Few feelings are better in sports than winning a football game before a bye week.
It’s an extra week of rest, film study and enjoying winning vibes.
The 3-1 Detroit Lions fit that bill to a tee.
The team just demolished a then-undefeated Seattle Seahawks team on Monday night, and they don’t play again until a big road game against the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 13.
And yet, the Lions head coach is probably still spending part of this weekend partially ruing a big mistake he made on Monday.
(Well, as big a mistake as one can make in a 42-29 win.)
That’s because Lions head coach Dan Campbell forgot to “save a piece of NFL history” after that big win, per ESPN.
The piece of history Campbell forgot to celebrate had to do with Lions quarterback Jared Goff.
While Goff, a veteran at this stage of his career, has started in plenty of big games — including the Super Bowl — throughout his career, Monday night’s big win was a first-of-its-kind experience for the former Cal quarterback.
Do you watch the NFL?
And that’s because neither Goff nor any quarterback in NFL history has had a game quite like the Lions quarterback’s “perfect” Monday night.
Goff finished the game, held in Detroit, a perfect 18-for-18 on his pass attempts, for 292 passing yards and two touchdowns.
Oh, and he finished with a touchdown reception to boot.
You can watch some highlights of Goff’s stellar game below:
For the all-around perfect game, Goff actually broke the record previously held by then-Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, who finished a game 10-for-10 in 2005.
Much to Campbell’s chagrin, however, he totally forgot to acknowledge his own quarterback’s record-setting night — because the coach accidentally gave away the celebratory game balls to Lions teammates Jameson Williams and Kerby Joseph.
“I just gave the game ball to somebody else, so I feel awful,” Campbell said, per ESPN. “I knew he played a heck of a game. I did not realize he was perfect.
“I did not know he was literally 18-for-18, but I knew he played really well.
“You could feel it. He really found his rhythm early.”
One memory Goff has of his perfect night was actually a decidedly imperfect play.
“And I was kind of aware of [the perfect game] today, about the middle of the third quarter,” Goff recounted. “I was like, ‘I couldn’t think of one [time accomplishing this],’ but then I threw the one out of bounds that ended up being offensive pass interference, and I was like, ‘Does that count?’ I didn’t know if that counted or not.
“But yeah, it’s a good day.”
An offensive penalty often replays a down, so it wipes away the previous play, which did preserve Goff’s perfect Monday night.
Goff, for his part, didn’t seem too irked by Campbell’s snub.
“That’s OK. We’ll see, maybe he’ll make it up, but that’s OK,” Goff said, per ESPN. “I’m just happy we got the win.”
The Lions will have to keep getting those wins to keep pace in a highly competitive division.
The NFC North is chock full of talent, with not a single team owning a losing record going into Week 5. The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers are both 2-2, while the division-leading Minnesota Vikings are perfect in their own regard, at 4-0.
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