By the numbers, Jared Goff had one of the worst games of his life. But after throwing a career-high five picks in the Lions' win over the Texans last week, neither Goff nor Dan Campbell were all that discouraged by the quarterback's performance.
Any concern, Coach?
"None," Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Everybody’s going to think we’re crazy, you’re going to think I’m crazy. I'm telling you, he didn’t play a bad game. He played a pretty good game."
The stats tell one story. The throws that led to the interceptions tell another, and this is the one that Campbell cares about. In the same way that he called his quarterback on "trying to do too much" when Goff threw three picks in the first two games of the season, Campbell is backing Goff for making the right reads against the Texans. The results just weren't there.
"He’s going where we’re telling him to go with the ball and he’s putting it where we’re telling him to put it, and then there’s a couple of these that get batted. ... He’s doing exactly what we’re asking him to do, so I’m not worried at all," Campbell said.
Goff's first interception owed to a strong play by blitzing safety Jalen Pitre, who tipped a pass to Jahmyr Gibbs into the air behind the line of scrimmage. Safety Jimmie Ward came down with it. The second owed to a strong rush by Denico Autry, who bulled his way past Penei Sewell and knocked the ball out of Goff's hand as he was preparing to throw it. It bounced off two defensive linemen and into the hands of linebacker Henry To'oTo'o. The third was a Hail Mary on the final play of the first half.
"Yeah, it wasn’t our best first half," Goff said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket, "but it wasn’t like there were bad plays on every snap. The first one was a tipped ball, the second one was really a fumble that went forward, and third one’s a Hail Mary, it’s crappy but you deal with it."
The fourth, which came right after Carlton Davis III picked off C.J. Stroud on the first play of the second half, "was a good throw" down the seam to Sam LaPorta, said Dan Campbell, but "LaPorta was a little late getting his head around, and then he didn’t quite get himself to the ball. But the timing says, rip that ball," which Goff did.
LaPorta was also briefly knocked off course at the top of his route by a defensive back in his path, which allowed cornerback Kamari Lassiter to get inside leverage and make a leaping interception.
And the fifth pick, again, was more on Goff's target than Goff himself. While it looked like Goff badly missed Jameson Williams on a deep ball, "Jamo should be at a little higher angle," said Campbell. The ball sailed over Williams' head and turned into an easy interception for safety Calen Bullock.
"There are just these little circumstances that come into play," said Campbell. "For me, I'm not going to tell him anything because I don't feel like this is, 'Oh man, what are you doing?' These weren't ill-advised throws."
Goff owned his "stupid" decisions early in the season, even acknowledging that he "got lucky" to only throw as many picks as he did. So it holds water when he says in the wake of this game, "To be honest, I felt good, I felt like I was seeing everything how I wanted to. I was throwing it great, and just some unfortunate situations."
"I’d be on here and honest with you guys if I felt like I wasn’t seeing things great, but I did, and it sucks. I wish I had a better answer," said Goff. "I’m glad we were able to pull out the win regardless."
Despite the early struggles, the Lions scored on their final three drives, with Goff completing six of eight passes for 68 yards. His biggest throw of the night, an 11-yard completion on third down to Amon-Ra St. Brown, set up Jake Bates' game-winning field goal.
"When you’re a team that can find a way to win in games like that when you’re kind of off and things aren’t going your way, on the road, against another good team, that’s when you know you got something brewing that’s special," said Goff.