There's no better symbol of the Detroit Lions' rise than quarterback Jared Goff. Since Week 8 of the 2022 season, a stretch that has seen the team win 21 of 28 regular season games, Goff has 48 touchdowns with 14 interceptions and a 66.7 percent completion rate.
Goff didn't light up the stat sheet in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Rams, as the Lions' offense shook off some rust. Things should naturally be better in Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Lions faced Tampa Bay twice last season. In Week 6 during the regular season, Goff defied his well-known home/road, indoor/outdoor splits to dice up the Buccaneers' pass defense (30-for-44 for 353 yards, two touchdowns). In the Divisional Round playoff rematch, Goff did it again (30-for-43, 287 yards, two touchdowns).
As it turns out, Goff doing well against Tampa Bay in recent years was not exclusive to last year.
Jared Goff has very prolific recent history against Tampa Bay
After being fired as head coach of the New York Jets, Buccaneers' head coach Todd Bowles landed in Tampa Bay as defensive coordinator under then-head coach Bruce Arians in 2019. He replaced Arians as the Buccaneers' head coach in 2022.
Goff is one of 15 quarterbacks with at least three starts against the Buccaneers since 2019, and a defense with Bowles' fingerprints on it there. In those four games, he has averaged 383 passing yards per game-the best among those quarterbacks with at least three starts.
As Bucs go to Detroit on Sunday, Jared Goff has averaged 383 passing yards in four games vs. Tampa Bay since Todd Bowles arrived in 2019. That's the most out of 15 QBs with 3+ starts vs. Bucs in that span:
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) September 12, 2024
Jared Goff 383.3
Patrick Mahomes 327.0
Matt Ryan 300.3
Dak Prescott 280.7
It's worth mentioning that Goff's average output against the Buccaneers lately is naturally a little skewed by 517 yards (on 68 pass attempts) in Week 4 of the 2019 season when he was the Rams' quarterback. But he has topped 350 yards in two of the others, including the aforementioned regular season matchup last year. He also threw zero interceptions against the Buccaneers in the two games last season.
On Thursday, Bowles praised Goff.
Todd Bowles says that Jared Goff is one of the toughest QBs he’s faced as a head coach — mentioned, obviously, that Goff beat them twice last year
— River Wells (@riverhwells) September 11, 2024
Bowles runs a blitz-heavy defense, which lines up with what opponents do against Goff due to the fact he is awful when pressured. But Goff is also very successful against the blitz (unsuccessful blitzes, truly), which correlates perfectly to having success against a blitz-heavy defense.
Another good outing against the Buccaneers looks to be in the offing for the Lions' passing game on Sunday,