Jared Goff was just about flawless in the Lions' win over the Bears last week. His only shortcoming might have been, well, coming up short. When Goff tried to follow the lead of Amon-Ra St. Brown and leap into the crowd in the back of the end zone after his fifth touchdown pass of the day, he barely made it into the stands and had to be dragged up by a couple of kids. It was a less-than-athletic moment for the four-time Pro Bowler.
"Bad," was how Goff summarized his celebration attempt after Detroit's 52-21 win. "Really bad."
Asked about it Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket, Goff said, "I think I'm gonna retire from jumping into the crowd. I think that might be the last one for me."
"I think my technique’s wrong," said Goff. "I don’t think I push off of the top of the wall well enough, I think that’s the thing I’m missing. I’m just trying to, like, jump in. You can’t do that. I think I’m gonna retire from that for a while. Maybe I’ll bring it back one day, but for a little while I’m gonna stay in the stadium and feet on the grass."
Goff completed 23 of 28 passes on a day the Lions piled up over 500 yards of offense and broke the franchise record for yards per play. He raved about the performance of his offensive line, which was under scrutiny last week after Detroit got dominated in the trenches in Green Bay.
Against the Bears, Goff was pressured just four times and wasn't sacked. The pass protection, he said, "was as good as I’ve ever played behind." The data backs him up.
Goff and the Lions have a bigger test next week on the road against the Ravens on Monday Night Football. In their last trip to Baltimore, in 2023, they lost 38-6. The offense will have to be prepared for the sort of raucous crowd that gave them troubles in Green Bay.
"That place is loud, they’ll be rocking, they’ll be going," said Goff. "But as a quarterback, that’s part of my job, is communication. I’ve been doing it for 10 years, I've done it on the road in a lot of hostile environments. We should be able to handle it, we should be able to handle the noise. We should be able to communicate well. We shouldn’t be affected by it if we are who we say we are."