As much as he tried to disguise it, beating his former team in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs last year had to mean a lot to Lions quarterback Jared Goff. In the postgame locker room, as a reference to the Rams’ willingness to move on from Goff as quickly as possible, head coach Dan Campbell emphasized the moment by claiming his quarterback was “good enough for Detroit.”
Late in the fourth quarter, Goff connected with Amon-Ra St. Brown for a first down, sealing the playoff victory over the Rams. That forced the Rams to take their final timeout, and three kneel-downs later, Goff had his moment.
There are venues to discuss, or even belabor, what Goff does and does not do.
Jared Goff has clutch gene more than most quarterbacks
Football analyst Carter Donnick, using Sports Info Solutions charting, weighted 22 different quarterback statistics to calculate what he called a relative “clutch score.” He didn’t outline the full methodology, other than point out it’s passing only and highlighting two particular tent poles.
- Third and fourth downs in games where the score is within 14 points
- Any down in the fourth quarter when the score was within 10 points
Goff ended up with the second-best “clutch score” (0.7003), behind only Dak Prescott (0.8547). Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit pointed out Goff’s rankings in the following categories last season, which back up the idea he’s pretty “clutch.”
- Fourth quarter passer rating: 102.0 (sixth)
- Fourth quarter completion percentage: 72.2 (second)
- Third down passer rating: 99.5 (10th)
- Third down touchdowns: 9 (tied for 7th)
Goff was not very good on fourth downs last year (11-for-27 for 100 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions, 24.2 passer rating. That passer rating was 35th among 39 quarterbacks with at least five fourth down pass attempts (Patrick Mahomes was last, for what it’s worth), but Goff’s 40.7 completion percentage on fourth down passes is not far below the league-wide rate (43.1percent).
This all combines to say Goff was more clutch than most quarterbacks last year. It’s not overly surprising, but there is data, and an all-encompassing number was created, to show it.
