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Here are the five biggest Detroit Lions takeaways from Jared Goff’s appearance in Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’ season two.
Netflix dropped season two of “Quarterback” this week, so we binged it as quickly as possible to give you the biggest takeaways from the
Detroit Lions and Jared Goff’s 2024 season.
Here are five things I learned from the seven episodes of the docuseries.
Goff is still miffed about how the Los Angeles trade went down
When Goff was traded from the Rams to the Lions in 2021, it was widely reported that the quarterback was relatively blindsided by the move. The line of communication wasn’t great between Goff and coach Sean McVay, and it’s clear that impacted Goff. Since then,
McVay has admitted he regrets how he approached it, and Goff has basically said he’s moved on.
But when the topic came up again on “Quarterback,” it was clear Goff is still not really happy with how that all went down.
“I think for me, ultimately, it was the fact that there was not a conversation had and there wasn’t like a, ‘Hey, we’re thinking of moving on’ type of thing. There was nothing,” Goff said. “You wish that it wasn’t such a blindside, and you wish that there was some sort of maturity, I guess, to have that conversation and to be able to let me know what’s going on and how things went down and why this is happening.”
Calling out the lack of maturity of McVay? Yeah, he’s still a bit salty about it (and understandably so).
Jared Goff and Ben Johnson saw the game the same way
There’s a great moment caught during the Lions’ epic comeback victory over the
Houston Texans.
Goff is in the midst of a terrible game in which he threw five interceptions, but down 23-7 in the third quarter, he wasn’t giving up. Cameras caught him in the huddle saying to no one in particular that he wanted the play “wasp.” Mind you, there is no microphone in his helmet. Ben Johnson can’t hear him. But, sure enough, the Lions' offensive coordinator thought it was the right time for that play, too, and called it in. It was a double-move route to Sam LaPorta, and it resulted in a huge gain that sparked Detroit’s comeback:
“Ben and I do see things a lot similarly,” Goff said. “I kind of have an idea of what’s coming next. Sure enough, he sent it in. He can’t hear me, but I’m trying to speak it into existence, and when your play caller’s good and you and your play caller are on the same page, typically good things happen.”
Not only does this speak to the good chemistry Goff had with Johnson, but it also illustrates how strong Goff’s “feel” for the offense itself is. Hopefully, that carries over with new offensive coordinator John Morton.
Dan Campbell’s game plan vs. Green Bay on Thursday night worked to perfection
One of my favorite parts in the series came as Detroit prepared for their Thursday night game against the
Green Bay Packers. As you may remember, the Lions were absolutely shredded due to injuries on the defensive side of the ball, and were going to be forced to start players who literally just walked into the building.
At the Lions' facility, cameras captured Dan Campbell in a team meeting basically telling everyone that the entire game is going to be put in the offense’s hands—and that includes being extremely overaggressive on fourth down.
Here are a few snippets of his epic speech:
“I’m going to tell you how this is going to go down: Offense, we are going to fucking put everything on your fucking ass. Okay? I’m just telling you right now. You [pointing to Goff] gotta show up. You gotta show up in a big way.”
“The way we play ball, we’re fucking going. We’re going four downs all the way up and down this field. As long as it’s not fourth-and-fucking-20, you understand, we’re fucking going. And we will fucking just march down this field, and it’s going to be so fucking glorious, gentlemen.”
The Lions would end up going for it on fourth down five times, converting four—including the controversial game-sealing conversion that allowed the Lions to milk the rest of the clock before kicking the game-winning field goal.
Many players have talked about how Campbell’s game plans have worked exactly as he predicted early in the week, but it’s fascinating to actually see it play out.
Goff owes Jack Fox a lot of beer
In what was seemingly a random audio clip, the show depicted punter Jack Fox approaching Goff after the big Week 18 win over the
Minnesota Vikings and saying, “Free beer for a year.”
At that time in the show, it didn’t mean anything to the viewer. But soon after, the docuseries put the quote into its proper context. Speaking at home with his family at 1 a.m. following the win, Goff revealed he had made a bet with the Lions punter that may end up costing him a pretty penny.
“I bet Jack Fox at the beginning of the year. I said, ‘If you lead the league in net punting, I’ll get you Bud Light for a year,’” Goff said. “Right after the game, he said, ‘You owe me Bud Light for a year.’”
Indeed, Fox did finish first in the NFL in net punting with a 45.8 average.
Christen Harper is all of us
Harper, Goff’s wife, is heavily featured throughout the series. It’s a peek into his personal life, and it’s neat to watch her fall in love with the city and the team.
But, man, it was hard to watch her struggle in a suite as she watched the Lions get stunned by the Commanders in the Divisional Round. You could see her go through all the stage of grief—just as I’m sure many of you did that evening. At one point, she just can’t hold it back any longer and breaks out into tears.
“I just can’t believe we’re not going to be here next weekend. It’s just like—” Harper said before a long beat of speechlessness. “God, it sucks so bad.”
Obviously, that day was hard on all Lions fans, but I couldn’t help but feel extra for the Goff family. They have been through a lot, Goff has been dragged through the mud, and it seems like in that moment, it may all have flooded back to them.
“Had I played better, do we win? Possibly,” Goff said in the post-game press conference. “And that’s the part that’ll eat me alive for the whole offseason.”
Oof.
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