Cal Sports Report

Jared Goff Does Enough to Get Important Win

Former Cal star Goff was not great, but he directed the game-winning drive in overtime

Jake Curtis

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
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Former Cal quarterback Jared Goff will not be showing film of his Sunday night performance to MVP voters, but the bottom line he was the quarterback of a team that recorded an important overtime win in its season opener.

Goff is among a cluster of players lined up behind Patrick Mahomes as possible MVP candidates for this season.  He had a so-so game in the Detroit Lions' 26-20 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Rams before a national television audience on Sunday night. Goff was 18-for-28 for 217  yards, one touchdown and one interception, and his mediocre passer rating of 85.0 was nearly identical to that of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was traded for Goff in January 2021.

Stafford finished 34-for-49 for 317 yards, one touchdown and one interception with a passer rating of 85.2.

What is more significant is that Goff is now 2-1 against the Rams and Stafford since the trade, and that includes a one-point win over the Rams in last season’s playoffs.

Goff did not play a major role in the Lions’ game-winning drive in the extra period.  Stafford never got a chance to take a snap in overtime, as the Lions won the toss and drove 70 yards for a touchdown to end the game.

Goff threw just one pass in that drive, but it was an important one – a 10-yard completion to Jahmyr Gibbs that gave Detroit a first down at the Rams’ 18-yard line. Ultimately, David Montgomery scored the touchdown on a 1-yard run, ending the game.

Goff did provide one highlight clip -- a 52-yard touchdown pass to put the Lions ahead 17-3:

A win and so-so stats in the season opener does not hurt Goff’s MVP campaign. The most important criterion for MVP candidacy is that your team have a good record at the end of the season and probably needs to win its division.  The Lions are expected to win their division for the second straight year and are considered Super Bowl contenders with Goff running the show. That would make Goff an MVP candidate.

Most betting sites listed Patrick Mahomes as the preseason favorite to win the MVP this season.  Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the second favorite, followed by C.J. Stroud, Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow. Former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, Brock Purdy and Tua Tagovailoa are in a group with Goff as the next players in line.

The MVP is not determined in the opening weekend.  Rodgers began the 2021 season with what may have been the worst game of his career, throwing two interceptions and recording a 36.8 passer rating in a 38-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Rodgers won his second straight MVP award that year.

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Jake Curtis

JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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