It wasn’t exactly Aaron Rodgers’s famous R-E-L-A-X message in 2014. But Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff delivered his own calm down message to fans while appearing on 97.1 The Ticket on Tuesday morning.
Goff received a specific question about what he would say to fans entering Week 3 after the team’s 1-1 start. The quarterback’s answered conveyed urgency yet also emphasized patience.
“We’re 1-1, and it’s Week 3,” Goff said. “Listen, we lost by 10 and had some chances to stay in that game. We didn’t do it. It’s a good team; we lost. They got us. We move on to the next one.
“And to be honest, I really don’t feel like I have to defend anything we’re doing internally. We’ve got a lot of season in front of us, a lot of work to do certainly, but we feel just fine.”
The Lions will look to bounce back from their 41-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills against the New York Jets this Sunday. The Jets enter the matchup with a 1-1 record as well.
Jared Goff Answers Question on Message to Lions Fans After 1-1 Start
Based on the tone in Goff’s voice, he may not have appreciated being asked to deliver a message to the fan base after just two games. But he sent a calming, confident message in his own way.
Of course Goff and the Lions would prefer to be 2-0 and playing well. But NFL teams can’t win the Super Bowl in September.
Some teams that look great right now won’t in a few months and vice versa. The Lions avoided an 0-2 hole thanks to their Week 1 overtime victory. That puts them in fine position moving forward if they can make the corrections Dan Campbell told the media about Monday.
A lot of those corrections are on defense. Goff and the offense have back-to-back 31-point efforts to begin the season. The quarterback, though, wants his unit to start games faster going forward.
“I don’t know if I would attribute [the slow starts] to anything. It’s just happenstance,” said Goff. “Although it is something that we do need to be intentional about. Talking about it, making sure guys know how fast we want to start.
“Sometimes, those types of things happen early in a season, but I don’t think we have any time to waste, and we need to make sure we get off to a hot start from here on out.”
The Lions have scored two touchdowns in the first half this season. They have tallied six touchdowns in the second half and overtime.
Despite slow starts, Goff leads the NFL with six passing touchdowns through two weeks. He hasn’t thrown an interception either.
Overall, Goff is 52 for 77, completing 67.5% of his passes for 533 yards. He has averaged 6.9 yards per attempt and 10.3 yards per completion. While good numbers, those final two totals are both Goff’s career norms.
Jared Goff Delivers Message to Lions Fans Before Jets Game