Everything Lions QB Jared Goff Said After Defeating Bears

Below is everything Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff said after defeating the Chicago Bears, 52-21, on the heels of a five touchdown performance on Sunday.

On comments that he cannot succeed without Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson or Rams Head Coach Sean McVay:

"All it takes is one game, huh? I mean, I don’t – nothing to say about that. We had a good day today. We’d have to have a really long press conference if you want me to talk about that. We played a great game and I felt great out there today.”

On how important Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown is to the team:

“Yeah, he’s a stud. He’s as good as they get in our League. He’s a stud, he does everything in the run game, everything in the pass game, as reliable of a player I’ve ever thrown to in my life. We’ve got a pretty good chemistry going on, for our fifth year, and it’s been fun.”

On how his chemistry with Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown is difficult on a defense:

“Yeah, it’s hard on a defense. And I even think, we had that one in-cut on third down that were both kind of like, ‘Man we’ve got to connect on that.’ Pushing each other in that way. Where Jaylon Johnson makes a great play, it’s – those are the ones where we’re like, ‘No, we need to take it even further.’ We push each other really hard, we do, and I thought it showed up, really, on that back shoulder ball to him. Just being able to trust that he knows what I’m thinking and I know what he’s thinking and put it in a spot where only he can catch it. And then he makes the play, incredible catch. It’s a lot of work though, it is. We put a lot of work into it, a lot of talk, and figuring those things out.”

On the offensive line and what was more effective today versus last week:

“Yeah, those guys really gelled. I think they did. And I think in particular Tate (Ratledge) and (Christian) Mahogany, as younger players, kind of were able to get last week out of the way and kind of settle in a little bit today. And more so Tate than Mahogany, he had experience last year, but I thought Tate played great today. I haven’t seen the tape, but at least in pass pro, it felt firm there. It felt firm, he felt strong, it felt like he was pushing downhill. It felt like he really settled in. The more reps those guys get the more they’ll settle in, hopefully, as time goes on. And you just want to keep those five on the field at the same time and they’ll keep getting better.

On if there was any talk in the locker room about facing Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson:

“Yeah, sure, yeah, there was nothing disrespectful about it though. I think we’ve got so much respect for him, and know what type of coach he is, and we knew he’s have them ready to go and reared up and going, and sure did he know some of our stuff, maybe, but how does he get that communicated to the defense, I don’t know. So there was some talk about that, but no man, I’ve got so much respect for him. He’s done so much for me personally, and our offense in years past, that’ll never change.”

On the urgency to get back on track this week:

“Yeah, it was important. I think it was important for us to play efficiently. The points are going to come, the wins are going to come, but just to stay on schedule. I think on that first drive, I think we scored in like five plays or something. I don’t believe we had a third down, maybe it was third-and-short or something. That’s what we want to kind of get going. That big chunk play after big chunk play, big chunk run – and just staying on a schedule. And then ultimately up front they want to keep guys off me, and limit the sacks, and allow me to kind of spread the ball around, and that’s playing efficiently. I thought that showed up incredible today, and it was good. At the same time, I will say this though, I thought the first half we could have really opened it up there and we didn’t. I thought that was a poor job by us. Our defense got us three turnovers, too, and the fourth down stop, and we got seven points out of that. It’s not even close to good enough. We were able to come out of the second half and play great, obviously, but that first half there’s still little things there that we can clean up.”

On Lions WR Isaac TeSlaa’s catch and his trust in him:

“Yeah man, a lot. It really gains a lot of trust being able to put the ball kind of anywhere near him and see him come down with it. And that was part of why he was drafted here, is to be that type of player, and he’s shown up, man. He really has. And he gets better every week, and I’m sure his route tree is really going to grow. I mean we’ve hit the two go balls with him, but allowing him to run some different things as well and get the ball in his hands, and see what he can do after the catch, all that stuff is coming for him. But, yeah, he’s certainly a deep threat, and those 50/50 balls are dangerous when he’s out there.”

On the team rarely losing twice in a row:

"Yeah, I think it’s just, and I can only speak for my experience here, but the want to respond. The want to right a wrong and fix things and do it better in practice, and the urgency to improve. I think that Dan (Campbell)’s always talking about, certainly early on in the year, it’s just how can we get better every week. And sure, we lost the first week, but we got better this week. We did. We got better in practice, we worked on certain things and we got better. And some of it showed up today. So yeah, it’s just trying to find ways to respond, I thought our defense played great as well and gave us a ton of opportunities, and we played as a full unit today.”

On how he would grade his end zone celebration:

“Me? Bad again. Really bad. I know. Really bad. I wanted to get up there, because I’ve seen it for years now, I’ve wanted to get into the Lions leap zone, I’m like, ‘Alright, this is my chance.’ But, bad. But I was waiting for someone to kind of help me out and pull me up there, and I didn’t get any help. Not good.”

On how important explosive plays are and why there were more of them this week:

“They’re very important, yeah, they’re very important. I think we aim for, like, six to eight, maybe, we aim for every week. I mean eight explosives you’re having a pretty good day. Why they were there this week and not last week, we executed better. We did. We got guys open, guys caught the ball, I threw the ball better, we ran the ball better, we protected better, we did everything better. I think that’s kind of the gist of the whole thing. When we do it like we’re supposed to do we’ve got such great players on the perimeter and guys I can distribute to, it should be explosive like it was today. But when we don’t do things right, it can bite us. But it’s a good lesson for us to stay on that urgent improvement and do it again next week. Baltimore is a great team, and we’ve got to find a way to get better again next week to beat them because I don’t know if that would have been enough for them. Certainly in the first half, and yeah, I know it’s a long-winded answer but finding ways to get better every week and those help with those explosives.”

On chants against Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson:

“Yeah, I didn’t like that. I thought that was – he did a lot for us here and I don’t know if he deserved that.”