Despite his attempts to set it aside all week, Sunday night's game against the Los Angeles Rams was personal for Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Against his former team, and perhaps more directly the coach (Sean McVay) who didn't think he was good enough to win a Super Bowl with.
In his postgame press conference, Goff summed up the personal impact of the win over the Rams.
"Kind of had to subdue a lot of emotions this week,” Goff said.
Goff stepped up to define the moment, for himself, the team and Lions' fans, with the kind of performance he needed to have if the Lions were going to win (22-for-27, 277 yards, one touchdown; 121.8 passer rating).
All along, head coach Dan Campbell has professed that Goff is his quarterback, likely for a while into the future based on how well he has played for much of the last couple seasons. Very early, general manager Brad Holmes said he didn't view Goff as a "bridge quarterback."
Goff is now the first quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game against a team he previously started a playoff game for.
Dan Campbell delivers perfect message to Jared Goff after win over the Rams (video)
Campbell added another to his collection of awesome postgame speeches on Sunday night. Two game balls were given. The first to Holmes as Campbell acknowledged the partnership that started three years ago and roster build that has now paid off with at least one playoff win this year.
After Holmes spoke, Campbell then had a brief, perfect message for Goff as he tossed the Lions' signal caller a game ball. The message was also clearly for the Rams, and for McVay.
"I'll just say it like this: you’re good enough for f-cking Detroit, Jared Goff,” Campbell said.
No matter where his Lions' career goes from here in terms of playoff success, Goff will now forever be known as the quarterback of the team that ended a 32-year playoff win drought, with all the personal layers it had going against the Rams.
"Good enough for f-cking Detroit", indeed.