Detroit Lions' Jared Goff: 'I just got to take care of the ball better' after interceptions

Jared Goff's 10-game streak without an interception came to a halt in Week 2, just shy of an NFL record. Now, the Detroit Lions quarterback is onto a new streak - one he'd rather not have.

Goff has thrown an interception in three straight games, the only blemish on an otherwise impressive first quarter of the season.

"You just got to be smart with it," Goff said Tuesday. "I’ve had three, two of them were bad throws, one was a bad decision. Try to limit the decision ones. Those are the ones that really sting. But yeah, I just got to take care of the ball better and really limit that. It’s something I’m focused on."

Goff went 383 straight pass attempts without a pick, a stretch that started in the second half of the Lions' Week 9 win over the Green Bay Packers last season and ended in the fourth quarter of the team's Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks last month.

Goff's first interception of the season came when he threw behind rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs on a pass Seahawks defensive back Tre Brown returned 40 yards for a touchdown.

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He made another errant pass in the Lions' Week 3 win over the Atlanta Falcons, when he overshot Amon-Ra St. Brown on a ball he said was "about as bad as I’ve thrown a ball in my career." And last week, Goff threw his third interception in as many weeks when he launched a pass off his back foot over the middle on the Lions' opening drive.

Two of Goff's turnovers have come under duress, and all three interceptions have come in Lions territory, though the Lions held the Packers to a field goal after the interception last week and forced a four-and-out turnover on downs by the Falcons.

Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday that Goff, who struggled with turnover problems during his final seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, has been accountable for his mistakes and added, "I don't feel like he's pressing."

"I don’t feel any panic, and he knows," Campbell said. "He came up to me right after the game and he was like, ‘Look, believe me, I (know).' He doesn’t want it to happen, but what I want more than anything is I don’t want him to go into a shell or start panicking. And he’s not, and I love that. It’s something that he’s thinking about, we’ll be on top of and the ability to overcome those, because some of those will happen.”

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Through four games, Goff has completed a career-best 69.5% of his passes with six touchdowns. He ranks seventh in the NFL with 1,029 yards passing and his 383-throw streak without an interception is third-best in NFL history.

Last year, he finished with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions, matching his career-low in 2016 (when he played in just seven games) and 2017.

"He’ll tell you, he made an error, he made a mistake," Campbell said. "He’s falling away in the pocket and makes an ill-advised throw, his eyes are on the receiver and best part about it was he didn’t get frazzled. He went right back to work and he didn’t let it — we were fortunate it didn’t hurt us because our defense went right out and put the fire out. And that’s what you’ve got to be able to do is overcome those errors."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Next up: Panthers

Matchup: Lions (3-1) vs. Panthers (0-4).

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday; Ford Field, Detroit.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Lions by 8½.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions, Jared Goff not worried about rash of interceptions