How Jared Goff rallied the Rams past the Chiefs

Jared Goff turned to Gerald Everett in the huddle and told him if the Chiefs showed the right look, the ball was coming his way. Goff calmly threw a 40-yard TD to Everett for a 54-51 Rams win and put himself back in the MVP race.

From @VinnyBonsignore https://t.co/E5ahM9dVT2

— The Athletic (@TheAthleticLA) November 20, 2018

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How Jared Goff, ‘the coolest, calmest, most collected guy of all time,’ rallied the Rams past the Chiefs

https://theathletic.com/665730/2018/11/20/how-jared-goff-the-coolest-calmest-most-collected-guy-of-all-time-rallied-the-rams-past-the-chiefs/

LOS​ ANGELES —​ The Rams had burned through​ all​ of their timeouts by the​ time Jared​ Goff​ huddled up​ the offense​​ with two minutes and 47 seconds left in the rollercoaster ride he and the Rams and Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs took the football world on Monday night.

It would be too time-consuming to explain all the hows and whys the Rams actually found themselves trailing 51-47 at the time. About all you really need to know is the Rams let a couple of opportunities to ice the game slip away, giving the breathtakingly talented Mahomes one too many chances to make them pay for their indiscretion.

Mahomes, in the most ruthless of manners, drove the Chiefs 65 yards in eight plays, dropping a pass into the hands of Chris Conley for a 10-yard touchdown. If fear can be measured in quietness, the eery silence that came over the crowd of more than 71,000 at the Coliseum was positively frightening.

It was a tremendously entertaining game, and you could sense Rams fans were already talking to each other to ease their pain. There was nothing to be ashamed about in losing such a thrilling game to a fellow NFL powerhouse. And who knows, maybe the Rams will see the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

The rationalization was perfectly understandable, if not a bit premature.

Goff was about to see to that. And in the process, he would make sure the extraordinary group effort the Rams put together wasn’t for naught. He would outshine Mahomes and rightfully thrust himself back into consideration for the NFL MVP award.

“He was awesome,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said of Goff.

It sometimes takes a village to take down an opponent as worthy and powerful as the Chiefs. And in getting two defensive touchdowns by linebacker Samson Ebukam, two strip-sack fumbles by Aaron Donald, two touchdowns by tight end Gerald Everett, a booming 68-yard punt from Johnny Hekker to pin Kansas City back at its 12-yard-line with 50 seconds left in the game and interceptions by Marcus Peters and Lamarcus Joyner to end the Chiefs’ last two drives, the Rams tapped into just about every single player on their 46-man active roster, their training staff, their coaching staff and the 12th man created by their home crowd to finally beat the Chiefs 54-51.

And with his 413 yards passing and four touchdown throws in piloting a stirring comeback, Goff proved once again he should absolutely be considered for the NFL’s highest individual honor. That he did it on the national stage of Monday Night Football in a game pitting two of the best teams in the league only strengthened his case for MVP consideration.

The matchup of 9-1 teams was billed as the NFL’s game of the year, and it lived up to all of the hype and then some. With a fourth-quarter comeback, Goff added the finishing touches to his own memorable performance.

“There were times where we felt like we had all the momentum, we thought we were going to put the knife in and finish it, and then there were times where it was the other way around where we were like, ‘All right, we need to kind of claw back into this,’ ” Goff said. “It was a fun one.”

But the Rams victory required a magical finish from Goff. He needed to dig the Rams out of the inexplicable hole they found themselves in after Mahomes threw the Chiefs into a four-point lead with just under three minutes left. And Goff had no timeouts to work with, mind you.

No pressure, kid.

Yet as he stood near the Rams’ 25-yard line, nearly a full football field away from the touchdown the Rams had to have, Goff looked about as frazzled as a guy about to take a big chunk out of his buddy’s checking account by sinking a two-inch putt.

“Jared is the coolest, calmest, most collected guy of all time,” Rams right tackle Rob Havenstein would later tell The Athletic.

Completions of 22 yards to Brandin Cooks, two yards to Everett and 10 more to Tyler Higbee put the Rams at the Chiefs’ 40 yard-line. There was 1:56 left on the clock.

As the Rams huddled up and Goff spit out the play call, Havenstein recalled Goff turning to Everett and telling him if the Chiefs gave them the right look the ball was coming his way.

“Yup,” Everett confirmed. “It’s a play we rep all the time in practice.”

In the play, Everett lines up wide to the right with Brandin Cooks to the left of him. If the safety shows he is helping the cornerback on Cooks, it means Everett is working against one-on-one coverage.

“It’s an either or at that point,” Goff told The Athletic.

Said Everett: “In the huddle, he gave me that look and I knew I was going to run full speed. And he knew it, too.”

Maybe it was the sense of certainty Goff told Everett, but the jolt of confidence he injected into the rest of the Rams was unmistakable.

“I mean, you hear that and you’re like, ‘I’m gonna protect my ass off,’ ” Havenstein said.

Sure enough, everything unfolded exactly as Goff thought it would. All that was left was for him to do was loft a perfectly thrown ball to Everett, who was streaking down the sideline, and for Everett to make the catch and tiptoe down the sideline into the end zone.

“They dropped the safety down in, he put it up and down and then Gerald ends up just right down the sideline, not stepping out of bounds and so many guys made plays today,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “But I thought Jared’s poise and confidence and ability to respond after it wasn’t always pretty, especially in some instances, is why you love him and why he’s such a great quarterback because of that even-keel demeanor and disposition and that poise that we always talk about.”