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    • Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff silences doubters with perfection
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    Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff silences doubters with perfection

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    Jared Goff set an NFL record by completing all 18 passes in the Detroit Lions’ 42-29 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night.

    The quarterback passed for 292 yards and two touchdowns. To top it all off, he even caught his first NFL touchdown pass on a stunning trick play – reminiscent of the “Philly Special” – that the Lions call “Alcatraz.”

    Even after all that, Dan Campbell still didn’t give him a game ball.

    “Yeah, well, I just gave the match ball to someone else, so I feel terrible now,” the Lions head coach said with a smile, before admitting he had done the best of Dan Campbell and given match balls to Jameson Williams and Kerby had given. Joseph for their excellent, gritty play, and to offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

    You can’t blame Campbell. In the post-game euphoria, which came with plenty of superlatives, it could be easy to overlook the man who always looks pretty good.

    That is, until recently. Through the first three games, Goff hasn’t been his usual efficient, productive self. Before Monday, he had three touchdown passes with four interceptions and a 79.2 passer rating — one of the worst in the NFL this season.

    CARLOS MONARREZ: Figures Detroit Lions vs. Seattle Seahawks: Perfection earns an A for Jared Goff

    Let’s be real for a moment. This couldn’t continue because the Lions’ identity is built around their offense. The improved play of the defense in the first three games has been a bonus, but if the Lions want to get where they want to go, it starts with the offense.

    That means it really starts with Goff. The offense leaned on David Montgomery and the run game early, but when the Lions needed points, they turned to Goff and he turned his performance up a notch.

    Even though the Lions had not scored more than 26 points in any of their first three games and were held to 16 in a home loss to Tampa Bay, Goff felt the breakout was coming after a stellar first half last week in Arizona when he hit 12-of-12 with two touchdowns.

    “We knew this was coming offensively, everyone knew that,” Campbell said. “And that’s why you can’t worry about this and that, you can’t panic, you just work and clear everything away.

    “We talked about the red zone and the things that were designed, and the work we put into it from the players and coaches. That’s what you do, and we worked and it showed. That’s how we found our rhythm.

    “Every week will be different. This was a bit of a circuit match, while these first few matches were more of this low scoring (type).

    Yeah, this was definitely a bit of a track meet – the kind from the 80s and 90s, when everyone was on steroids. The teams combined for more than 900 yards of offense, 59 first downs and 10 touchdowns.

    But the Lions led the way all night. They sprinted to the lead and never relinquished it. Even though it was a one-score game in the fourth quarter, the Lions appeared to be in control, thanks to Goff and the offense, which ran and passed effectively and at times spectacularly.

    Of course, much of the credit goes to offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who called a great game that kept a good defensive team guessing all night when it wasn’t busy chasing Jameson Williams’ vapor trail on a touchdown from 70 yards of Goff on his surprise catch in the end zone.

    The thing about Goff is that he needed this game more than anyone to silence the questions that were starting to arise. It hadn’t yet reached the point where that “YES-RED GOFF!” chants had been replaced by “Jared Goff?” questions from quietly concerned fans, but it was close.

    This game silenced all potential doubters. While Goff is about as confident and poised as an athlete can be, I have it on good authority that he is also human and can sense human things like relief during a breakout game.

    “Yes, you’ll feel good about a performance like this,” Campbell said. “I don’t want to speak for Jared, but I would be willing to bet somewhere that he knew he was going to have a good game.

    “He just did that because he – I go back to – I felt like he was going to get back into balance last week, get back to the middle. Take what is there, be smart with football, play fast, play efficiently, and rather, ‘Maybe I’m trying to do more than is necessary.’ ”

    When I asked Goff before Monday if he was concerned about his subpar stats and the offense’s production, he gave the answer I expected.

    “I had a lot of confidence in what was happening,” he said. “You don’t know when it’s going to happen or when it’s going to open up like it did with us tonight. I thought the first half of last week was indicative of who we are and being able to draw on that this week was important.”

    It’s a testament to Goff and what he did in Detroit that he led the Lions to a 2-1 record and somehow that wasn’t enough. Before Monday, in just over three years with the Lions, he had thrown for 81 touchdowns with 31 interceptions and nearly 13,000 yards with a 66.5% completion percentage and a 95.5 passer rating.

    Those are fantastic numbers, and in some cases better than the numbers he had in five years with the Rams. On Monday, he put up even more numbers, toppling the 2005 NFL record set by Arizona’s Kurt Warner when he completed all 10 of his passes against Houston.

    He showed good feel in the pocket and in motion, delivering a Matthew Stafford-like pass across his body to Amon-Ra St. Brown near the goal line. Then St. Brown returned the favor by giving his quarterback a 7-yard TD pass.

    Goff didn’t know why Johnson chose to name his trick play TD “Alcatraz,” but in the context of the play and how the offense happened, it made perfect sense. Because the infamous prison’s most haunting feature was its proximity to a beautiful, bustling city across the San Francisco Bay. The prisoners only had to free themselves to experience the nearby wonders they dreamed of.

    Contact Carlos Monarrez: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

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