Goff's MVP hopes took a massive shot in Baltimore. Just like he did. And Derek Carr, woof.
Jared Goff, welcome to the club. It’s not one you wanted to join.
The Detroit Lions’ starting quarterback had been efficient and occasionally prolific in his team’s 5-1 rise to the top of the NFC. Detroit’s offense was clicking under coordinator Ben Johnson and the retread passer, once scuttled by the Los Angeles Rams in favor of Matthew Stafford, had emerged as a potential MVP candidate.
Then the Baltimore Ravens invaded his village like a pack of Nordic barbarians, razed the progress he’d made over six weeks and reduced the Lions to ashes in Week 7. Goff had his worst game of 2023 and arguably his worst with Detroit as the Ravens cruised to a 38-6 win that was somehow not as close as that final score suggests.
But did that make him this week’s most disappointing quarterback? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging these underwhelming performances were. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.
By comparing each passer’s Week 7 EPA against their 2022 and 2023 combined average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the seventh game (for most players) of the 2023 season.
