The Ringer NFL Show - The Play Sheet [VIDEO]: Jared Goff’s Comeback

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Jared Goff's numbers and eye test results are much better the this year than on his former team, the Los Angeles Rams. What's behind the turnaround? The Ringer's Ben Solak makes the argument that being more comfortable under pressure, playing in smart offensive schemes, and having reliable offensive weapons around him have combined to give Goff a second wind during this Detroit playoff run. Watch 'The Play Sheet' on YouTube or Spotify every Wednesday at 8 a.m. PT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Howdy. I'm Ben Solac. This is the play sheet. This is a weekly podcast we do, and it's on video. So you got to click on the Spotify app, you got to click the episode, you got to watch the video, some Jared Gough film today, and enjoy. The opening script, Jared Gough 2.0. Do you remember the last conference championship game that Jared Gough played in? It was in the 2018 season against the New Orleans Saints and... Breeze. Pass is incomplete. No flag. Crowd's going crazy as there's no flag right on the Saints side. Yeah, good times. While that game is always remembered for that play, it was also the best playoff game of Jared Gough's career. He threw for almost 300 yards on 40 pass attempts. It completed about 62% of his passes, threw for a score and threw for a pick. If that doesn't sound like an incredible quarterbacking performance, it's because it wasn't. Jared Gough played in six total playoff games with the Rams. He only started five because that one time he was shadow benched for John Wofford. That's not important right now. And altogether, like, never had an amazing game, even during the Rams 2018,

Super Bowl run. Here are Goff's six playoff games with the Rams as measured by E-paper dropback. Add in those two Lions games he's played the last couple weekends and you might notice that they're a little better. Now, not only is Jared Goff playing a lot better in this postseason than he did in those postseason's past, but he's also getting a lot more trust now than he did under Rams head coach Sean McVeigh. In Goff's five postseason starts in Los Angeles, the Rams overall, had a pass rate over expectation of negative 8%. That means they ran the ball remarkably more than the average team would of facing similar down in distances, time on the scoreboard, score on the scoreboard, so on and so forth. In the last weekend's game

against the Buccaneers, positive 9.2 pass rate over expectation. The Lions don't take the ball out of Goff's hands when they get to the postseason the way the Rams did. They give the ball to Jared Goff. They pass it more than expected. So why is Goff playing better with more put on his plate? Certainly some of it has to do with Ben Johnson, the lion's office coordinator, and the weapons that the lines have available. But golf is also just better. It's better than he was. It's good. Golf's got more than 120 starts under his belt at this point. He has seen a wide variety of defenses and coverages and adjustments. He's got better identifying things pre-snap, making decisions post-snap. He's just more experience. He's more reliable. He knows what he can.

He can't do. Where his bread is buttered and where it's not buttered. He's better than he used to be. And that makes sense, right? A lot of like the Shanahan system quarterbacks that we're We often made the butt of a joke in like the end of the 2010s. Think Jared Gough, think Kurt Cousins now with the Vikings, even Jimmy Gropolo with the 49ers. They got better over several years of starting. Being able to hold down the job, not get hurt, and just continue to play helps you improve. One of the biggest ways that golf has improved from his time at the Rams now to with the Lions is how he responds to the Blitz. This is his EPA for dropback and his success rate by EPA when facing the Blitz.

Notice that there's a big jump in EPA per dropback once he joined the Lions in 2021. but there's also been that steady climb and success rate over the last few years. Goff is right now playing better against the Blitz than he ever has, no question. This is big deal because Jared Goff, particularly Rams' Jared Goff, particularly Rams postseason Jared Goff, was a notorious target for defenses to fluster. I know this because the single greatest talking head appearance in football television history came before the 2019 Rams Patriot Super Bowl via NFL Network's Mike Giardy. who was relaying something that a Patriots defender told him about how they planned to defend Jared Gough.

Let's watch it. Publicly the Patriots players rave about him. Say he can make all the throws. Privately, however, they want to put this game on golf. One player telling me, if we show him some of the looks that we've seen so far to some of these other quarterbacks, some that he hasn't seen before, we believe he'll quote, bleep in his pants. Let's watch it again. We believe he'll quote, bleep in his pants.

It's such a good. I have communicated to Mike Giardy how much I appreciate that appearance, that report, and he is very thankful. I want to be known that Mike Giardy is pro me laughing at this Mike Girardi report. But now, Jared Goff is not bleeping in his pants the way he used to. Let's go to play action. Third and four here, second quarter, we cannot take a sack, all right? Because if we take a sack, we're on the 44 yard line right now, we take a sack,

we're punting this with ball away. If we don't pick this up, fourth and four, we're probably going for it, right? We're not kicking from the 44, not punting. We're probably going to go for this. But if we take a sack fourth and eight, we got a punt. So the number of priority right now for Jared, get the ball out, right? Don't get sacked. There's a clear blitz down and a clear blitz look for Todd Bowles and the buck's defense.

We motioned Jemir gives in. We're an empty, right? And so golf is responsible here. There's only going to be five in the protection, right? And you have right now four down defensive linemen, and then Devin White might come, nickel might come, Levanti David might come, this nickel might come, right?

So there's eight potential rushes here that are tight to the core. And so what the lines are going to end up doing is they're going to slide this thing to the left because they're worried about these additional bodies. Golf's got to know he's going to open to the weak side. If this player comes or this player comes, he's probably going to be hot off that player, right? That's going to be golf's responsibility to get rid of the ball fast enough without taking the sack. Concept-wise, Jamir Gibbs is going to be out quick at the sticks.

And then Sam Lapoor is running the glance. And they love this. Jerogov throws this route, middle of the field route more than like any quarterback in the league. You got like a three-man concept over here on the side, whatever. He's going to open weak side because this is where he's worried about the extra rusher, right? That's where he wants to be able to see what's going on. So when you snap this football, all right, that nickel comes. You are hot off this player.

He's not getting picked up. So now you're reading this out. You have Gibbs right now with leverage to the sideline, or you can try to throw Laporta wrapping the inside. There's no sinking zone defender right here, right? So firstly, golf's going to take the bigger option. He's going to take the more aggressive option and throw the porta, which I find bold and aggressive.

You can very reasonably throw Gibbs right here. Secondly, he's going to do it while getting hit. End zone view. The two things to watch for here. Timing in the dropback and the accuracy of the ball through the hit. firstly Jared Goff land on that back foot and uncork it right you see him right he in the drop lands loaded ready to throw and then a fast release right golf's like a lanky and long guy he doesn't have the fastest release he speeds this up to beat that free rusher and now look at the contact

coming into his arm he just barely beats it and then look at where that throw lands on the face mask man i mean you can't place that any better if it were a clean pocket does this while getting hit let's go Jared now the two things that have always been about most impressive about golf, right? Cow golf, Rams, Gough, Lions Gough has been the arm talent. Man can sling the pill a little bit. And then the timing, right? He gets the ball where it's supposed to be,

when it's supposed to be there. He's a great feel and understanding of timing. With the Rams, he was more easily discombobulated, right? You could get a grain of sand in the fine cogs of that watch and he would lose his sense of timing, right? Things would be late. He would throw bad balls over the middle of the field. With the Lions, and just this goes back to the experience

I've been talking about, he's just a lot better when things get a little bit It's funky. Pressure doesn't phase him as much as it used to. It still does, right? This is still Jared Gough we're talking about. He's not like high caliber athlete and like making plays outside of structure, but he has better responses. This looks like a mundane play and it's not. We're going to motion among Ross St. Brown second and 10. All right. It looks like it's going to be zone coverage because they're bumping the guys, whatever. Concept wise, we get St. Brown on this little angle route and then Sam Laporta is going to be here on a deep outcut. This is what

golf initially wants, all right? Now, to the strong side, which ends up being the backside of the concept, Reynolds sits down and then Jamo right here ends up running this dig, right? This is, again, golf's thrown in this area of the field more than any quarterback in the league. And so if you want to throw that route, you have to throw it with timing. But golf's not initially there. He's initially on the two-receiver side, right? Right here, he's looking at St. Brown and he's looking at Sam Laporta. His right guard is getting dumped. into his lap, right? Watch the, watch the rush here. Kalagia Cancy, in the right guard, bang, just puts him right in Jared Gough's lap. So if you want to throw, I think what he wants

to throw is Leporta. I think he wants to throw this. He has to be able to stay in the pocket for a little bit longer and then step up into this throw. And with trash at his feet, he's just not, he doesn't have the room for it. So Gough's just going to get off of it, reset in the pocket, and go find Jamo wrapping around. And look when this ball comes out. It's on time. The back of the side, right? This right now is working into this window. The thrott has to be fast enough to beat Levante David closing in, right? That's the benchmark you have to hit and hits J-mo and the numbers also right before the corner can get there and can affect the catch point. So now watch, watch this all the way through out at tempo seeing golf read it out and then get back side and then

the ball arrives with some mustard. Nice throw. End zone view here so you can see the effect of the pressure. Snap the football. Set to that back side. Here's Graham Glasgow on my lap, reset my feet with timing, first down. That is good quarterbacking right there. All righty now. Third and 15, fourth quarter and nine minutes left up by seven. If we don't get this, we are punting the ball away. Buckingneers have a chance to tie this up. We would like to have this down, third and 15 long down. This time it's not about pressure. It's about coverage. We got right now seam and then we're going to get the dig behind of Josh Reynolds. I mean, this is what is what Jericho wants to throw. This route right here, right? And the bucks know this.

And so initially this looks like it could be some sort of quarters, right? Oh, quarters coverage here. Or maybe it's, maybe it's a course of the top, and then this is a deep half safety. He's going to stay allowed. You're figuring out your coverage cells. But this safety looks like he's playing this two-receiver side. However, what the bucks are going to do is they're going to have KJbert sync, and then this safety against home windfield is going to poach.

He's actually going to work to the three-receiver side. And he's there. Like, the reason you run this coverage is to get a lot of bodies against this seam and against this dig. Because that's what the lines run. that Jared golf wants to throw this route. So watch, watch the poaching safety here is the important player to watch, right? As they snap this football, gets that three receiver's side and is sitting in that seam window and is ready to drive down on that dig window.

Look at the constellation of bodies the Buccaneers have against this and this, right? They are here to take that away, which means backside of Monrault-St. Brown, get to the sticks and turn around one-on-one coverage. And Jericho's already there. he is already there, right? This is about coverage taking away what you wanted primary. His eyes are on that side. And by the time he gets that back foot, he is off of it.

And he's on to St. Brown. So now it's just like the Jambovrow. You're trying to get to a backside route on time. So you got a fast feet in the pocket. You got to have a fast release. And you better deliver this sucker. You got to come with some mustard. Bang.

Both numbers. I'm on Ross St. Brown. First down, end zone view. When the Patriots were talking about, we're going to make him blue. leap in his pants. They weren't just talking about blitzers, right? They were talking about safety. They were talking about changing the picture. This is changing the picture, right? This is taking that weak side safety and getting him in on the strong side. Gough sees it immediately, Baltimore

and Ross St. Brown, right? This is, that's beating coverage. There's you up front side. They're taking away. Backside, on time. First down on third and 15. Extend the drive. They score on this drive. They go up 14 points. That's good quarterbacking. All righty. Now I said two things. Impressive about golf. I said, arm talent and timing. We talked a lot about timing. We've seen a little bit arm talent. This one, all right? First and 10, hard play action. That's a throw, man. Come on, Jared. And blitz look again, right? They're going to get, they get that, that, that, that, they reduce the front off the tight end, and then this safety comes, all right? So we end up with a blitz look, and golf's got to turn his back, hard play action under center, right? This is the sort of thing where

he would do it with the Rams, turn his back, and then the defense would change the picture behind him. He would look up to throw it, and I have no idea what was going to. going on. You'd be perplexed and bemused and befuddled. Now, drops maxes, all right? I've got max protection. I've only got three in the concept. I'm going to be fine. Quick, right? He's looking front side. Nope, they're sitting underneath that. I'm getting to Jamo. Jamo's running this, man. Jamo's going to get here and then stop and break to the outside. Golf's getting ready to throw this thing. With Vita Vea bearing down, what's the throw? Whoa. That's a ball. This is the sort of thing where it's like, oh, Mahomes did this.

Lamar Jackson had a similar throw to this in our playshifts. It was more like out of structure and stuff, but still like the trajectory in the direction of the throw. And so this is me being honest, right? If Lamar Jackson did I, we'd be going ballistic. So we hear Jared Goff doing it. Play action. Vita Vaya coming down the pipe, man.

That's a big boy. That's 345 pounds of Vita Vea. What a throw. So it's funny to watch golf now because the book on golf is the same, right? This is still a player you want to get out of strut. because he's not a great athlete, he doesn't throw super well in the move, he's just not going to kill you with the scramble drill stuff. So that's the same. The book on him is the same, but the writing's a lot better, right? I mean, editor's been over this. It's gotten polished, right? He is just, even if he's the same

player, even if the tiger doesn't change his stripes, he is still dramatically improved. When he's with the Rams, he was good and structure, bad out of structure. Now with the lines, he's still good and structure, bad out of structure, but the instructure stuff is way better. It's way more responsive and the bad out of structure stuff isn't even as bad as used to be. Is that like enough to get the lions over the Niners into the Super Bowl? I don't know. Like I'm, I'm going to be worried about Jared Golf against Steve Wilkes. This Niners pass rush. Fred Warner is so good at taking away the middle of the field where Jared Golf wants to throw. Yeah, I'm going to be worried about that. Let's say they beat the Niners and they go and they get Steve Spagnola, the defensive

coordinator of the Chiefs, or Mike McDonald, the defensive coordinator of the Ravens. Both of those guys are the league leaders, the experts, the taste makers in changing pictures and sending weird blitzes and hassling your quarterback. I'd be worried about golf against those guys, too. But that's what playoff football is, is it's really tough matchups against really good opponents. And while previously, Jared Goff was just a guy who was kind of along for the ride in the postseason with the Rams, golf has been a driving force for the Lions in their postseason run. Jared Goff 2.0, tell your friends. And that'll do it. For us here on the play sheet, thank you so much for watching. Thank you to Cory McConnell for producing the episode.

Thank you to Ben Johnson, Brad Holmes, Dan Campbell for believing in Jared Gough. This is him. He's good, man, and you're good because you watch the shows. And you got to keep watching them and comment, rate of you, subscribe, and it's great.