Last Detroit Lions QB with a playoff win is a believer in 2023 squad
Erik Kramer, the last quarterback to lead the Detroit Lions to a playoff victory, was throwing spirals of praise and admiration to the quarterback who is trying to be the next one.
“I love Jared Goff's story,” Kramer said, referencing the Rams' 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 53 back in February 2019. “Because here's a guy who — anybody who watched that Super Bowl knew he was the reason the Rams lost. There weren't two reasons. There was one reason — it was him. He was sort of cast off — here, please take him off our hands; and now he's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL without question.”
The Lions’ last playoff win came at the Pontiac Silverdome on Jan. 5, 1992, when Kramer led the Lions to a 38-6 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, completing 29 of 38 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns.
Since then — as every Lions fan knows in the most excruciating, nauseating ways — the Lions haven’t done squat.
But this year feels different, in large part, because of Goff, who wasn’t even alive — he was born on Oct. 14, 1994 — when the Lions won that playoff game.
So, what does Kramer appreciate in Goff’s game?
“Here's what I appreciate about any quarterback that can do it,” Kramer said in an interview to promote his book, “The Ultimate Comeback: Surviving A Suicide Attempt, Conquering Depression and Living With a Purpose.” “You have some urgency to the way you drop back, and then you clearly read a defense and clearly anticipate throws and clearly move defenders. That — that's what I love.”
Goff is off to one of the best nine-game starts of any Lions QB since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970: first in completion percentage (68.4%), tied for third in interception percentage (1.53%), third in completions (223), fourth in passer rating (99.1) and fourth in passing yards (2,507).
Goff has raised his production not only because of his arm — any NFL QB can spin the ball — but most of his success can be traced back to his eyes, his ability to read the defense and his decision-making. That's where he has grown the most.
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“Against any zone defense, there's always one defender that you want to put into conflict,” Kramer said. “You are gonna do one or two things with him. You're gonna freeze him where he’s at and throw to whichever guy looks better, or you're gonna use that receiver to help guide him there. When I teach that stuff, it's called pickle. It's a drill that relates directly to that. But you have to have the right posture to do it, and you have to be able to utilize your eyes correctly, and that's what I see Goff do.”
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Mistakes of the past
There are some similarities between this Lions team and that 1991 squad.
That 1991 team also had a young core: Herman Moore was 22; Barry Sanders, 23; Eric Andolsek, 25; Bennie Blades, 25; Rodney Peete, 25; Chris Spielman, 26 and Mike Utley, 26. Lomas Brown was one of the old guys at ... 28.
“When you look at, like, that year in ‘91, so Rodney goes down with an Achilles,” Kramer said. “He's having the best year of his career.”
That made Kramer the starter, and the Lions finished 12-4, beat the Cowboys and then got hammered by Washington, 41-10, in the NFC championship game.
If there is a cautionary tale from 1991, it is how difficult it is to keep together a young core — some of that team's pieces were lost because of management decisions and some were lost by absolute tragedy.
On Nov. 17, 1991, Utley was paralyzed in a game at the Silverdome; Andolsek was killed on June 24, 1992, when a truck ran off a road and struck him in the front yard of his Louisiana home.
“Utley goes down,” Kramer said. “I mean, Mike Utley was freaking good; and then Eric Andolsek probably would have been in the Hall of Fame.”
More than anything, Kramer blames management decisions for the lack of continued success.
“There were no old guys on that team, and the thing that Lions didn't do was keep anybody,” he said. “Everybody was slipping out the door. So it wasn't like they offered anybody. They didn't have any direction.”
This Lions team set up differently
But this Lions team?
He sees something different from the top down.
“I think the Lions are going to be good for a while,” Kramer said. “They're young. They've got a single purpose from the top down and they're deep. They're going to be at or near the top, every single year for the next, say, three or four years. It's only gonna get better. And Jared Goff isn’t going anywhere.
“So can everybody use an extra playmaker, here there and everywhere? Of course. But as far as a complete organization — from the top down, the GM, the coaches, the roster — you name me a better one? That doesn't mean they're gonna win the Super Bowl. Luck is involved, and ball bounces go one way or the other, calls go one way or the other. But to me, they've got as good a blueprint as anybody.”
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Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jared Goff makes believer out of last Detroit Lions QB with playoff W
