Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff got some revenge against his old team on Sunday night, as he and the Lions defeated the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 24-23 in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.
While Goff said the win was significant to him as an individual, he insisted that it was more about the team than his own personal vendetta.
“It means a lot,” Goff said on NBC after the game, via Dave Holcomb of Heavy.com. “But this team is special. This team is really special, and it’s about our team. Obviously, I have some personal connections over there, but it’s about our team.”
Goff went 22-for-27 with 277 yards and a touchdown in the victory, leading Detroit to its first postseason win since January 1992.
“It’s about the 2023 Lions,” added Goff. “We just broke a streak that’s been going on for 30 years. But it’s about this squad. It’s about the people in this locker room and this building. It’s about our head coach Dan Campbell — what he infuses in all of us, it’s about us.”
Goff began his NFL career with the Rams, as he was taken by the club with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft.
He spent five seasons in Los Angeles, guiding the team to a Super Bowl appearance during the 2019-20 campaign. However, the Rams ended up losing to the New England Patriots. Two years later, LA traded Goff to the Lions in exchange for Matthew Stafford. Stafford proceeded to lead the Rams to a Super Bowl that very next season.
This is now Goff’s third year in Detroit, and while he still has an uphill battle ahead of him when it comes to winning a championship, he at least showed his former team that he is, in fact, a very good NFL quarterback.
Jared Goff and the Lions will battle the winner of the Philadelphia Eagles-Tampa Bay Buccaneers matchup in the Divisional Round next weekend.
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