Jared Goff responds to criticism over Lions OC's Week 1 play calling

The Detroit Lions’ offense during Week 1's 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers was met with frustration and anxiety, and deservedly so. Last year’s historically high-powered offense looked as inept as it did during the first season of the Dan Campbell era, when the team stumbled its way to a 3-13-1 record.

The play calling from new offensive coordinator John Morton, in particular, has drawn the ire of fans and analysts. On Sunday, the Lions failed to score at least 20 points for the first time in almost a year, falling 20-16 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and dropping to 1-1 on the young 2024 season.

Goff discusses the lack of downfield plays

Speaking over the phone with 97.1 The Ticket, Lions quarterback Jared Goff was asked to respond to questions fans have had about play calling, and in his response, he brought up the lack of downfield plays.

You know, the downfield thing, like, we called the plays downfield, they covered them. And so I just checked it down to our backs, and I don’t think that’s any different than we had played certain games in the past. If they are open, I’d like to, you know, think I’d take those chances, and yeah, so we got to find a way to get those open more often. We will. We will find those ways and figure it out.

Goff, who received his own share of criticism, finished the game completing 31 of his 39 passes, averaging 7.26 yards per completion. If that average stands for the remainder of the season, it would be at least two yards below his career low average of 9.72 from his disastrous rookie season.

Goff has proven himself to be a great QB, so that number should increase, but Goff’s assessment underscores a key issue for the offense under Morton going forward. Receivers are struggling to get open, something that wasn’t an alarming issue when former OC Ben Johnson was calling the shots.

Goff then specifically mentions newly-extended Jameson Williams as someone who he’d like to get the ball to downfield before concluding that “those shots will come.”