Jared Goff: I loved fourth down decisions, we have to convert
The Lions rode head coach Dan Campbell's willingness to go for it all the way to the NFC Championship Game, but they weren't able to ride it to the Super Bowl.
Detroit failed to convert a pair of fourth downs in 49ers territory during the second half of Sunday's 34-31 loss and the decisions to pass up field goals were a big part of the postgame conversation. A third quarter throw to Josh Reynolds was dropped and Jared Goff fired an incompletion to Amon-Ra St. Brown when the Lions passed on a field goal try with the 49ers up 27-24 in the fourth quarter.
Campbell said after the game that he had no regrets about the calls and Goff said he "loved them" while noting that the team has to convert when they put themselves in those situations.
"He believes in us," Goff said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. "I don’t know what the numbers are but we had a lot of big-time conversions this year that changed games and I don’t know what we were today. I know we had the two we didn’t convert. It can change a game if you convert them and we didn’t. And that’s part of the reason why we lost."
The Lions almost certainly wouldn't have been in Levi's Stadium on Sunday without Campbell's willingness to roll the dice in big moments, but the horse they rode to the conference title game threw them in the second half. That means it will be a long wait to see if Campbell and the Lions handle things any differently the next time around.
