Lions Film Study: Breaking down all 8 of Jared Goff’s interceptions to find what the fault is
Interceptions are not always the easiest thing to attach blame to.
On Sunday night, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams threw one of the luckiest passes I’ve ever seen to tight end Colston Loveland to tie the game, and for 20 minutes, people were sure he was the best quarterback in the league. Then he threw the game-losing interception that looked like he threw to a guy who had no idea the ball was coming to him.
It kind of popped into my head that a lot of fans of other teams start to realize that a decent number of interceptions are chalked up to a few things. Tipped passes, passes thrown while getting hit, passes that are predictable and are on film constantly, and then passes dropped/hit off the receiver’s hands.
You can throw bad decisions by the quarterback in there, too, but that one feels like it’s the one that happens the least. That’s the overall point of this thought exercise. Are we looking too much at the stat itself without trying to understand how it got there?
So I decided to pull up all eight of Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff’s interceptions to break down what happened in each of them and see if my theory that the majority aren’t just bad decisions or bad throws is correct. Let’s jump into it.
Clip 1: Predictability
You will see this exact route again because the Lions love it. Why shouldn’t they? It has worked like a charm so many times.
This is the route the Lions used to beat the Rams in the playoffs in 2023. They’ve used to success a lot. They might want to be a little more careful with it going forward. This was read like a book.
Clip 2: Bad throw
Goff’s going for the home-run ball here, or is at least trying to get the Lions out of the shadow of their own goal post, but he underthrows it.
Maybe a little argument can be made that Jameson Williams overruns it, but I don’t think you can overrun it that much. This just doesn’t have enough mustard on it. There is pressure, but Goff had time to put more into this.
Clip 3: Underthrown and really good cornerback play
This is a pretty routine route, but again, Goff doesn’t put enough on it, and you have to give Buccaneers cornerback Jemel Dean credit for understanding what the Lions were trying to do here and jumping the route. Just a really good heads-up play.
Clip 4: Tipped pass
Not a whole lot you can do here if you’re Goff. The ball gets tipped at the line by a defensive lineman and just floats into an Eagles defender’s hands. I know some might say, “don’t throw in the direction of a defensive lineman who has his hands up,” but then a quarterback would never throw a ball again.
Clip 5: Bounced off St. Brown’s hands
Remember when everyone was super worried that St. Brown had a drop problem? This one certainly didn’t help in the moment.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think he has a drop problem — at least not one at Eric Ebron levels, where you constantly worry about it. Anyway, it’s clear what happened here.
Clip 6: Getting hit while throwing
If Goff maybe has some time here, he might be able to hit an open Jameson Williams, or Isaac TeSlaa might have a shot at a contested catch. But Goff is bared down on immediately and throws the ball while getting hit, and it just doens’t have the mustard it needs, and it gets picked off.
Clip 7: There’s that route again
Same one as earlier, and the Vikings just read it perfectly. The defender jumps the route, and St. Brown, to an extent, grabs the pick. Again, maybe the Lions should cool it on this one in 2026. At least to a degree. We’ll see what Drew Petzing can do with some new concepts.
Clip 8: Jared, what are you doing?
Goff has TeSlaa as open as a human being could possibly be open here, and it’s a sure first down. Instead, Goff goes for the home-run ball with St. Brown, and it’s tipped and intercepted. This is just a bad decision from Goff. There’s no other way to put it. Luckily, there’s not a whole lot of those to show today.
Detroit Lions News
Make no mistake, Dan Campbell is risking it all with the Lions’ OC hire
The Lions took a swing, it has to connect.
