Jared Goff says he doesn't consume any of the outside criticism or praise. But he does catch wind of it now and then, like when friends send it to him, or when it pops up on his phone, or, like Tuesday, when he joined 97.1 The Ticket for his weekly interview and learned that some callers just don't think it's going to happen this season for the Lions, who are 8-6 and outside the playoffs with three games to go.
"That's awesome, that's awesome," Goff quipped to those fans. "Thank you, guys."
Asked what he would say to the doubters to reinstill them with faith, Goff said, "I don't get to reinstill faith in anyone. It pisses me off a little bit to hear that, but we have to win this first one. Pittsburgh at home, we'll have it in front of our home fans, it'll be great. Go out there and get that W and hopefully prove a lot of our people wrong."
And can the Lions get that done?
"Win the first one? Absolutely. We can get this one done, beat Pittsburgh and then go from there," said Goff.
Goff is in the midst of another terrific season with the Lions, second in the NFL in passer rating. The Lions lead the league in scoring offenese for the second year in a row. But their defense has let them down of late, yielding 41 points and 519 yards in last week's loss to the Rams and an average of 34 points and 453 yards in the last four games.
The Lions haven't won consecutive games in more than two months. Now they likely have to win three in a row, and get some help, to squeeze into the playoffs. Goff says they're excited for the challenge.
"We don't really know what the math is out there, but of course we want to win all of them. But you can't win all of them if you don't win this first one. I know that's not the answer you guys want to hear and I know it's cliche, but it's the truth. If we don't go out and beat Pittsburgh we're digging ourselves an even bigger hole. And if we do go out and beat Pittsburgh, we're getting ourselves that much closer to the playoffs. So, gotta find a way to win this one, move on and I'll chat with you guys next Tuesday about it," said Goff.
The Lions' offense wasn't blameless against the Rams. While Goff threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns and Detroit scored 30-plus points for the eighth time this season, the Lions started the second half by going three-and-out on three consecutive drives. That helped turn their 24-17 lead into a 34-24 deficit.
"Those three drives to start the second half were really the only problems we had all day," said Goff. "One of them we had the holding call that put us in second and longer, and when you're in third and long it becomes hard. But I say that as much to say that it's on me and the receivers to convert there. The good teams find ways to convert on third and long, and we had our chances to stay on the field and continue those drives and we didn't."