GREEN BAY, Wis. — There have been moments this season for the Detroit Lions that have meant more than others, because Dan Campbell understands their gravity and what the team and individual players learn about themselves in those moments.
The Lions had two of those moments in Sunday’s 20-16 win — a cathartic, soul-cleansing banishment of Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
The moment that got the most fanfare was Jamaal Williams’ two rushing touchdowns, his 16th and 17th, that broke Barry Sanders’ single-season team record.
The other moment was subtler, but bigger for a different reason. It was when Campbell decided to have Jared Goff win the game, putting it on his shoulder by asking him to make a play that would close out the victory.
It was fourth-and-1 at Green Bay’s 15-yard line with 1:15 left. The Packers couldn’t stop the clock, so first down would end the game. The Lions could have kicked a field goal to go up by seven points, but instead they dialed up an empty set, which means no one stood in the backfield except Goff in the shotgun.
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The rush came and Goff threw a quick dart to DJ Chark for 9 yards. Game over. Season over — for both teams, though one entered its hibernation with a heart full of hope and the other with an empty dissatisfaction and a bounty of questions about an uncertain future.
It’s the kind of karmic, cosmic payback Lions fans have waited years to feel, to taste, to savor like a great meal that doesn’t end until you’ve sucked on the bones and scooped out the marrow and are finally sated.
This is what Goff did. This is what he gave Lions fans, who too often have seen their team play the unlucky stooge for Packers legends like Rodgers and Richard Rodgers and Matt Flynn. This is the moment that Campbell gave to Goff, and the moment Goff used to turn himself into a Lions legend by completing that pass.
Goff had a full understanding of the moment, even if he doesn’t quite grasp the full extent of the burning hostility Lions fans have for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
“Sure, we get to kick them out (of the playoffs), and that’s a nice side part of it, but it’s winning this game on the road in Lambeau,” he said. “We are a dome team, we can’t play in cold weather, the whole gamut. We come in here and we do it.”
Campbell new what he was doing when he approved the play, the same way he knew what he was doing with Williams’ two TD runs, and the week before when Brock Wright erased the sting of T.J. Hockenson’s trade by setting a Lions season record for touchdowns by tight ends.
So Campbell put the ball, the game, the season and the little bit of lore in Goff’s hands.
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“Let’s let him win this game,” Campbell said of his plan. “So we put the big hat on him and had a feeling what (defense) they would be in and we just, we believed in Goff.
“He’s been the guy that’s played lights out for the back half of the season, really all season. He just had some things, some bumps, like all of us did early in the year. Let’s put the onus on him, man. Let’s let him win this for us and he did that.”
So Goff completed the pass and seized the moment. He has completed 324 passes without an interception and has guided the Lions from a 3-13-1 season to a 1-6 start to an 8-2 rebound to a 9-8 finish — the team’s first winning record since 2017.
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He has remade himself from a Hollywood castoff into a Detroit superhero, almost literally if you ask Williams, who has seen him transform from Bruce Banner to the Hulk.
“When he get on the field, I tell you, he turns into a little Hulk — a little tall, slender Hulk,” Williams said. “He’s great. I love J.G. just because he believes in everybody, he’s a great teammate. He knows when it’s when it’s time to put the hat on somebody else to make a play.
“He does nothing but give encouragement. He does nothing but shows love and we give it back to him. He’s just a competitor. He just wants to go out there and ball.”
That isn’t easy when there’s a lot of noise and criticism surrounding a player, which Williams knows Goff has had to deal with.
“I’m just proud of the scrutiny and you know everybody talking bad about him all the time, for him the block that out and still go out there and ball is a great trait for him,” Williams said. “And I feel like he’s just a great player, a great person. He doesn’t let the outside noise stop him from being great.”
Campbell said the team wanted to prove something to itself in this game, so I asked Goff what he proved to himself this season, especially after going through the difficulties last season and the 1-6 start this season.
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“Yeah, I’ve always known my capabilities and what I can contribute to a team,” he said, “but I think this year more than ever I had to focus so much on myself and not in a selfish way. I had to make sure I was doing my job and not trying to carry a load that is impossible to carry at certain times.
“That was a challenge, but it served me well, and I’ve learned from it and gotten so much better as a player and a person. Being able to learn from that has been extremely beneficial for me.”
It’s a surprising answer because he explained that he learned to be better by doing less and not feeling like he had to be a superhero, which ironically made him look even more like one in the biggest of moments Sunday.
“He’s played great,” Campbell said quietly at the end of his news conference, “and he’s really a perfect fit for what we do and what we ask. I think the true sign of a pro is somebody that can take the coaching, he can look at himself in the mirror, he knows where he needs to improve, he listens to what recommendations you have for him to get better.
“He goes at it, now. He doesn’t shy from it, he doesn’t get sensitive. He just wants to be good. And that’s our quarterback, you know? So that’s pretty good stuff.”
Unfortunately, Campbell ended his news conference with his only mistake of the day, because anyone who watched this team for years and watched the game Sunday knows the truth. It’s pretty great stuff.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.