Jared Goff congratulates Jayden Daniels after Washington’s victory. / David Reginek-Imagn Images
Jared Goff’s dreams of leading the Detroit Lions to their first Super Bowl went sideways in a swirl of turnovers Saturday as the upstart Washington Commanders prevailed 45-31 to reach the NFL championship game for the first time since 1991.
Asked about his emotions after throwing three interceptions — including a pick-six — and losing a fumble, the former Cal star struggled to describe how he felt.
“Unfortunate – obviously, sucks,” Goff said. “Worst part of this job and you hate it when you feel like you let guys down and you want to win these type of games at home and yeah – it’s hard to answer that right now, I’m sorry. Just hard to put in words.”
Goff completed 23 of 40 passes for 313 but had four of the Lions’ five turnovers, preventing Detroit from mounting a comeback. The Lions got within 31-28 before the Commanders once more took charge.
Jared Goff tries to escape Commanders defensive end Dorance Armstrong. / Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
“You’d like to think that was kind of our turning point and again, we let it slip away,” Goff said. “Again, I can be self-critical and critical of us, and yeah we had a lot of crap that we did out there.
“But I don’t want it to sound like we didn’t just play a good team. They came out and they beat us and they played well and we didn’t, and that’s the bottom line. “
Again, I know I’m repeating myself at this point, but had I played better, do we win – possibly, and that’s the part that’ll eat me apart for the whole offseason.”
Lions center Frank Ragnow, asked about the criticism Goff will face this offseason, responded with full support of his quarterback.
“I will ride with Jared Goff until the day I die,” Ragnow said. “Any aspect of life, football, no matter what it is. One of the most standup human beings, players, leaders, you name it, and I’ll always have his back.”
Goff was outplayed by his rookie counterpart, Jayden Daniels, who was 22 for 31 for 299 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers. The former LSU star also rushed for 51 yards for the sixth-seeded Commanders.
Daniels called the game “a surreal moment.”
Lions coach Dan Campbell shouldered blame for the defeat, telling reporters, “It’s my fault. My fault.” Goff said that was just another example of a leader having his team’s back.
“Yeah, he’s our rock man, he is and he shouldn’t do that, but that’s who he is, and we feed off his emotion, his energy, and he believes in us and he loves us and he cares for us,” Goff said of Campbell. “He puts everything he has in it for us as well, and yeah, we’re extremely disappointed in ourselves as well.”
Goff enjoyed a spectacular regular season, passing for 4,629 yards with 37 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His 72.4 completion percentage was best in the NFL and his 111.8 passer rating was No. 2 in the league.
Goff knows this game will gnaw at him into the offseason.
“I can’t even think about that right now. I’m still kind of processing this and going to have some hard nights coming up, unfortunately,” he said. “It’s hard – I wish I could give you guys a better answer right now.
“It’s just disappointing, it’s hard, we had everything we wanted – home-field advantage, fans were incredible – unfortunately, we just let it slip out of our hands.”
