You could really feel it creeping back in there for a second on Sunday. There were a decent subsection of Detroit Lions fans that were ready to throw Jared Goff to the wolves after a ton of good games and one really bad one.
I get it, I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel myself, but your mind had to start wandering after that third interception. This was not a good game for Jared Goff. That’s totally fair to say. But it was definitely an important one.
If you take into account everything you knew about Jared Goff before he got to the Lions in 2021, then you knew that Goff was going to crumble in this game. That’s all you’ve been told. Jared Goff lacks confidence and when you put him under pressure, he can’t handle it. He will buckle when you need him the most.
In the first 55 and half minutes of this game, Jared Goff went 13-24 for 121 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Then the last 4 minutes happened and suddenly Jared Goff was an assassin that could not be stopped and could care less what happened in the first 55 minutes.
He went 10-11 for 115 yards and a 32-yard touchdown to Jameson Williams. He was laser focused and led the Lions to back to back touchdown drives in short order and the team won. That was so far away from anything we may have thought we knew about Jared Goff before his arrival in Detroit.
The guy deserves some major credit. He never wavered. Not once. Even when it seemed like it couldn’t possibly get worse. Even when it actually did get worse. Goff went into the depths of hell and came back out with his head on straight and led this team to a win.
I knew the Lions had their guy with Goff before this. Now I definitely know. What you want in a quarterback is a guy that can go through hell and figure it out without losing total control of everything. Goff showed he can be that guy. He showed that even on his worst day, he will still be there to help figure it out.
With that said, Goff can’t do that again. He needs to make sure that he returns to the Goff that he’s been more often than not. They got away with it this time, but it’s pretty hard to win a game like that. Even if your quarterback has his head on straight.