Jared Goff has failed to connect on passes downfield late in losses to the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins over the past month, but Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said his faith has not waned in Goff making those got-to-have-it throws in the future.
“I’ve got total trust in the guys out there to execute the play call so I’m not going to overanalyze, ‘Hey, can he or can he not make this throw?'” Johnson said Thursday. “Jared Goff can make pretty much every throw in this league that we’ve ever asked him to do.”
Goff completed 23 of 37 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns in the Lions’ Thanksgiving loss to the Buffalo Bills, when he led a game-tying field goal drive that stalled at the Buffalo 33-yard line with 23 seconds to play.
The Bills won on a Tyler Bass field goal four plays later.
On third-and-1 with 32 seconds left, Johnson called a pass play that gave Goff four options in his progression. DJ Chark beat Bills cornerback Dane Jackson down the right sideline, but Goff threw short and behind Chark near the front corner of the end zone.
The pass was reminiscent of one Goff missed to Josh Reynolds on fourth-and-1 with 2:59 to play against the Dolphins in Week 8, when Goff threw short and behind Reynolds from the 35-yard line going toward the same corner of the end zone.
Birkett:Jared Goff, DJ Chark among Detroit Lions with most to gain from a strong December
Goff said he liked Johnson’s third down play call against the Bills but wished “I had thrown a different ball.”
“That was a great call,” Goff said after the game. “There’s four receivers on the play and you can throw to any of them. And the guy I picked was open, but we didn’t hit it, so we can second-guess it all we want. But no, I love the call, and wish I would have made it work some way or another.”
Johnson said there is merit to thinking he should have called a more high-percentage play if the Lions were going to kick on fourth-and-1.
“It’s the classic if it doesn’t work, you’re disappointed and you have to always think, ‘Hey, is there something better?'” he said. “In hindsight, I wish we would have hit it. It comes down to that. So we went into this game, the last week, we went into the game with a certain mindset of how we were going to win, how we were going to score points against a really good football team. And I think we held true. And a lot of that, really the aggressiveness that Coach (Dan) Campbell had us going with on offense, I think it was a big reason why we were close there in that fourth quarter and came up one play short.”
Goff has played some of his best football over the past month as the Lions (4-7) have won three of their past four games to get in the wild card hunt.
He has one turnover since Halloween, after throwing six interceptions and losing three fumbles in the Lions’ first six games.
“Truthfully I feel like earlier in the season, the weeks where we were struggling the most, call it New England and Dallas, (the pass rush) might have got into his head a little bit,” Johnson said. “I don’t think it phases him now. He knows he’s going to get hit each week, that’s a part of playing the position in this league. Particularly when you drop back to pass. So he’s aware of it.
“I think he’s done a heck of a job being able to work the pocket, avoid, find some clean throwing lanes. Once again, that’s our point of emphasis, continue to move, find that soft spot. Not get too deep in the pocket to allow the edge rushers to affect us and I think he’s taken that criticism to home from weeks ago and it’s showing up over the last few weeks for us in a positive manner.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.