive Player of the Week.
In a tough season, it was the type of confidence-building performance he and the Lions hope can be a springboard to a strong finish.
“I think it can do a lot (for him),” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “Man, he had some outstanding throws in that game. I mean, really top-notch throws, particularly early in the game. And then, there was about a three- or four-play sequence there where it was rough. And for him to come back and get out of that and be able to drive us down the field I think was crucial. And I think it’s great for him and I think it speaks volumes and I think that will help his confidence moving forward.”
Goff is no stranger to NFL success.
The No. 1 pick of the 2016 draft, he went 11-4 in his first full season as starter helping the Los Angeles Rams reach Super Bowl LIII.
But little has gone right in the past 12 months.
Already in Rams coach Sean McVay’s doghouse for his turnover-riddled and inconsistent play, Goff broke the thumb on his throwing hand in a Week 16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks last year and, after sitting out one game, was benched for the start of L.A.’s wild-card playoff game.
The Rams lost in the second round of the playoffs, and Goff was summarily discarded weeks later, traded to the Lions, along with three draft picks, for Matthew Stafford.
The Lions went winless the first 11 games of the season, and Goff’s play has been under intense scrutiny all year. Saddled with one of the NFL’s worst receiving corps and dealing with a change in offensive play callers, Goff ranks last in the NFL in air yards per attempt and is averaging 234.2 passing yards per game, his lowest total since his rookie season.
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Brunell said Goff has maintained an even keel through all the year’s trials and tribulations, even Goff acknowledged Sunday’s win eased the burden he’s been under.
“It’s kind of like we’ve talked about all year, you work so hard and you do so many things right and you continue to do the right things and you just come up short over and over again,” he said. “Having one where we were rewarded for our hard work and were rewarded for the extra hours and all the stuff you do as a football player, and everyone does it. You’re not promised anything, but we were rewarded for it and felt like there were some games earlier on in the year where we could have gone either way. I think finally you get one and you feel good about it, and it’s exciting. And for me personally, it’s no different.”
Goff, playing through the flu, made three highlight throws in the second quarter against the Vikings, a 25-yard pass to T.J. Hockenson between two defenders, and two tight-window touchdowns to Hockenson and Brock Wright.
He lost two turnovers in a five-play span in the fourth quarter, throwing a bad interception into double coverage when he had a receiver open on the other side of the field, and losing a fumble on a strip-sack with 4:01 to play.
With five games left and his long-term future in Detroit still very much up in the air, the challenge now is repeating the good, eliminating the bad and building off Sunday’s success.
“I use the word momentum,” Brunell said. “It’s something to build off of. He had a very good day, obviously, last Sunday, and we’ve got to carry that into our Denver game and as the quarterback, when your quarterback is playing well, not only is he confident but his teammates, the guys around him have confidence in him. And they do. And he made some nice throws. He made some really nice plays, particularly at the end, his touchdown pass. But this is something to build off of, and not just in the confidence area but we’ve got a lot of young players that are getting better, that are making plays. I think you saw on Sunday that this team has come together. We made a lot of improvements and, hey, just as we go forward in our last five games, hopefully that will get better and better.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.