Everything Lions QB Jared Goff Said After Loss to Vikings

Here is a transcript of Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff's postgame press conference following the team's 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 9.

On why the pass rush was able to get home so often today: 

“Yeah, I thought they did a good job pass rushing, they had a good plan on defense. They always are hard to play against defensively. They do a good job over there, and I have a ton of respect for the way they do things. Yeah, they got after us up front a little bit and gave us some pressures we hadn’t seen and did a good job on defense.”

On his perspective on communication struggles with the offensive line: 

“Yeah, a couple times. I mean, it’s inexcusable, but they make it hard, and I think caused us to have a few miscommunications.”

On Dan Campbell’s comments on the preparation over the Bye week and what could have been done differently: 

“I know he takes a lot of ownership in that, but I felt like we were ready to go. I felt fresh, we all felt fresh. Sure, I’m sure he’d like to do things differently, but from my perspective, we did what we were supposed to do, and we didn’t play well as players. We didn’t in any phase, and they did. They played better than us today, and it’s been a long time since we had this feeling of playing kind of poorly in all three phases, and you do that, you probably lose.”

On how Lions Offensive Coordinator John Morton mentioned improving on third down coming into this week, and how first and second down impact that: 

“Yeah, that would help, right? Third-and-short would help, certainly. It starts with first and second down but converting on those third downs keeps us on the field, allows us to get in the red zone and score more points, ultimately. It is tough sledding in third-and-seven-plus, and we need to stay out of that as much as possible.”

On the concern level for the offense given it has been a few weeks since establishing a consistent flow: 

“No concern, no. There’s certainly an urgency of fixing things, and we did fix things, I think, from two weeks ago. But there’s more to fix, obviously. There’s a ton to fix, and a ton of things to get better at, and it’s a long season, and we have to get to it and fix these things.”

On his relationship with Lions Offensive Coordinator John Morton and whether next week will be an instance where he will have feedback on the types of plays he wants to rotate: 

“I always do. I don’t think next week’s going to be any different. (He) and I work collaboratively, and I don’t believe that next week would be any different.”

On whether he believes this loss was a waste of taking advantage of getting ahead in the NFC North division: 

“I think it’s just another loss. It’s unfortunate, we’re five-and-three, it sucks, it’s hard for me to speak without being upset. It sucks. We’ll move on, we’ll move on to Washington and try to win that one. And hopefully, we do, and we’ll be ready to go. We’ll respond, it’s what we do best, and I think (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) said it in there, I don’t know if he said it to you guys, but a little adversity at this point in the season isn’t always the worst thing for you. I can say that if you use it correctly and move forward correctly, but who knows, maybe we look back on this moment as a turning point for us. It’ll only be that if we make it that, though.”

On if their lack of success in the run game was surprising: 

“We’d like to run the ball better, sure. Again, I think if we were more efficient on first and second down, some of those runs end up hitting a little bit more if we’re more efficient through the air, some of those runs end up hitting more. It all works together. It’s not exclusive to itself. I think there are plays where we can get into a better run, I could’ve killed a run or stayed in the pass, whatever it may be. So, I certainly have my hand in that as well, but something we’ll look at and get better.”

On if he felt like he was getting into the right play at the line before the snap: 

“Not enough to win. You’d like to maybe have some different things against some of the stuff they were doing, but I think even if we’d won I’d say the same thing. They did some good stuff on defense. They’re going to get you at times, that’s who they are, and you’ve got to be able to win more than you lose in those instances where they are trying to confuse you and bring pressure in. I thought today they won more than we did in those instances.”