So here was Jared Goff, with a little more than eight minutes to go in the third quarter, staring at the best defense in the NFL. Third-and-9 at the Detroit Lions’ 45-yard line, up by four. Brian Flores’s Minnesota Vikings unit morphed into a Cover 0 look, appearing more like a punt block unit than a defense, threatening to bring pressure again.
Not that it mattered much. To that point, Goff was a perfect 9-of-9 against the Vikings’ blitz and perfect overall, having already captured the longest completion streak in the NFL this season and now every spot in the top three.
Still, we were tuned in to witness a chess match, and with the play clock dwindling, the Lions’ quarterback approached the line and pushed the offense into an empty formation. The Vikings’ defense then removed its mask and tucked away its proverbial sword, sinking into a more discernible, standard two-high safety look that gave Goff an easier set of reads without an unknown number of defenders flying at him. Goff completed a medium-risk ball to Kalif Raymond and moved the chains (noteworthy given that opponents were a staggering 22-of-71 on third down conversions against this unit coming into the game). Two plays later, Goff hit Tim Patrick while the Vikings’ best pass rusher, Jonathan Greenard, had his hand in ideal position for a strip sack.
By now, the narrative that Goff was an underperforming puppet in the Sean McVay machine has been proved incorrect, though it’s still stunning to see him take a conductor’s grip on the NFL’s most complex defense and force it to buckle. The coach-to-player communication was cut off. He was flying without a copilot and this was another example of Goff amassing a kind of resilient cool.
Cool: He now has 20 game-winning drives in his career and was likely an incompletion or two away from setting an NFL record for the most consecutive games in history with a passer rating of 150 or above (though Goff missed that mark, he is now the only player in modern NFL history with four consecutive games of a completion percentage of 80% or better and a QB rating of 140 or better).
Resilient: When the Vikings nearly stole the game back, after Goff had sailed a critical downfield throw that would have represented a knockout punch late in the fourth quarter, he still inspired Dan Campbell to call an incredibly risky toss into double coverage that had to be perfectly placed in order to set the Lions up for a game-winning field goal. Jake Bates made it from 44 yards out, to give the Lions a 31–29 win and the Vikings their first loss of the season.
Cool and resilient. You know, the kind of makeup that should have us more seriously examining his MVP candidacy now that the Lions have edged one of the NFL’s two remaining unbeaten teams and taken back the top spot in the NFC standings.
Throughout the final drive, which started with 2:32 on the clock, the Lions appeared almost unaware that time was dwindling. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson called a run from their own 34 and then the offense settled, content on bleeding the clock to the two-minute warning. After that? Another stretch run that pulled the Lions toward midfield before a brilliantly designed backfield motion and route combination that allowed for an easy Goff completion as a preamble to the throw he absolutely had to make.
Here was Goff on first-and-10, a situation that would have been entirely sensible to run in given how well Jahmyr Gibbs was carrying the ball. Instead, Goff faked the handoff and, with his heels hitting the 45-yard line, stepped into a dart that hit Amon-Ra St. Brown just as two members of the Vikings’ secondary were closing in on either side. The completion allowed the Vikings to kneel out almost the entire remainder of the clock, thumbing out a chance for the Vikings’ offense to come back after the field goal.
Goff finished the game in the leagues’ top 10 this season in a composite of completion percentage over expectation and expected points added, as well as standard completion percentage. But, more importantly, he negated the possibility of chaos creeping in. Detroit was vulnerable after an absolute pummeling of the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6, having lost Aidan Hutchinson for the remainder of the regular season. This was a kind of bellwether divisional game that could have serious end-of-season consequences, given that the entire NFC North may wind up in the playoffs.
And, in a spot where we would have historically questioned Goff—and have, justifiably—he provided the Lions with a unique window to strike an unsuspecting Vikings defense, winnow down the clock and set up for a game-winning field goal. Maybe you’re not ready to thrust Goff into the MVP conversation just yet, but consider this: Nearly all of Detroit’s opponents to this point have been very good (the Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers), good (the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks) or good when the Lions played them (the Los Angeles Rams). The Lions still have many of their tomato cans remaining on the schedule, which may allow Goff to pad the kind of résumé that makes this sort of conversation feel more legitimate.
After the game, when he went to casually high-five Campbell, the coach appeared eager to pull Goff in for a hug, or at least something a little more formal. In case you were wondering where Goff’s coach sits on the whole thing.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as A Near-Perfect Jared Goff Belongs in the MVP Conversation.
