Quote
David Deacon
I like Goff over Wentz at draft time and one of the reasons was the comparisons to Montana and how he could move in the pocket and make plays when things broke down.
When they made the trade for the #1 pick initially I preferred Wentz but it didn't take long to realize the Rams were drafting Goff and that he was going to be a good one. What stood out is the mental stuff, including taking a pounding as a first year starter and then persevering to pretty much by himself drag Cal into the winning column. He showed all sorts of poise and toughness doing that. At the time I was saying that his biggest advocates were pointing out that he had a lot of rare traits in terms of being mentally tough with a high football IQ, and that he had elements in him of guys like Warner, Brady, and Montana.
But here's the thing about Goff that for a long time will frustrate Rams fans who need to see him loved by the national sports media.
Everything that is best about Goff is, for the lack of a better term, subtle. He doesn't make a lot of dramatically spectacular highlight show style plays. His big signature play is the freakily accurate downfield pass (15-25 yards) which is thrown with great anticipation and ends up in the one square inch in the universe it needs to be. It's so effortless sometimes that often you have to look twice to realize what a great throw it was.
So far, or right now, the Goff/McVay flaw is that they can stall in crunch time in the 4th quarter when the game is on the line. Not talking about 4th quarter comeback moments--since 2017, he has actually been 50% in those (that comes with an asterisk because it's not all the qb but still), and 50% puts him in good company (Brady, Wilson, Luck). But if you combine those games with games where they can seal the win in the last minutes in a close game, there's a list of games where the offense stalls. They did against the Chiefs (just needed 1 first down), they did against the Saints (had time to comeback from 3 points down), they did against Seattle (had the ball at 1:51 and needed a 1st down). That can't be just Goff and has to include McVay. Another flaw which will probably dissipate in time is holding the ball too long. Now and then Goff can throw "WTH?" passes where "inaccurate" isn't even the right word (it's more like "were you seeing a different universe than the rest of us??!" ) but you don't get long streaks of those.
If your longest paragraph describes his flaws it's because you have to explain them--it's not as simple as saying "generally inaccurate" or "bad pocket presence" or "folds under pressure."
Anyway back to the subtle good things. His best traits as a passer, often you have to watch the play closely to even realize how good they are. Sometimes it stands out, like the TD to Kupp against Minn. where McVay thought at first he was throwing it away. That pass was so good that in the booth Joe Buck's initial reaction was to say "C'mon!" as in "oh come on" as in "you're kidding me!" So sometimes it stands out even to non-Rams Unbelievers. But as often as not it's artistic, subtle, and a little eerie when you look close.
Mahomes on the other hand has highlight vid heaven plays all the time. He may ultimately be the better qb but that doesn't matter---as long as Goff is Goff they will win with him and he will always (IMO) be a top-5 rank passer.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2018 05:08AM by zn.
