Getty Jared Goff gets hit by Matt Judon of the Patriots in 2022.
While plenty of folks were choosing to point the finger toward others for the Detroit Lions’ frustrating defeat to the New England Patriots, several members of the team were blaming themselves.
Quarterback Jared Goff was one such person. Goff had an erratic game against the New England Patriots, only completing 19 passes on the day and having an interception. Goff also had a costly strip-sack lead to a touchdown, which he was focused on after the game.
Meeting with the media, Goff was asked about his errors, and was clearly still fuming about some of the decisions he made during the course of the game, especially the touchdown.
“It’s always costly to turn the ball over any time, but when it results in a six, it’s obviously even more costly. I wish I would have been a little more careful there, but (I was) trying to extend the play on fourth (down), and (it was) unfortunate,” Goff said.
In terms of the way the Lions were shut down all day limited to no points and just 315 yards of total offense, there might have been a question about if New England did something different to confuse Detroit. Goff didn’t think that was the case.
“They played what they usually play. I didn’t have to watch it, but from what I saw, they played what they usually played and I think what they do so well is they’re just so sound,” he said. :They’re so sound and they have a really good idea of how you’re trying to attack them offensively. Their players are very smart and then they’re good players too, so in order to beat teams like that, defenses like that, you can’t make dumb mistakes like I did. We just got to be better.”
The dumb mistakes clearly stung the Lions the most in the game, something that Goff understands. He will have to find a way to make his team better on the field in the future in the bigger moments and learn from the way this defeat went.
Goff Endured Worst Day as Lions Quarterback
In terms of the mistakes he made, Goff was rightfully hard on himself. Both of the mistakes cost the Lions dearly on the scoreboard, and helped flip momentum of the game in a dramatic way.
Winning a game on the road always requires a team to have elite quarterback play, and Jared Goff picked the worst time for his ugliest day as a Lions passer.
Not only was Goff sacked times, he had a back breaking interception early in the game with the Lions driving, and also had the critical fumble for a score. Goff had only 19 completions for 229 yards and was far from the elite passer that he has looked like early in the year. Many spotted him missing wide open wideouts on the field as well;
A lazy impatient play from Goff cost the Lions a TD on 4th down. Just awful man.
Many folks haven’t bought into Goff hype no matter how solid the quarterback has looked. Perhaps this is the reason why that is the case. He’ll have to re-center himself during the Detroit bye week.
Goff: Lions Didn’t Do Enough vs. Patriots
So where does the blame lie for the defeat? As Goff said, he believes it was on the players and specifically himself for a lack of execution on the field when given the opportunity to do so.
“Ultimately, it was us not executing and not playing nearly to our standard. Starts with me and then trickled all the way down. I think everyone would say the same thing. We didn’t do nearly enough play in and play out to stay competitive in that game.”
In terms of where the Lions can go from here, Goff wants his teammates to know that bad losses happen, and it’s how they respond that will determine where thing go for the future.
“Days like this happen and you don’t want them to happen, but I’ve been a part of a couple of them in my career and and they’re hopefully wake-up calls if you handle them the right way,” he said.
Goff will try to put that learning to good use during the bye so he can bounce back even stronger on the field after a very rough week.
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