Allen Park — Less than 10 seconds remained before halftime in the NFL’s season opener in Kansas City when NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said something that millions of viewers no doubt were thinking.
It’s something Jared Goff probably feels like he has heard a million times himself over the last few years. And, honestly, it’s part of the reason why he was there Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium in the first place, quarterbacking the Lions against the defending Super Bowl champs.
“So, it has been a good first half for Jared Goff,” Collinsworth said, shortly after Patrick Mahomes, the reigning NFL MVP, had led the Chiefs on a quick-strike touchdown drive to take a 14-7 lead. “It’s been good, it just hasn’t been great. And when you play this team, and this quarterback — the MVP — you have to have moments of greatness.”
And in the moment, sure, it felt like this night might be another example of that. It felt like another reminder, too, of what’s missing in Detroit, where the Lions finally do look like a legitimate contender in the NFC. But Jared Goff? A great quarterback?
Well, a couple hours later, we were reminded of something else: That’s not what the Lions are asking him to be, nor is it what they need him to be. Not yet, anyway.
And among the many takeaways from Thursday’s prime-time triumph over the Chiefs, that may be the most reassuring one for the Lions. For this team, at this moment, Goff sure looks good enough.
That was a point his raspy-voiced head coach, Dan Campbell, was making at the podium immediately after the game. And then again Friday as he and his staff went over the film back in Detroit, where the Lions now have 10 days to prepare for their home opener against Seattle.
“I like where he’s at and the way he’s playing the game,” Campbell said of Goff, who finished 22-of-35 for 253 yards and a touchdown against the Chiefs, while extending his remarkable run of consecutive passes without an interception to 359 — the third-longest streak in NFL history. “Because Jared’s playing a steady, solid, smart game right now. And he helped us win last night.”
Again, that’s the ask here, unlike it was at the end of his time there in Los Angeles. It’s not to win the game himself, but to help the Lions win. And Goff, who is protected by one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and coached by one of the league’s more innovative play-callers in Ben Johnson, did exactly that Thursday in one of the toughest road environments a quarterback can face.
Game-winning drive
The Lions got a pick-six from their defense to erase that halftime deficit, and then Goff led the offense on a nine-play, 80-yard touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter that proved to be the game-winner.
“I think we’re to the point now where we’re built for environments like this, to go on the road to anywhere and pull out a win,” said Goff, whose team has now won nine of its last 11 games — and five of its last six on the road — dating to last October. “And even if it’s ugly, it’s a win and we’re happy about it. …
“We didn’t play our best ball today, certainly on offense. The defense kept us in the game, for the most part. But when we had to be great, we were. We found a way.”
The way the Lions do it starts with that offensive line, which allowed only 24 sacks all of last season — the second-fewest in the NFL — and held up fairly well Thursday night against a Chiefs defense that was missing All-Pro Chris Jones but blitzed on more than 40 percent of the snaps.
There’s a reason Johnson affectionately calls that O-line “my blankie” and “Jared’s blankie,” too.
“I mean, those guys, they’re special,” the Lions’ offensive coordinator said. “They really are.”
And because they are, there’s less pressure on Goff to do what some of the league’s elite quarterbacks do, whether it’s Mahomes or Josh Allen or even Joe Burrow. Less pressure to do some of what Sean McVay was impatiently demanding from him at the end of his time in Los Angeles, too, for that matter.
Play-action pass game
Mind you, Goff is still doing plenty of heavy lifting in Johnson’s scheme, working the play-action pass game about as well as any quarterback in the NFL does and making a bunch of quality throws into tight windows along the way. Go back and watch some of those in-breaking routes he nailed Thursday if you don’t believe it.
“When you protect him, he can throw it with anyone – he just can,” said ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, the former Lions quarterback who calls Goff one of the best “natural throwers” in the game. “And you can do that on a consistent basis when you have an offensive line that kind of gives you the ability to do whatever you want. I think you see that in Detroit.”
We see it in the Lions’ reliance on the run game, where the creativity and diversity of calls is on par with any team in the league, really. And while the raw statistics Thursday weren’t exactly dazzling – David Montgomery and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs combined for 116 yards on 28 carries, good for 4.1 yards a pop – the advanced metrics looked a bit better. So did the fact that half of that run-game production came in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead touchdown on a beautifully executed counter play inside the 10.
But we also see it in the confidence that Goff, who turns 29 next month, seems to have beginning his second full season in Johnson’s offense. Orlovsky calls Goff “one of the most natural throwers I’ve ever been around.” He’s also tougher than anyone seems to give him credit for being. Yet the three-time Pro Bowler also has worked hard to improve his footwork in Detroit, which in turn has him in better position to pull the trigger as he works through his progressions more quickly and efficiently.
That doesn’t always mean he’ll make the right read, obviously. Goff even will tell you that about one of his best throws Thursday. That line drive to Josh Reynolds to convert on third-and-12 and jump-start the Lions’ game-winning drive was terrific, particularly with a blitzing cornerback bearing down on him. But it could’ve been better, he says, because he missed Amon-Ra St. Brown breaking free deep on a busted coverage in the middle of the field.
Still, as Goff noted afterward, “It worked out pretty good.”
And maybe the same can be said for this second act of his career that’s playing out in Detroit: So far, so good?
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter/X: @JohnNiyo