Jared Goff gave credit to Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
“I thought the touchdown was fun,” Goff said after the Lions’ 20-13 victory at Arizona. “We had been working on that one for a while.”
“That one” was a nifty Hook and Ladder play late in the first half. On first and 10 from the Arizona 21-yard line, Goff hit Amon-Ra St. Brown on a shallow in-route. The receiver quickly lateraled to running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who raced the 20 yards for a significant touchdown. The score gave the Lions a 20-7 advantage at halftime.
“I thought that was a good spot to call it,” Goff said. “When we stalled there in the second half, he was committed to the run and it ended up paying off for us in the end.”
The touchdown paid off because Detroit couldn’t muster points in the second half against a stingy Cardinals defense. Dennis Gardeck intercepted Goff in the third quarter and the Lions’ best second-half drive netted 42 yards but ended when Arizona stuffed David Montgomery for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Cardinals’ 34-yard line.
“I think the first half was as good as we can draw it up,” Goff said. “I don’t think we had an incompletion. We were running it efficiently. In the second half, we just kind of kept stumbling over our own feet. After the turnover, we made some mistakes in different areas and couldn’t get anything going until that last drive when we needed it most. Ultimately, we made it happen.”
Goff sealed the Cardinals’ fate just before the two-minute warning when he completed a 28-yard pass to St. Brown on third-and-12, forcing Arizona to burn its final timeout. But they couldn’t have gotten to that point without a phenomenal defensive effort.
Led by Aidan Hutchinson, who posted a sack to pad his NFL lead, Detroit held the Cardinals to just 11.1 percent on third downs (1-for-9). Arizona entered the game leading the league on a 63.6-percent clip, best in the league. Kerby Joseph also intercepted Kyler Murray, who had a historic day on the same field just one week earlier.
“Our defense is playing really well right now,” Goff said. “That is three straight games where they are doing some good things. Ultimately, we would love to stretch that game open and make it a three-, four-score game and end it a lot earlier than that but they held on and made some plays for us and picked us up when we needed it. And at the end of the game, we were able to close it out.”
Detroit (2-1) has not lost consecutive games since Oct. 23-30, 2022. Over that stretch, the Lions are 8-0 after a loss.
The team returns home to host Seattle (3-0) next Sunday.