Cal Sports Report

Jared Goff Directs the Lions into First Place

A poor man's Matt Ryan? That's what Ryan Fitzpatrick called Goff after the Lions' 34-20 win over the Packers Thursday -- and the ex-Cal QB responded

Jake Curtis

In this story:

Jared Goff had a workmanlike performance Thursday night, and his effort in the Detroit Lions' 34-20 victory over the  Green Bay Packers produced three impressive bottom lines:

---Goff has been the chief cog in the Lions' 11-3 record since the midpoint of the 2022 season.  Detroit was 1-6 before it surged into prominence. 

---Goff has taken Detroit into sole possession of first place in the NFC North with a 3-1 record.

---Goff has directed the Lions to road wins over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium and over the Packers at Lambeau Field already this season. That is a road double few teams accomplish.

This is a big deal for the Lions, who have not been to the playoffs in seven years, have not won a playoff game in 32 years and are one of just two current teams -- the Browns are the other -- that has never played in the Super Bowl.

(By the way, it's a good thing the Lions won the game because a Packers win would have brought a lot of attention to a missed call by the officials that led to a Packers touchdown that cut the lead to 27-17. But more on that later.)

(Also, by the way, Ryan Fitzpatrick called Goff a "poor man's Matt Ryan," and Goff responded in the video at the bottom of this report.)

Goff, who set a number of records while at Cal, was 19-for-28 for 210 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a passer rating of 86.9 on Thursday. That will pull down his passer rating for the season, which was 101.6 coming into Thursday's game.  And he has already thrown three interceptions this season after going 10 straight games, including the season-opening win over the Chiefs, without any picks.

But he showed resilience in this one.

Goff started the game as if the evening might be a disaster.  He threw an interception on his second pass of the game, and Green Bay turned it into a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

But the 28-year-old Goff bounced back, leading the Lions to 27 straight points and a 27-3 halftime lead.

He threw a touchdown pass to put the Lions ahead to stay at 7-3.

Goff's 11-yard run to the Packer's 4-yard line set up a touchdown that made it 14-3, and the big play on the ensuing Detroit drive that led to a field goal was Kalif Raymond's 40-yard run to the Green Bay 9-yard line.  

And as you'll notice in the video below, Goff made a key block at the outset of Raymond's run.

The second half amounted to the Lions' holding off the Packers' rally attempts.

The play that got Green Bay back in the game was a 44-yard Jordan Love completion to the Lions' 9-yard line at the end of the third quarter.  Green Bay converted that into a touchdown that made it 27-17.  But replays, as well as the commentary from officiating expert Terry McAuley, indicated that 44-yard pass should never have counted because the ball was snapped after the third quarter had ended.

It did not matter as the Lions added a touchdown -- aided by a critical penalty on Quay Walker on a Lions field goal attempt -- that made it a 34-17 game, ending Green Bay's hopes.

Lions running back David Montgomery rushed for 123 yards and three touchdowns and will go down as the star of the game.  But teams simply don't win this kind of road games without solid play from their quarterbacks.

And after the game Goff entertained the TV crew, which included former Cal star Tony Gonzalez. Goff responded to Ryan Fitzpatrick's characterization of Goff as "a poor-man's Matt Ryan."

Cover photo of Jared Goff by Benny Sieu, USA TODAY Sports

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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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