Detroit Lions' Jared Goff chasing NFL record for consecutive completions

Jared Goff is completing a career-high 71% of his passes through four games, something Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson attributes to Goff's advanced ability to digest and execute a plan.

"He knows exactly what we’re looking for," Johnson said. "He knows what the bad looks are, too. He knows why each play’s being called and the premier look for that play, but he also knows what could give us some issues, and so just his general awareness of how to make things right now when I’m not timing things up quite right, it’s been really impressive."

Goff completed all 18 of his passes in the Lions' Week 4 win over the Seattle Seahawks, an NFL record for most completions in a game without a miss. A week earlier, he was 12-for-12 in the first half of a win over the Arizona Cardinals.

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Goff has completed 19 straight passes overall and needs to open Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys with seven straight completions to break the NFL record held by Ryan Tannehill, Marcus Mariota, Philip Rivers and Nick Foles.

Johnson said giving Goff some easy passes to open Sunday's game is "not even on my thought process."

"No," he said. "We’re playing ball."

Identity theft

Johnson was asked to describe the Lions' offensive identity Thursday, and he leaned on three words: Physical, detailed and explosive.

"We believe that we are an extremely physical, detailed and explosive unit," Johnson said. "That's what we want to bring to the table each and every week. We want our physicality to show up. Obviously, the easiest way to do that is in the run game, but we have perimeter players that don't have the ball in their hand but they're finding a way to finish around the football. And so that's our definition of finishing and being a physical team.

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"I think when you watch us on tape, you see a deliberateness in our guys and where they line up, the depths of their routes, the execution, the fundamentals, that's the detail part of it. And then, so far this year we've been fairly explosive in both the run game and the passing game. I know our numbers dipped because we had the bye week, just relative to the league, but prior to the bye week we were top-10 in regards to explosives."

Missed opportunity

The Lions took a comfortable 21-7 lead into halftime of their win over the Seahawks , but squandered a chance to add points on the final play of the second quarter when cornerback Khalil Dorsey was stopped after a short return on Jason Myers' missed 62-yard field goal.

Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp admitted Thursday the team should have used receiver Kalif Raymond or another offensive skill player as the safety returner on the play.

"Really, what happened to us on the play, there wasn’t a timeout so it was a running clock and so we sent out the field goal group, knew we were going to have a returner back there so part of that plan is that the guy who is our call-side corner, which is Dorsey, who also is a returner, put him back there deep," Fipp said. "But then I was looking around to actually try to get Leaf and I didn’t see him right next to me and then at that point it’s like, 'OK, well, we’re not going to push them up 5 yards with a penalty or something like that so let’s just go out there with that group.' The truth is we should have had somebody better back there. I could have done better with that, for sure."

Along with Raymond, the Lions' regular kick returner, Fipp said wide receiver Jameson Williams and running back Jahmyr Gibbs are options on the play.

Dorsey returned the missed kick to the 22-yard line, but hesitated as he approached the Seahawks' field-goal team. The Lions had a wall of blockers set up on the far side of the field for a return.

"I think highly of Dorsey, I think he could do a good job, too, so it’s not like I felt like we got somebody back there I didn’t believe in," Fipp said. "But there was probably other options, too, had we had time, more time to get the right guy. The offense was all the way down on the far side of the bench, to me the last thing is giving them 5 yards and a better shot at making the kick."

Options at linebacker

Alex Anzalone will continue to play the primary role at strong-side linebacker with Derrick Barnes out with a knee injury , but defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said Trevor Nowaske played well enough in limited action against the Seahawks to earn more time at the position, too.

"We don’t want to put him in the Lawrence Taylor role just yet," Glenn said. "That was just one game. The thing is, yes, he does open our eyes on some things that he can do, but we’ve been knowing Nowaske since he’s been here. And we know what he brings to the table. We hated to lose him (last year when he got claimed off waivers), but we’re glad we got him back. So we’re going to continue to try to up his role and try to help him be the player that we know that he can be."

Anzalone, the Lions' weak-side linebacker to start the year, had seven tackles and two quarterback hits while playing an expanded pass rush role against the Seahawks. Nowaske was not credited with a tackle in eight defensive snaps.

Malcolm Rodriguez started at weak-side linebacker against Seattle, with Jack Campbell in the middle.

"Any time there’s any issues that go on with the linebacker room, listen, we have five guys that can go out there and play at the drop of a hat and we’re going to continue to look at it that way," Glenn said.

Two of a kind

Sunday's Lions-Cowboys game features two of the NFL's strongest-legged kickers in Dallas' Brandon Aubrey and Detroit's Jake Bates, both of whom took unorthodox paths to the NFL.

Aubrey played soccer collegiately at Notre Dame and professionally for two seasons before switching sports. He played two years in the USFL and made first-team All-Pro in his first NFL season last year. Bates played two years of college soccer before transitioning to football, where he was a kickoff specialist who never attempted a field goal. He signed with the Lions after one season with the Michigan Panthers of the UFL, the successor to the USFL.

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Fipp said Aubrey's success last season helped him "have confidence" in what Bates could become with a little polish.

"The bottom line is, these guys are talented guys," Fipp said. "They're definitely ball strikers before, they're playing soccer, they're doing a lot of other sports. They're not just a high school kicker who's done it his whole life. These guys are good athletes, they're good players, they're super-talented and I think ... they can get better and they can improve."

Dave Birkett will sign copies of his new book, " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline" at 7 p.m. Saturday at J. Gilligan's Bar & Grill in Arlington, Tx. Order your copy here.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Jared Goff chasing NFL record for consecutive completions