John Niyo: Goff, Lions pick perfect time to pop off

DETROIT — The Lions were back in black.

Ben Johnson was in his bag.

And under the bright lights of prime-time television again Monday night, Jared Goff couldn’t have played any better.

Good thing, too. Because the Lions needed every bit of this breakout performance from Goff — and from an offense that had stumbled out of the starting blocks this season — in order to beat the Seattle Seahawks to the finish line in front of another sellout crowd at Ford Field.

The final score was 42-29 in this one, and on a night where the Lions’ banged-up defense allowed 516 yards and a whopping 38 first downs to Geno Smith and the Seahawks, head coach Dan Campbell probably sold it short when he mused, “this was a little bit of a track meet.”

Still, the fact that the Lions’ high-powered offense went this distance in this one is what mattered most, especially after Goff & Co. were held to 20 points or less in regulation in the first three weeks of the regular season.

That only happened a handful of times a year ago, and it explains why Johnson, the Lions’ coveted offensive coordinator, has seemed so frustrated, at times, on the sideline this fall. Just the other day, in fact, he was lamenting that “we have yet to play a 60-minute game on offense.”

“We’re just too talented of a group to not have more production and more points than what we’ve had,” Johnson added. “So, it’s just a matter of time before we break through.”

That’s called foreshadowing, folks. And this time, the Lions, who were dressed to kill in their new black alternate uniforms Monday night, didn’t just stick to the script. They ad-libbed and audibled and generally did everything they wanted to do on offense, scoring touchdowns on five of six possessions after an initial three-and-out.

Goff was a perfect 12-for-12 passing in the first half Monday, just like he was last week in Arizona. But unlike that win in the desert, where the Lions looked rather parched in a scoreless second half, Detroit never stopped firing on all cylinders in this one. Monday night, the Lions divided their six touchdowns equally around halftime — matching their season-high point total from last season — and when the work was done it felt like everybody hadn't gotten in on the act.

David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs combined for 118 rushing yards and three touchdowns, plus a Barry Sanders-style, 40-yard reception from Montgomery that went viral on social media. Williams provided the biggest play of the night, and then added the biggest celebration, dunking the football over the goalpost — a nod to Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, who was inducted into the "Pride of the Lions" ring of honor at halftime — before leaping into the stands. Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta both were key factors as well, the offensive line dominated early — even without All-Pro center Frank Ragnow — and the Lions went 5 for 5 in the red zone Monday while averaging a healthy 7.8 yards per play

“Listen, it's good to see,” said Campbell, whose team heads into the bye week at 3-1 — a game back of the undefeated Minnesota Vikings atop the NFC North. "We knew this was coming offensively. Everybody did. And that's why you can't worry about this and that; you can't start panicking. You just work, and you clean everything up — that's what you do. And we worked, and it showed. We found our rhythm.”

Goff found his early, highlighted by a spin-o-rama completion under pressure to Jameson Williams on the Lions’ first touchdown drive. And then he never really lost it the rest of the night, completing all 18 of his attempts Monday night, nearly doubling the NFL record for a perfect game set by Kurt Warner (10-for-10) back in 2005. The Lions’ quarterback sheepishly admitted he wasn’t sure if he’d thrown an incompletion or not, until someone told him about it after the game was over.

“I knew I did it in the first half last week, so I was aware of it then,” he said. “And I was kind of aware of it today. About the middle of third quarter, I couldn't think of one, But then I threw the one out of bounds that ended up being offensive pass interference, and I was like, ‘Does that count?’ I didn't know if that counted or not.”

It did not. But all the others did, from the smart check-downs over the middle to the simple bootlegs to his tight ends to that beauty he threw to Williams in stride for a back-breaking 70-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. In all, Goff racked up 292 yards through the air — a gaudy 16.2 yards per attempt — and two touchdowns, which somehow wasn’t quite good enough to secure a perfect passer rating, according to the NFL’s byzantine formula. Goff finished at 155.8, but the Lions as a team did finish with a perfect 158.3 rating.

And Goff had a hand in that, too. Because on second-and-goal from the 7-yard line midway through the third quarter, Johnson dialed up a trick play the Lions have been practicing for a couple of years now. It’s a play where Goff hands the ball off to a motioning St. Brown for a would-be end-around, then runs a wheel route to the other side of the field and finds himself on the receiving end of a pass from his star wideout.

The Lions called it twice in games last season, only to have Goff kill it at the line of scrimmage, audibling to a run because of the defensive look he got. This time, though, “he looked at everyone and said, ‘We’re good,’” St. Brown said, smiling.

And it worked great, as Seahawks linebacker Trevis Gipson caught on too late and couldn’t stop Goff from hauling in his first touchdown reception as a pro. Or ever, maybe.

“And I'm saying all the way back to seven years old, I think that's my first one,” Goff said.

“Alcatraz” is what Johnson called the play when he installed it way back, “And I guess I've never asked him why,” Goff laughed. “There probably is a reason, and I probably should know it.”

But all he needed to know is that it would work. And the same could be said for this offense, which was a top-five unit last season and the biggest reason why the Lions stormed to a division championship and made it all the way to the NFC title game.

With all but a couple of the starters returning on that side of the ball, expectations were sky-high entering this season. Yet after three weeks, Goff ranked in the bottom third of the league’s starters in passer rating, yards per attempt and expected points added per pass. Even more surprising, he hadn’t been his usual surgical self while operating in a clean pocket.

Monday night, he was, however.

“And I was very confident it would happen,” Goff said. “You don't know when it's going to happen or when it's going to kind of open up, like it did tonight for us. But I thought that first half last week was indicative of who we are, and to be able to draw on that for us this week was important. We stumbled in that second half (at Arizona). But to be able to have a full game that felt like this, that's what you want.”

And that’s what they got Monday, rather convincingly, which explains why in the postgame locker room, Campbell tossed the first game ball to his offensive coordinator. And why Johnson smiled after another completed pass and shouted to everyone, "About damn time!"

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