The recent play by Jared Goff looks really familiar, here's what happened next

There's no doubt that I was looking at Malik Willis most of that year like everyone else was. Don't try to pretend now that you weren't all in on that athleticism.

Then things changed for Goff. Here's his next seven games that season: 

151-220 for 1,472 yards, 11 touchdowns, two interceptions and two fumbles. He completed 68.6% of his passes and had a 100 passer rating. 

That is significantly better. What changed for Goff during that time? A few things. The Lions took the play calling away from Anthony Lynn. That was a big one. Dan Campbell started calling the offense with the help of some guy named Ben Johnson. The other was that Taylor Decker returned from injury for the final nine games of the year. Suddenly Goff went from getting sacked 17 times in seven games to 13 times the rest of the year. Goff also started to really regain his confidence during that time too. 

How can things change this time? The Lions aren't going to make any changes at play caller becasue they don't have to. Ben Johnson is their guy. The offensive line could certainly be better and more stable for him. 

I know there's this weird take where people say that conditions need to be perfect for Goff to survive. My response to that has always been "well, yeah." Seriously, what quarterback doesn't need his line to block for him or his run game to work or his receiver to catch the ball? You got to stop watching Patrick Mahomes sizzle reels. The line has to hold up for every quarterback. Even Mahomes.

Right now the Lions offensive line is anything but stable. It's a different combination every week becasue someone gets hurt nearly every game. They were without Jonah Jackson and then they were without Frank Ragnow. Now Taylor Decker is missing from estimated practice reports. Goff's been sacked 15 times in the seven games. There's that Déjà vu thing again. 

The final thing is that Goff needs to look himself in the mirror and make sure he gets that confidence going again. It can be easy to lose it in a stretch like this. We don't have any real reason to believe that he won't because he hasn't showed us that. What Goff did show after those first seven games is 30 straight games where he played at an elite level until that Baltimore game. Here's his stats over that 30 games. 

674-1,010 for 7,528 yards, 52 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and six fumbles. He completed 66% of his passes and had a passer rating of 100.6. He can do this again.