On January 14, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff performed as though he had something to prove. In addition to his former team, the Los Angeles Rams, who chose to trade Goff along with multiple first-round picks in order to acquire quarterback Matthew Stafford, Goff had something to prove in the NFL postseason.
Any amount of resentment on either side wouldn’t be shocking. However, following the Lions’ 24-23 victory over the Rams in the NFC Wild Card game, Rams head coach Sean McVay made it clear that he doesn’t have any.
“Jared worked incredibly well. You could see the command that he has,” McVay said to reporters during his postgame press conference. “I’m really happy for him, but I think it’s been overdone.
McVay went on to praise his former quarterback for his actions during the previous three years following the trade, in addition to his playoff performance.
McVay stated, “Obviously, we wanted to win, but he’s done a great job.” “I’m happy for Jared because of his tenacity, resiliency, and the way he’s performed here over the past three years.
“I am grateful for our four years together, without a doubt.”
Goff completed 22 of 27 passes for 277 yards with a touchdown in the 1-point victory.
Jared Goff Leads Lions Against Rams to Playoff Victory
The Lions’ signal-caller started the postseason game against the Rams with a bang. To start the game, Goff led the Lions on three touchdown drives while completing his first ten passes.
Wide receiver Josh Reynolds of the Lions, a fellow former Ram, was crucial to that start. For 80 yards, Reynolds caught all five of his first-half targets. Detroit led by four points at the half as a result of that.
The third quarter was opened by a field goal added on by the Lions. Detroit managed to hold on and win its first playoff game in thirty-two years.
Despite defeating his old team, Goff refused to make the victory all about him when asked the first question.
On the field following the game, Goff told NBC’s Melissa Stark, “This team is really special, and it’s about our team. Of course, I have some personal ties there, but that doesn’t matter—this is about our team. The topic is the 2023 Lions.”
But Goff let more of his feelings come out when he walked into the Detroit locker room.
“Ja-red Goff! Ja-red Goff,” the official Lions X (formerly Twitter) account wrote as a caption to a locker room celebration video.
QB Matthew Stafford was praised by McVay as well.
Sports talk radio will probably continue to be dominated by Goff’s victory. However, Stafford, the former signal caller for the Lions, was almost as good in what was a truly remarkable playoff quarterback duels.
25 out of 36 passes from Stafford were completed for 367 yards and two touchdowns. Goff and Stafford both completed at least 10.2 yards per attempt on average.
Despite his compliments, McVay stated that Goff is the right player for his team in the center of the field.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else as our quarterback other than Matthew Stafford.” McVay told reporters, “He was excellent. He possessed courage and grit. made one difficult throw after another. He stood in there dropping dimes all day long as the rush came crashing down on him.
“We simply fell short in the red area by a small margin. However, he did give us an opportunity.”
With 425-334, the Rams outgained the Lions. However, Detroit converted all three of its red zone possessions into touchdowns.
Los Angeles kicked 3 field goals on its 3 red zone possessions.