Jared Goff has made a habit of carving up the Cardinals, and Sunday looks like another spot where Detroit may need him to do exactly that.
The numbers go way back to that ugly rookie season in Los Angeles, when Goff’s lone loss to Arizona came in his seventh and final game of the year. That night was rough in every way: a 44-6 defeat, seven sacks, and a career-worst 72 lost yards. Since then, the Cardinals have been a much different story.
Goff is 9-1 against Arizona for his career, with those nine wins tied for his most against any opponent. The only other team that matches it is Chicago, and Goff is 9-4 against the Bears. Against the Cardinals, he has helped power offenses that have routinely piled up points, including a stretch that turned into one of the clearest early signs of what the Goff-Dan Campbell pairing could become in Detroit.
That moment came in Week 15 of 2021, when the Lions were sitting at 1-11-1 and had topped 30 points only once all season, in the Week 1 loss to San Francisco. Then they went out and blasted a 10-3 Arizona team, 30-12, for one of their three wins that year. Goff was sharp from start to finish, completing 21 of 26 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover.
Since that game, the trend against Arizona has only grown stronger.
In 10 career meetings with the Cardinals, Goff’s offense has averaged 28.9 points per game. If you remove that six-point rookie outing, the average jumps to 31.44.
He has led offenses to at least 30 points in eight of those 10 games, while throwing for 264.5 yards per game with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions. His completion rate in those matchups is 71.95 percent, and his passer rating sits at 106.9.
He has also run for three touchdowns against Arizona, which matches his highest total against any franchise, alongside Atlanta.
Detroit could use that version of Goff again on Sunday. He enters the week second in the league in passing yards with 1,214, along with nine passing touchdowns and no turnovers. That spotless turnover number will get tested by an Arizona defense that has already produced seven takeaways, tied for sixth in the league and only two behind the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Cardinals have been below average on both sides of the ball, but this still has the feel of a game that could turn into a shootout. Trey McBride gives Arizona a dangerous weapon at tight end, and the Lions will have to deal with the possibility that their defense again has trouble there. If McBride gets rolling, Goff may need to keep Detroit in the 30-point range to give the Lions their best chance.
Based on what he has done against the Cardinals before, and what he has done this season, that would be right in character.
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