Everything Jared Goff Said After Lions Beat Bears

Goff breaks down Lions win over Bears.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16). / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Here is everything Jared Goff said during his postgame press conference after the Detroit Lions defeated the Chicago Bears 23-20 on Thanksgiving.

On his immediate thoughts of the game: 

 “Yeah, it was a crazy ending, right? Like, thought we won, thought we were going to go to overtime, thought we were going to have a chance to have our final drive, thought we won again – like it all kind of kept happening. Ultimately, our defense – bend don’t break, and made those plays at the end – those sacks were huge, some of that stuff on the back end was huge covering, and they made it happen. But, yeah it was a good win – don’t care how it happens, don’t care against who, division game on Thanksgiving – we’ll take any win we can.”

On eating the turkey leg after the Thanksgiving win: 

 “Yeah, it’s the best. I was just talking about – in your NFL career you have these bucket list items – you know, holding the Lombardi is obviously number one, but the whole eating the turkey after the Thanksgiving win is up there too and that’s something that I’ll never forget. It was actually pretty good, the stuffing was good, we were having a good time, it’s awesome – it’s a memory I’ll have forever.”

On David Montgomery eating the carrots instead of the turkey leg: 

 “David was eating carrots yeah – I don’t know, he maybe wasn’t hungry.”

On how frustrating the Bears’ red zone defense was: 

 “Yeah, it was more that – you know, obviously the turnover hurts and some of the penalties hurt, and then we just had some crap plays down there that we didn’t execute very well. It just wasn’t our best performance in the red zone and we got to be better. We’ll learn from it, it’s good to learn from that stuff and get better. But that is a good unit in the red zone over there, but we had certainly had other opportunities to make plays that we didn’t make.”

On Lions TE Sam LaPorta being a weapon today: 

 “Yeah, it was good – a couple good ones to him. Got himself open on both of those and put it right in on him. But he’s a good player and he’s finally getting back to himself at this point and it feels good.”

On what he is thinking about while dominating early in the game: 

 “Yeah, I think like the red zone stuff – we had a chance to make it 28-0, or whatever it would have been if we had scored all the touchdowns and even at the end on that drive at the end of the half, make it 23-0, or even 19-0 if we had a field goal. But you just know that you kind of left the door open a little bit and you know, ‘Alright, this is going to be a game now,’ and we’ve kind of put ourselves in this position unfortunately. (We) have to kind of fight for it now and continue to finish this game, and I thought they fought back well. That team is a good team, they’re talented, and they did a good job fighting and we were able to close the door at the end.”

On Lions WR Jameson Williams apologizing to the team in the locker room after the game: 

 “Yeah, it’s huge. He’s right where he needs to be, he’s doing a good job – I know that was a mistake by him, but I’m proud of him, the way he handled it, the way he stood up and took responsibility. We’ll move on, there’s no problems there.”

On the handoff play to Lions T Penei Sewell: 

 “Yeah, that was a fun one that we’ve been working on for a while. It just hadn’t come up for whatever reason and he got it and didn’t quite have the look to throw it, so didn’t work out, but he made two or three guys miss on the tackle and I was kind of giggling the whole time watching it.”

MORE: Dan Campbell Says Jameson Williams Apologized After Penalty

On the ending of the game: 

 “Yeah, it ended in our favor. It’s hard, man – the end of the game stuff, it’s hard, it’s real-time decisions both sides are making. It’s a lot of reps, a lot of time spent on situational stuff, and we came out on top today. I thought Caleb (Williams) played really well and I’m sure we’ll have our battle for a long time, but he’s a good player and did a good job.”

On the discipline required of Lions T Penei Sewell to not throw the ball on the end around: 

 “Yeah, well it wasn’t – yeah, you’d kind of like him to throw it away, that’s what we were joking with him about, but he was like, ‘No I’m only going to get this chance once, I’m going to break some tackles.’ So be it, I think he got back to the line of scrimmage – no harm, no foul.”

"It's a memory I'll have forever." pic.twitter.com/HyDL2HcpTK

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 28, 2024

On seeing players step up defensively: 

 “Yeah, it’s fun to see that. Obviously, Za’Darius (Smith) is a new addition to our team, but (Al-Quadin) Muhammad’s been doing a good job since he got here – on defense, on scout team making it hard on us, then obviously in the games now, he’s doing a great job. It’s fun to see guys step up, it’s never fun to see guys get hurt or get injured or have to leave the game – but when guys are able to step up and make those plays and make a name for themselves on national television, it’s fun.”

On what Za’Darius Smith has added to the locker room: 

 “Yeah, he’s added a lot – energy – energy and understanding of where we’re at in our season and what we’re looking for. He brings that energy every day, he’s obviously such a great player on the field physically, but I think emotionally and his juice daily brings something to that defense. It’s fun.”

On how much it meant to end the Thanksgiving Day losing streak: 

“Yeah, like I said it was kind of a bucket list (item) for me to win on Thanksgiving and now we can start our new streak of winning. But yeah it was big, it was big, and certainly that game came down to the wire there and was – you’re worried about which way it’s going to go. But to get the W in the way we did, and to end that skid that we’ve been on and kind of put that to rest – it’s another kind of check off our list that we’ve been working on for the last handful of years, and it feels good.”