The Detroit Lions’ 31-27 loss to the Miami Dolphins was a fresh reminder nothing matters more in the NFL than good quarterback play − despite as bad as they were defensively Sunday, and bad does not begin to describe the abominable job they did covering Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
Winning teams get it, losing teams don’t, and with a few precarious exceptions, only teams with reliable quarterbacks are legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
The Lions lost Sunday because they could not stop Miami’s dynamic offense and because dropped passes and careless penalties drove stakes in their heart when they had the ball.
Hill and Waddle combined for 294 yards receiving, Tua Tagovailoa completed 81% of his passes and the Dolphins dominated the Lions on third down.
But the Lions stumbled into a key third down stop midway through the fourth quarter, when Dolphins center Connor Williams snapped the ball prematurely and Tagovailoa was forced to throw a pass away. So coach Dan Campbell put the ball in Jared Goff’s hands for the final 8 minutes with a chance to win the game.
Goff methodically moved the Lions into Miami territory, until he faced fourth-and-a-long-1 from the Dolphins’ 35-yard line with just under 3 minutes to play.
The Dolphins crowded the line of scrimmage, Goff audibled to a new play, and when Miami dropped seven into coverage, Goff lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone for receiver Josh Reynolds.
Amon-Ra St. Brown just beyond the sticks was Goff’s first read on the play, but Goff found a better passing window downfield to Reynolds, who got behind Dolphins cornerback Kader Kohou with single-high safety help tilted to the opposite side of the field.
It wasn’t an easy throw, and it wouldn’t have been an easy catch, but it was the right read. Goff had plenty of time in the pocket, but did not put the ball close to where it needed to be, in the corner of the end zone near the pylon where only Reynolds could get it.
Reynolds contorted his body and tried to make a twisting catch, only to watch the ball hit the goal line as Kohou raised his arms in celebration.
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Goff played well Sunday overall. He was 27 of 37 passing for 321 yards with one touchdown and a couple drops by his receivers. He did not commit a turnover after losing six the previous two games. And he staked his team to an early 14-point lead the defense could not hold.
In many ways, Goff looked like the quarterback who led the NFL’s highest-scoring offense for most of September, the one some believed could be more than a placeholder for this Lions team in its perpetual state of rebuild.
But that one pass, with the game on the line, was a subtle reminder of all Goff can’t do, of why the Los Angeles Rams traded him to the Lions in the first place, and why the Lions need to find their quarterback once and for all if they are ever going to contend for anything under this (or any other) regime.
Seven games into the season, with the midpoint a few days away, the Lions control two of the top 14 picks in next spring’s NFL draft. Their first-round pick almost certainly will be a top-10 selection for the fifth straight year – they’d have the No. 1 overall choice if the season ended today based on their league-worst 1-6 record – and they own the Rams’ pick, currently No. 14, conveyed as part of the Matthew Stafford trade.
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There’s no guarantee the Lions hold onto the No. 1 pick. The Houston Texans (1-5-1) are more inept, but have a better record thanks to their Week 1 tie against the Indianapolis Colts, and the Lions have important draft positional games in December against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, both teams that currently own top-five picks.
But no matter where they land in the draft, the Lions need to find a quarterback to bring their six-and-a-half-decade-old quest to win a championship to an end.
Drafting Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud won’t immediately solve the Lions’ many woes, and Goff is not the reason they are underwater now. They have a young roster that’s talent-deficient in too many areas, and their coaching staff has yet to prove it can win games.
But it’s fitting the quarterback who torched the Lions on Sunday, Tagovailoa, is one they passed on in the midst of this same debate three years ago.
In 2020, with a top-three pick and all signs pointing to Stafford’s time in Detroit nearing its end, the Lions of Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia paid little mind to a quarterback class that proved significantly above average in the draft.
The Cincinnati Bengals took Joe Burrow at No. 1 overall, the Dolphins grabbed Tagovailoa, despite his medical risks, at No. 5, and the Los Angeles Chargers took Justin Herbert at No. 6. Burrow led the Bengals to a Super Bowl last season, Herbert is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and while the jury remains out on Tagovailoa, he has proven he can be effective when healthy under his new coach, and his cheap rookie deal has helped make the Dolphins (5-3) contenders.
If the Lions continue down their current path, Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes will find themselves in the crosshairs of their rebuild.
They’ll need to win, maybe not this year but certainly next year to save their jobs, and Goff will be the quarterback most capable of leading them to victories.
The right move for the franchise, however, will be to do whatever is necessary to upgrade the most important position in sports.
Because until the Lions find a quarterback to build around, nothing else matters. They’ll be doomed to mediocrity or worse.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.