You’re all wrong about Lions QB Jared Goff’s play in cold weather, like really wrong
This is one of the worst narratives out there
Welcome to November. Welcome to “Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff can’t play in cold weather” season. It’s every analyst’s favorite time of year to just flat out tell a lie, and it’s everyone else’s favorite time to just believe it. It might also be the time when nuance completely goes away, too.
I got sent this tweet a bunch on Sunday night because I once again had to tell people that cold weather and gloves had nothing to do with Goff’s performance. Yes, Goff has a sub-60 % completion percentage as a passer in cold weather throughout his career. But, and it’s a big but, we’re talking about 19 games. Five of which were when he was with the Rams.
Three of those were early in his career. Two in his rookie season and one in 2018. What about as a Lion? What about things that have happened during this decade?
Jared Goff’s stats in cold-weather games as a Lion
Goff has played 12 games in weather below 50 degrees since coming to the Lions. In those games, he’s thrown a combined 2,778 yards, 15 touchdowns, and four interceptions. He completed 64% of his passes. Someone now has to tell me why this is bad because I’m just not seeing it.
The gloves thing doesn’t make any sense either. He’s worn the gloves in 11 games in his entire career, going back to Cal, and has 2,205 yards, 11 touchdowns, six interceptions, and completed 60.4% of his passes. I get that this is not super great, but it’s also not the end of the world.
The Lions lost on Sunday for way more reasons than cold weather and gloves. Goff and his receivers were off, the offensive line couldn’t stop anyone from penetrating and getting pressure, the Lions couldn’t run the ball, and they had some pretty bad play-calling on third and fourth-and-managable. That’s what happened. Nothing element-related.
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