And I don't just refer to this article. I refer to the broad NFL discussion, including on this board.
Discussions of Goff tend to include CW themes that seem to me to be contradictory:
- On the one hand, I see all sorts of discussion--pundits and fans--of how good Goff is moving in the pocket to free himself from the pass rush enough to get balls off for completions.
- On the other hand, I see all sorts of discussion--pundits and fans--of how Goff struggles under pressure.
Now, both of these assessments seem to be pretty widely held, sometimes by the same person, yet they seem contradictory to me. Isn't Goff sliding in the pocket to complete a pass a case of facing pressure?
I dunno. Maybe I'm misreading. Maybe people mean throwing on the run, which isn't really his strength, but is really only a limited subset of facing pressure. Maybe it's a matter of playing from behind, but we haven't faced that much this year, and when we did trail OAK early, I thought he played well.
But you know here's what I suspect. I suspect that most QBs, all those who haven't unambiguously proven themselves to be elite, are judged for every all-too-human error as if it's a sign of weakness. We do that with Garoppolo. Everyone who suspects Goff, Ram fan or otherwise, latches onto a couple of missed throws as indicators of weakness.
But you know all QBs miss throws. They are human. Elite QBs miss throws, but people don't say much because their rep has earned them a large margin of error. Missing a throw doesn't mean much unless …
Unless there is a definite pattern over time. And even then, beware of confused thinking.
Consider our Red Zone struggles. That really is a pattern of note. But is it evidence of Goff struggling? Well, the point has been made that his completion % there is actually exemplary. But the TD ratio isn't. That mystery eludes me, but man I do not think that a couple plays here and there tell us much.
This week, for example, I've seen somewhere critiques of Goff that blamed him for the batted down pass that prevented a TD to the wide open guy in the flat. OK, huh? A QB gets a ball knocked down and it's assumed to be his fault because he didn't loft it? You know, it's HARD to swat down a ball. Really. And one perfectly appropriate tactic is to fire the pass out quickly past the hands, a tactic that works most of the time. The DL makes a good play and this is supposed to show us something about Goff? Who also that day made numerous Red Zone and PAT throws that connected?
Look, I'm not writing this to defend Goff or excuse his mistakes. He did hang up the ball to Cooks and missed a wide open Woods. Those are misses. He played well but never really got hot in that game. He also made numerous incredible throws, including one on, I think, 3 & 11 standing on his goal line and getting the drive going. I think that was a pressure throw.
I guess I am asking us (most of the pundits never will be) to be reasonable in our rush to analysis and evaluation. A couple of individual plays now and then often don't mean anything except a human error. You know what Trevino used to say? "Two things don't last: dogs who chase cars and pros putting for pars." More than half the time, the very best putters miss putts outside, I think it is, 8 feet. It doesn't mean they are bad putters. It means they miss some.
I also ask us to consider both sides of coins. I don't think many around here have given Goff much grief for the pick he threw, under pressure and on the run. It is indisputably true that he threw that ball to a dangerous place and got burned.
But what's the other side of that coin? Throwing into tight windows, the skill most prized these days and the one Goff is getting a lot of credit for. He is increasingly amazing us with incredible throws that wave the cape right underneath the bull's nose. Well, if you do that, sometimes the bull is going to gore your side. Throw a ball into enough tight windows and NFL DBs will turn some around for you.
The greatest QBs in league history have all thrown picks. Some have thrown a lot of picks. It never meant they weren't great QBs. Goff has been famous for not throwing the ball away. As he becomes more and more aggressive, he will throw more picks. Let's be sure we remember both sides of the coin.
