The first pass Jared Goff threw Monday night was a simple 1-yard completion to his tight end, Sam LaPorta. That came a few seconds into the first quarter.
The last pass Jared Goff threw Monday night was a high pitch to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who leapt and snagged it for a touchdown.
That came with 5:23 left in the game.
In the nearly three hours between those two passes, Goff threw 16 more. Some were fastballs. Some were whipped downfield. One was a long catch-and-sprint to Jameson Williams for a 70-yard score. Another, Goff somehow fired after a defender spun him like a roulette wheel.
But every pass was a completion.
That’s right. The ball did not touch the ground — 18-for-18. No drops. No high or low misses. Which means a Detroit Lions starting quarterback was absolutely perfect for an entire game.
We can all die and go to heaven now.
“It’s good,” Goff said to a TV interviewer, moments after the Lions’ 42-29 victory over the Seahawks at Ford Field ended. “When the ball doesn’t touch the ground, it’s good.”
Good? It’s perfection! And these weren’t easy dump passes or three-yard screens. These were find-your-tight-end-rolling-out, or find-your-wide-receiver-on-a-crossing-pattern, or look-off-the-defense-for-your-second-option, or move-the-pocket-and-wait-for-your-guy-to-come-free – now whip it!
Eighteen-for-eighteen?
Flawless.
‘I was fired up’
Goff made it look like he was computer-programmed. The balls were tight, hard, and on the money. He shifted the pocket, but threw with ideal footwork. Goff, despite playing without injured star center Frank Ragnow, had such a level of excellence Monday night, it’s no wonder some teammates and coaches didn’t immediately realize that statistically, he had just done something no quarterback in NFL history had ever done: Be perfect for that many passes (18) and that many yards (292.)
“I just gave the game ball to somebody else, so I feel awful right now,” head coach Dan Campbell said, laughing, during his postgame press conference. “I knew he played a heck of a game. I did not realize he was perfect.”
When St. Brown was initially asked about it, by a reporter, he, too, was confused. “The (reporter) goes ‘Your quarterback, the ball didn’t touch the ground,’ and in my head I’m like ‘What does she mean the ball didn’t touch the ground?’ I know he didn’t fumble,” St. Brown told ESPN. “After the game, I finally realized he went 18-for-18. I think he had more receiving touchdowns than he did incompletions.”
Oh, yes. Let’s not forget that gem. Midway through the third quarter, Goff faked a handoff to David Montgomery, then pitched the ball to St. Brown, who watched his quarterback sneak out of the backfield like a kid ditching school out the back door. St. Brown then lofted a perfect pass just over a defender, and Goff, who will never be confused with Usain Bolt, caught the ball and scurried into the end zone.
He then fired the ball into the stands. The way he was throwing, I’m pretty sure it was caught.
“I was fired up,” Goff told ESPN. “We’ve been cooking that thing for a long time. I think it’s my first career touchdown catch ever.”
Leave it to Goff, who rarely speaks about the big things he’s done, to do two mondo things in the same night. That reception made Detroit 19-for-19 on passing attempts. The only other time a team has been perfect on all its passing attempts was 1942, when the Giants threw one pass all game, on the very first play.
That shouldn’t even count, right?
Flawless.
Putting the ‘compliment’ in ‘complementary’
Of course, all this statistical stuff would be meaningless if the Lions didn’t win the game. Which they did. A huge win against an undefeated Seattle franchise that had beaten them the last six times they’d played. The Lions did it with major offense, and just enough defense when they needed it at the end. The game effectively ended only after Kerby Joseph intercepted a Geno Smith heave in the end zone with 66 seconds left.
“It’s good we finally beat those guys,” Aidan Hutchinson told the media. “I think the difference was we got the stops we needed at the end.”
Until then, however, the Lions defense surrendered so much real estate, I thought they might give away a luxury box. Seattle finished with 516 total yards, ran 78 plays (to Detroit’s 50) and had 38 first downs (to the Lions’ 21.) Detroit also handed Seattle 101 yards on 12 penalties, which will no doubt leave Campbell fuming — after he gets done celebrating.
“I’m proud of the guys,” he told the media. “I thought what we did really well was we played complementary football, and that’s what good teams do.”
We knew the Lions were good. We didn’t think the “compliment” in “complimentary” would be “Congratulations on a perfect passing night.”
But how nice for Goff, who for all his efficient success, has battled the sticky film of being traded for a shinier model, once the Rams gave him up for Matthew Stafford four years ago. Because he’s not flashy, Goff is not always on the highlight reels. And because he’s not noisy, Goff doesn’t make the social media buzz.
But when he’s on, he’s on, and there are few who rival him in the NFL. Last season, he was a model of that low-risk, high-reward production. This year was a bit of a slow start. Detroit ‘s offense was OK in the opener against the Los Angeles Rams, stalled in the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and had one good half in the win against the Arizona Cardinals. Goff himself said he wasn’t playing to his capacity (four interceptions against three touchdowns). The defense was keeping the Lions on the winning ledger.
Monday night, the teeter-totter shifted.
“I was very confident it would happen,” Goff said of the offense getting its mojo back. “I thought that first half last week was indicative of who we are. … To be able to have a full game that felt like that, that’s what you want.”
It sure is. Here’s hoping Goff gets that game ball someday, eventually. And that he puts it someplace it doesn’t get lost, jostled, or even smudged. Perfection, after all, is hard to come by. And now that a Lions quarterback has done it, it no longer seems so impossible.
In fact, with the Lions mostly living up to their enormous preseason hype — despite a rash of injuries — a lot of impossible things seem more likely these days.
Aren’t the Tigers in the playoffs Tuesday?
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.
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