Cal Sports Report

Jared Goff Leads Lions to First Playoff Win Since 1991 Season

Former Cal QB Goff helps Detroit beat the Rams, the team that traded him away

Jake Curtis

Jared Goff Leads Lions to First Playoff Win Since 1991 Season
Jared Goff Leads Lions to First Playoff Win Since 1991 Season /

Former Cal quarterback Jared Goff was dumped by the Rams three years ago in a lopsided trade that brought Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles. On Sunday night, Goff and the Lions beat the Rams and Stafford 24-23 on the Lions' home field to give Detroit its first playoff win since the 1991 season.

Goff played an outstanding game completing 22-of-27 passes for 277 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a 121.8 passer rating.  

Two of his completions stood out.  First there was the fourth-down, 2-yard touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta that gave the Lions a 21-10 lead in the second quarter.

The other key Goff pass was an 11-yard completion to Amon-Ra St. Brown on a second-and-9 play from Detroit 32 for a first down with 1:54 remaining in the game, clinching the win.  

That completion allowed Goff to merely kneel down three times and gain the Lions' first postseason win since January 1992, when a Lions team featuring quarterback Erik Kramer and running back Barry Sanders won an opening-round playoff game against a Dallas Cowboys team led by Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.

In the days leading up to this game, Goff had downplayed the importance of this game for him -- going against the team that traded him away and hoping to get Detroit's first playoff win in 32 years -- but he admitted afterward that he had to "subdue a lot of emotions" to perform well. He called the win a "surreal moment."

The Lions and Goff will try to win a second postseason game next week against either the Eagles and the Buccaneers, and that will be a home game for the Lions as well. The Lions have not won two playoff games in a season since 1957, when they captured the NFL title behind quarterback Tobin Rote.

Sunday was just the second postseason game the Lions have won since that 1957 season.

Stafford had an excellent game for the Rams, going 25-for-36 for 367 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 120.9 passer rating.  But he never got back on the field after Detroit took over with 4:07 to go, clinging to that one-point lead.  

Goff completed both of his pass attempts for 22 yards in that final Detroit possession, including that clinching 11-yarder.

Who's house is this?

Goff and Stafford hugged after the game, and you can make out some of their conversation, in which Stanford replies, "I appreciate you, brother," to something Goff said.

Lions coach Dan Campbell compliments Goff after the game. "What a stud."

"I thought he played top-notch football," Campbell said of Goff.

Cover photo of Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford hugging after the game is by Junfu Han, USA TODAY NETWORK

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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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