Lions quarterback Jared Goff made NFL history Monday night by completing every pass he threw, but his favorite play might have been the pass he caught.
On a trick play the Lions refer to as “Alcatraz,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown threw a pass to Goff in the end zone, which Goff caught for a touchdown. Goff said that, as far as he can remember, he had never caught a touchdown pass in his life at any level, whether in college, high school or as a kid.
“I think it’s the first one I’ve done since I was 7 years old,” Goff said. “I think it’s the first.”
Goff said he and St. Brown have been working on the play for a couple of years, but the right situation to use it in a game had never arisen before.
“That play has happened a long time ago and we’ve never been in the right situation for it to be called. I think we’ve actually called it in a game before and if it’s not the right look, I get out of it. But that was the right look. “Goff said.
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson wrote the play and gave it his name, for reasons unknown to Goff.
“We called it Alcatraz,” Goff said. “Ben has been calling it Alcatraz for two or three years. I guess I’ve never asked him why. There’s probably a reason. I guess I should ask him why.”
It was the second straight game in which the Lions got a touchdown pass on a trick play, having scored on a hook-and-ladder the previous week. Goff said there are more tricks in the Lions’ playbook.
“We have a lot of these plays in the game plan and they don’t always come up,” Goff said. “There has to be the right setting for them. The hook and ladder were one and so was Alcatraz.”