If you've been watching the Detroit Lions for a long time, then you've seen the team play against the Packers a lot when they had Aaron Rodgers. If you've seen that, you've seen Joe Buck drool over Rodgers for four quarters on a lot of your Sundays.
In the midst of all that drooling, you'd usually hear Buck talk about Aaron Rodgers' cadence when shaping the ball. You'd hear that because as much as I don't like Rodgers, I'll give him credit because he has been a guy who has found a ton of different ways to get extra yardage in his career. One of the methods you saw him use a lot is getting opposing defensive linemen to jump when he had no intention of snapping the ball. It was a free first down a bunch of times. The Lions used to always jump.
Now they're the team that's making opponents jump and Jared Goff has a lot to do with that. Yes, the Lions being a four-down team all the time plays a role too, but the quarterback has to be the salesman here and Goff is getting these guys signed up for the credit cards and warranties that they don't need with his cadence. He's got them getting the windshield treatment they don't need on their brand-new car that already has a windshield treatment.
Goff has done this four times this season. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it is. There's only one quarterback with more and that's Jalen Hurts at five. The tush push clearly scares everyone. After Goff and Hurts, you see a lot of guys who have maybe done it once this year a small smattering of guys that have done it twice.
It's a big indication of how much the game has slowed down for Goff as he's hit his 30s. That's the age when it's believed that the game starts to really slow down for quarterbacks and they're able to read things at a higher rate than ever before.
The thing about those four times that Goff has got defenses to jump is that they have all happened pretty recently. Goff got Harrison Smith to jump on fourth down in Week 18 against the Vikings. He did it in Week 16 against the Bears and did it to the Bears on Thanksgiving too. He also got the Packers in November.
You have to wonder what happens in the playoffs against Washington. A team that also likes to go for it on fourth down a lot. Jayden Daniels has not yet made anyone jump on fourth down if you're curious.
