GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions put some long drives together and appeared to be finding a groove a couple of times.
But, until their final drive of the day, they just kept running into the wall whenever reaching the red zone. The Lions did not score a touchdown until the game’s final minute, with the Green Bay Packers comfortably leading 27-6. Their previous three trips ended with two short field goals, along with a tough interception with a chance to trim the lead before halftime.
“You know, I don’t know. A little bit of us, a little bit of them,” Goff said of the red-zone struggles. “Obviously, one of them I threw a pick on, and that doesn’t help. But, yeah, I don’t know. That’s something I’ll have to look at. I really don’t have a good answer for you. They played well on defense. They got a good defense and certainly we didn’t play as close where we need to play.
“We’ve got good players. We’ve got good coaches. We’ll be fine ... I’m more so urgent about getting details fixed and making sure everyone’s on the same page and our communication is better and getting lined up correctly and all that stuff. Ultimately, a lot of it falls on me.”
Goff has taken ownership of putting more on his plate with a new offensive coordinator and new starters on the offensive line. The Lions quarterback said he’s tried to see how much more he can handle to help get the ship on the right path, and that he has owned the added mental and communication responsibilities.
On the interception late in the second quarter, Goff had to make a quick decision with pressure breaking the pocket, and was picked off by safety Evan Williams while targeting Amon-Ra St. Brown. Goff said he wished he had targeted the receiver’s outside shoulder on that look, while giving credit to Williams for making a great play.
That was one of those critical errors that kept the Lions from closing the gap after a disastrous start. They had a chance to cut the lead to 17-10 before halftime, getting the ball back to open the second half, but came away empty-handed.
And with a showing like this in Goff’s first game with offensive coordinator John Morton, there were plenty of questions about how the game was called. Green Bay’s defense does its best to keep everything in front of them, leading to a ton of checkdowns while taking away Detroit’s big-play ability. The Lions had only one play go for 20-plus yards, with running back Jahmyr Gibbs’ 10-catch day for only 31 yards highlighting the struggles.
“Yeah, not even close to good enough, right?” Goff said. “Not even remotely close in that category. It was frustrating. I thought we moved the ball decently. It was just once we got to the red zone, we couldn’t punch it in.
“You’d like to come away from any game with four or five of those (20-plus yard gains) and not even close to being good enough.”
The Lions quarterback said just because they have a new offensive coordinator doesn’t mean “we can’t be great right now.” He said the word “urgency” a couple more times and that there are plenty of hurdles they need to work through because he feels, “We should be great right now.”
Goff saw a ton of pressure throughout the tough day in Green Bay. He was sacked four times and hit nine times, getting forced out of the pocket and spinning away from trouble more than a couple of times.
Starting left tackle Taylor Decker even said he felt the Packers were challenging their communication with shifts and rotations on the defensive line. There is plenty to work on as Goff adjusts to life in a post-Ben Johnson era, but much like Lions coach Dan Campbell, he doesn’t feel like the sky is falling after the 27-13 loss to open a season with Super Bowl aspirations.
“Yeah, I thought he (Morton) did good,” Goff said. “I thought he did a good job and got us in and out of there well. I think that we can do a better job communicating from me to everybody and then getting lined up correctly, and then knowing our jobs and assignments; and then throughout the week just making sure that we are doing what we want to do, that our players know our intentions on each play and that we are then executing it on gameday.”
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