Bold Prediction: Jared Goff Tosses Five Touchdowns against Buccaneers

Could Jared Goff have a stellar performance on the road?

Back in November of 2020, quarterback Jared Goff threw three touchdown passes against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, going 39-for-51 and tossing for 376 yards in a Los Angeles Rams 27-24 road victory at Raymond James Stadium. 

In a key Week 6 matchup, the expectation is Detroit will run the football at a high frequency against one of the NFL's top passing defenses. 

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has proven his scheme has a variety of methods of attacking opposing defenses. 

Against Todd Bowles' stingy defense, Goff could prove to be the super-charged engine this week, tossing five touchdowns on the road. 

“He is the engine that makes it go over there, not turning the ball over, throwing touchdowns, commanding the offense,” Bowles told reporters of Goff’s growth. "He was always very accurate. He is a competitor. He is playing great for them.”

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Baker Mayfield can identify with Goff's career arc, as he also has felt discarded, in need of finding a team that valued what he brought to the table. 

“I think you can tell his leadership and all of the reasons why he got chosen that high. He’s truly showing that now,” Mayfield told reporters this week. “Not every fit is perfect. For him, I think his confidence continued to grow, and he’s got all the tools you want -- tall guy, he’s got a good arm, really, really smart. I love his game. He’s a good guy, too.”

Trick plays

There is even opportunity for the veteran signal-caller to find his targets implementing surprise, trick plays. 

"It makes it fun. I think that’s a credit to Ben and what he’s done. Obviously, 99 percent of our offense is very focused and detailed, but here and there, he’ll throw in something that’s just fun and doesn’t really have a complete rhyme or reason necessarily. But, it’s something that we expect to work," said Goff. "And, we practice it enough that it does work, and that was one of them. It’s just duo is all we ran, the run duo. And, on third-and-6, are you ever going to run duo? I don’t know, you can, but we ran it with a little bit of a wrinkle on it and were able to pick up the first down, based on something we saw in them in certain situations. And, yeah, it’s fun. It makes it fun, it makes it light. We’ll have wrinkles here and there, and it keeps it light.”

Goff is 1-1 all-time against the Buccaneers, having defeated them on the road and losing at home. 

In 2019, Goff -- then with the Rams -- went 45-for-68 for 517 yards and two touchdowns in a 55-40 home loss to the Buccaneers.