Jared Goff injury: Lions QB leaves game after being ejected on illegal hit

On By Littum

Jared Goff heading to the locker room after a massive hit in the second quarter of Saturday’s NFC Divisional Round game against the Washington Commanders. He later returned to the sidelines, but FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira said the officials missed a penalty on the play.

Quan Martin Goff intercepted and took it back for a touchdown to give the Commanders a 24-14 lead. On the play, however, Goff took a massive hit away Frankie Luvu. The training staff immediately went out to tend to him and he went back to the locker room during the commercial break.

Teddy Bridgewater came in to replace Goff and he led a touchdown drive. Jameson Williams took a pass to the house on a trick play to cut the Washington lead to 24-21. Just like that, the game was off and running.

For Pereira, however, he saw Luvu hit a defenseless player. Therefore, he believed that the referees had to throw a flag and call penalties. Instead, the touchdown remained on the board as the Commanders and Lions combined to score 42 points in the second quarter.

“The key here is that you have an interception, of course,” Pereira said on the broadcast. “And at that point, so after the interception, for the entire play, the quarterback is considered defenseless. You can block him if he’s chasing the play, but you can’t hit him in the head or neck area, which Luvu did. So this should have been called, which would have resulted in the ball still being alive – a 15-yard penalty from the 5-yard line.”

Jared Goff ended up returning to the game, completing 11 of 17 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown in the first half. However, he also threw two interceptions. On the Washington side, Jayden Daniels put on a show, completing 14 of 21 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns while adding 29 rushing yards on the ground to help lead the offense as the Commanders took a 31-21 lead into the locker room at Ford Field.

The first half set an impressive record as the Lions and Commanders combined for over 600 yards of offense. That’s the most in a half since the first two quarters of Super Bowl LII between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles.