CINCINNATI, Ohio -- On a day dominated by the defensive takeaways, Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown continued to raise the bar on offense.
St. Brown added another 100-yard day, with eight catches on nine targets. He now sits fourth all-time on the franchise leaderboard with 5,244 career receiving yards. St. Brown, 25, passed Brett Perriman for that honor, and now trails only Calvin Johnson Jr., Herman Moore and Johnnie Morton.
The receiver has caught 33 passes on his 40 targets this year, with 407 yards and six touchdowns through five games. He’s on track for another All-Pro season, and the connection continues to look more automatic.
Goff remained the master of efficiency under center in Cincinnati. He completed 19 passes on 23 attempts for 258 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He finished with another glowing passer rating (153.0), too.
The Lions beat the Bengals 37-24. While the defense will get a ton of earned credit, don’t overlook the lethal connection driving their offense.
Goff joins Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks to complete 75% of their passes, with at least 12 touchdowns and a passer rating of more than 120.0 through the first five games of a season.
That’s pretty elite company for the team’s dependable one-two punch. When the offense gets in a rut or stubs its toe, Goff looks for St. Brown, and the All-Pro wide receiver usually makes him look smart because of it.
It’s become the norm for the Lions, too. These are the type of accolades that would dominate headlines and command attention on social media. But it’s just another day at the office for these two stars.
After the game, Dan Campbell simply said St. Brown was outstanding and Goff played “very efficient football.” Earlier this season, though, the Lions coach said watching his Goff and St. Brown is an art form when they’re clicking like this.
The Lions quarterback gets asked about his star wide receiver multiple times every single week. To Goff’s credit, he always takes the time to express what a gift it is to have St. Brown as his top target.
“He’s smart. He’s tough. He’s physical. He can catch. He’s a leader. He blocks. He can run routes really well. He does everything well. He does everything well. He’s strong. He’s physical at the catch point, did I say he’s smart?” Goff said earlier this week. “He kind of does a little bit of everything really well.
“He’s a quarterback’s dream to throw to and works tremendously hard, sets the tempo for us on offense at practice, and does everything right. He’s everything you want in a receiver, a teammate, and a leader. I love playing with him.”
St. Brown routinely gets asked what makes his connection with Goff so special, too. He said Goff doesn’t get enough credit for how tough he is, and that something that doesn’t get talked about is how well the quarterback takes care of his receivers.
Goff calls St. Brown a quarterback’s dream. And St. Brown calls Goff “everything you want in a quarterback.”
“He does it each and every year. He’s accurate. He gets us in the right plays, and I feel like there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t see on TV that you know only internally you would know what he’s doing,” St. Brown previously said. “But he’s smart. He’s accurate. He’s tough. I think he’s tougher than a lot of us give him credit for. Yeah, he’s not running, running, prefers down stuff, but he still takes hits.
“Like, since I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him complain about an injury, even though I know he’s had little things here and there, but he never talks about it.”
The Lions set another franchise record through five games in terms of points scored (174) and total touchdowns (22). For all the chatter about replacing Ben Johnson as offensive coordinator, the operation has recovered as well as possible since the season-opening dud in Green Bay.
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