If Jared Goff doesn’t find answers, the Detroit Lions’ losses will pile up

In an unexpected turn of events, the Detroit Lions were difficult to watch on offense in the first two games of the 2024 season.

And the main reason for this was the disappointing play of quarterback Jared Goff.

Goff looked like a shadow of the passer he was in 2023, a season in which he threw 30 touchdowns and 4,575 yards and played at an MVP level for most of the time.

At the start of his ninth NFL season, the 29-year-old looked anything but like a candidate for the MVP title.

He has completed just 62.7 percent of his passes and thrown more interceptions (three) than touchdowns (one). Those three interceptions, by the way, represent a quarter of the total number of interceptions he threw all of last season (12). On top of that, he has posted a QBR that ranks in the bottom half of the league (37.3). And if the season ended today, it would be his worst QBR since his rookie season (18.3).

For the Lions’ offense to get back on track, Goff simply has to get back to his 2023 form. If he can’t do that, not only the offense but the entire team will suffer greatly. If the playmaker doesn’t get back to his form from last season, Dan Campbell’s team is in danger of falling apart and the season spiraling out of control.

There’s no doubt that Goff’s level of play has a direct impact on Detroit’s success as a whole, and he clearly didn’t do enough to give the Lions a chance to win in the team’s 20-16 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday.

“I think we didn’t make enough plays,” the veteran signal-caller said after the game. “I think we made too many mistakes, and they made fewer mistakes than we did. And at the end of the game, we had a couple of chances to win, but it just wasn’t enough.”

Speaking of mistakes, Goff threw two interceptions in Week 2, including a costly one in the fourth quarter as the Lions advanced into enemy territory trying to retake the lead. After Goff’s second of two interceptions, Detroit had two more offensive attempts, but they also stalled on the Tampa Bay side.

It was a frustrating game for Ben Johnson’s offense, which managed more total yards (463 to 216) and first downs (26 to 14) than the Buccaneers. Yet Johnson’s unit managed just one touchdown and fewer points than the Baker Mayfield-led Tampa Bay offense on the day.

This can be attributed to a number of factors, including some fairly inefficient plays by Johnson (e.g., he only targeted Sam LaPorta three times, left the running game behind, planned third and fourth down plays that resulted in throws before the first down marker).

What was most striking, however, was that Goff and Co. failed to be successful in the red zone throughout the game, and Johnson’s highly questionable plays certainly didn’t help.

The Lions managed just one of seven red zone shots and gave up a ton of points in the process. With a better game plan and a more efficient Goff, the Lions could have converted a few more of those opportunities into touchdowns instead of settling for field goals from Jake Bates. Bates ended up scoring nine of Detroit’s 16 points on the afternoon and converted all three of his field goal opportunities.

“That’s ultimately the difference in the game,” Goff said after the game about the Lions’ problems in the red zone. “We get down there, score touchdowns, we probably would have won the game, but unfortunately we didn’t. Hats off to them. They had a good, stingy red zone defense and we didn’t make enough plays down there.”

It’s hard to find a silver lining for Goff and Detroit’s offense on Sunday. But if there is one, it’s that it’s only Week 2 of a long, 18-week season. The Lions have time to recover from the woeful performance and still transform into the top-five offenses they were a season ago. And as a team, the disappointing result could very well serve as a much-needed wake-up call, just like Detroit’s 37-31 overtime loss to the Seahawks in Week 2 of last season.

“They’re a good team, we’re a good team, it’s early in the season and it’s definitely going to be a learning experience for us to look at ourselves and say, ‘Okay, what went wrong and how can we fix it?’ I think if I remember correctly, we started 1-1 last year and were able to respond pretty well,” Goff said of the Week 2 loss. “It’s early in the year, but it’s a good learning experience and a chance for us to look at what went wrong and how we can prevent it from happening again.”

Goff can’t afford to let his slow start to the season continue and become the norm by 2024. He needs to recover and return to his Pro Bowl quality from last season – sooner rather than later.

Sorry to say this, Lions fans, but if Goff doesn’t do this, Detroit will certainly not live up to its lofty expectations of making the Super Bowl or going bust.