Jared Goff’s Perfect Performance Roars Detroit Lions Into Bye Week With New Identity

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff completed all 18 of his passes during Monday’s home win against the Seattle Seahawks, setting an NFL record for perfection.

While the Detroit defense was gashed in spurts, the biggest thing about Detroit’s 42-29 victory over the Seattle Seahawks was that arguably could have been more ideal was the schedule.

No, we’re not stretching for a touch of gray for the boys in silver, black and Honolulu blue, but let’s at least mention next week’s bye. Talk about an apparent stunt to momentum. Then again, perhaps an attack that keeps building from so-so beginnings should be rewarded with a short respite ahead of a hopeful surge.

“I was very confident it would happen,” Goff said after the game. “I thought that first half last week was indicative of who we are. … To be able to have a full game that felt like that, that’s what you want.”

Goff connected on the first 14 passes of an eventual 20-13 victory in Arizona in Week 3 before finishing 18-for-23 for 196 yards and two scores. The streak marked his longest stretch of completions to start a game in his nine-year career.

It also offered encouragement. Goff was a combined 52-for-83 in the first two weeks of the season, passing for an impressive 524 yards but throwing three interceptions to just one TD.

On Monday, Goff was turnover-free while adding two more passing touchdowns and snagging another score.

Yup.

With the Lions marching midway through the third quarter, Goff handed the ball to David Montgomery, then made his way out of the backfield and toward the left sideline.

Montgomery pitched the ball to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who tossed a well… perfect pass over a Seattle defender into the arms of Goff for a 7-yard TD.

“I was fired up,” said Goff, who threw the ball into the stands. “We’ve been cooking that thing for a long time. I think it’s my first career touchdown catch ever.”

Perhaps it’s fitting that Goff rifled the ball to the Ford Field faithful without abandon.

At night’s end, Lions coach Dan Campbell distributed game balls to safety Kerby Joseph and wideout Jameson Williams. The latter was a recipient of a 70-yard TD pass from Goff, who did not receive a game ball, perhaps because Campbell is back to taking Goff’s efficiency as a given.

“I just gave the game ball to somebody else, so I feel awful,” Campbell said. “I knew he played a heck of a game. I did not realize he was perfect. I did not know he was literally 18-for-18, but I knew he played really well. You could feel it. He really found his rhythm early.”

It’s difficult to fault Campbell or even call him absent-minded. It’s not like this is baseball, where teammates traditionally leave a would-be perpetrator of a perfect game at one end of the dugout, not to be bothered, even though he remains in full view.

In football, stadium scoreboard operators occasionally flash playful graphics with the home offense on the field, suggesting the group would prefer relative silence, please and thank you. A message to the tune of “Quiet: Offense at work” comes to mind.

Once the ‘D’ retakes the field, though, raucous shouting and clapping resume.

With Detroit on the cusp of a 3-1 start and its first win against Seattle since 2012, fans Monday might have considered the night just about perfect without realizing Goff truly was in the eyes of the box score.

Goff admittedly fretted about whether a pass he threw out of bounds on a play later ruled offensive pass interference would count as an incompletion.

It didn’t.

With that, Goff can rest before aiming to expand his streak of keeping the ball off the ground in two weeks when the Lions visit Dallas.