Jared Goff is the perfect weapon to thwart Bucs defense
The Eagles sure had a lot of problems with the Buccaneers defense on Monday night. Jalen Hurts spent much of the night running for his life and he got sacked three times and wasn't able to get much going in the way of passing the ball. The Bucs blitzed on 69.2% of the Eagles drop […]
The Eagles sure had a lot of problems with the Buccaneers defense on Monday night. Jalen Hurts spent much of the night running for his life and he got sacked three times and wasn't able to get much going in the way of passing the ball. The Bucs blitzed on 69.2% of the Eagles drop backs for crying out loud. It was super easy for a lot people to watch that game on Monday night and then start to worry about how Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff would deal with the blitz.
The classic narrative on Goff is that he crumbles under pressure and that he just can't handle it. That's just not true, In fact, it's pretty far from the truth. Goff is actually one of the leagues best passers against the blitz.
Per Pro Football Focus, Goff was blitzed on 255 of his drop backs this season. That's the third most in the NFL. He didn't crumble. He completed 64.6% of his passes for 1,885 yards, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. That, 1,885 yards is the most from any quarterback against the blitz. Only Brock Purdy threw more touchdowns and only Jordan Love completed more passes.
Ok, you might be drawn to those six interceptions. That's not the most by the way. That would be Jalen Hurts with eight. At first glance I assumed that the six interceptions came mostly in both games against the Bears. That's not the case. They're pretty spread out. Three before the bye and three after. With the exception of one, they all had the same thing in common. Goff was behind a broken offensive line.
Which brings me to the next point. The Lions have their fully healthy offensive line for this game. Goff's had it for just eight games this season and here's where the real damage can be done. Goff was blitzed on 47.4% of his drop backs in those eight games and he completed 70.9% of his passes for 1,270 yards, 12 touchdowns and one interception. That's all league leading stats behind the blitz. Except for the interception obviously.
The Bucs threw a lot of blitzes his way in Week 6. They blitzed Goff on 41% of his drop backs that day. He threw for 171 yards and two touchdowns against it. It's worth noting that the Lions were missing a ton of players on offense that day too.
We'll see what happens on Sunday when the Bucs come into Ford Field. There's a solid chance that they're going to load up some blitzes. The Bucs blitzed the third most in the NFL this season. Let's see how Jared Goff and the Lions handle it.
Lions divisional round mailbag: Which free agents are coming back?
I said last week that if the Detroit Lions kept going, this mailbag would stay open and the questions would continue to get answers. It's time for the divisional round of the Lions mailbag. The Lions have 27 free agents after this season. 18 of them are unrestricted free agents. I think the Lions bring […]
