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The first pass Jared Goff threw Monday night was a simple 1-yard completion to his tight end, Sam LaPorta. This happened a few seconds into the first quarter.

The last pass Jared Goff threw Monday night was a high pitch to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who jumped and grabbed the ball for a touchdown.

The game still lasted 5:23.

In the nearly three hours between those two passes, Goff threw 16 more. Some were fastballs. Some were whipped downwards. One was a long catch-and-sprint to Jameson Williams for a 70-yard score. In another, Goff somehow scored after a defender spun him like a roulette wheel.

But every pass was a conclusion.

LIONS LEVEL: Perfection gets an A for Jared Goff

That's right. The ball didn't touch the ground – 18 against 18. No drops. No high or low errors. That means a Detroit Lions starting quarterback was absolutely perfect for an entire game.

We can all die now and go to heaven.

“It's good,” Goff told a television interviewer shortly after the Lions' 42-29 victory over the Seahawks at Ford Field ended. “If the ball doesn’t touch the ground, it’s good.”

Good? It's perfection! And these weren't simple dump passes or three-yard screens. These were “Find your tight end rollout” or “Find your wide receiver on a crossing pattern” or “Look outside the defense for your second option” or “Move.” -the-bag-and-wait-for-your-guy-to-get-free – now whip it!

Eighteen against eighteen?

Flawless.

“I was on fire”

Goff made it look like he was computer programmed. The balls were tight, hard and on the money. He moved the bag but threw with ideal footwork. Despite playing without injured star center Frank Ragnow, Goff showed such a high level of excellence on Monday night that it's no wonder some teammates and coaches didn't immediately recognize that, statistically speaking, he had just done something that no one had done before quarterback had done in NFL history: Be perfect for so many passes (18) and so many yards (292.)

“I just gave the game ball to someone else, so I feel terrible right now,” head coach Dan Campbell said with a laugh during his postgame press conference. “I knew he had a great game. I didn’t know he was perfect.”

When St. Brown was initially asked about this by a reporter, he too was confused. “The (reporter) says, 'Your quarterback, the ball didn't touch the ground,' and in my head I'm like, 'What does she mean by the ball didn't touch the ground?' I know he didn’t fumble,” St. Brown told ESPN. “After the game I finally realized he was hitting 18-for-18. I think he got more touchdowns than incompletions.”

Oh yes. Let's not forget this gem. Midway through the third quarter, Goff faked a handoff to David Montgomery and then threw the ball to St. Brown, who watched as his quarterback crept out of the backfield like a child leaving school through the back door. St. Brown then threw a perfect pass just over a defender, and Goff, never to be confused with Usain Bolt, caught the ball and scampered into the end zone.

He then shot the ball into the stands. The way he threw, I'm pretty sure he was caught.

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“I was thrilled,” Goff told ESPN. “We've been cooking this thing for a long time. I think it’s my first career touchdown catch.”

Leave it to Goff, who rarely talks about the big things he did, doing two Mondo things in the same night. That reception put Detroit 19-for-19 in pass attempts. The only other time a team was perfect on all pass attempts was in 1942, when the Giants threw one pass the entire game on the first play of the game.

That shouldn't even count, right?

Flawless.

Convert the “compliment” to “complementary”.

Of course, all of these stats would be meaningless if the Lions didn't win the game. Which they did. A big win against an undefeated Seattle franchise that had beaten them in their previous six games. The Lions pulled it off with strong offense and just enough defense when they needed it at the end. The game effectively only ended after Kerby Joseph intercepted a lob from Geno Smith in the end zone with 66 seconds left.

“It’s good that we finally beat these guys,” Aidan Hutchinson told the media. “I think the difference was we got the stops we needed at the end.”

By then, however, the Lions defense had lost so much space that I thought they might be giving away a luxury box. Seattle finished the game with 516 total yards, completed 78 plays (versus Detroit's 50) and had 38 first downs (versus Detroit's 21). Detroit also gave up 101 yards on 12 penalties to Seattle, which will no doubt infuriate Campbell – after he's done celebrating.

“I’m proud of the boys,” he told the media. “I thought what we did really well was we played complementary football and that’s what good teams do.”

We knew the Lions were good. We didn't think that the “compliment” in “free” would be “Congratulations on a perfect evening.”

But how nice for Goff, who for all his efficient successes has struggled against sticky film, to be traded for a shinier model after the Rams gave up on him for Matthew Stafford four years ago. Because he isn't flashy, Goff isn't always on the highlight reels. And because he's not loud, Goff doesn't cause a stir on social media.

But when he's active, he's successful, and there are few in the NFL who can match him. Last season, he was a model of that low-risk, high-reward production. This year was a bit of a slow start. Detroit's offense was fine in its opening game against the Los Angeles Rams, faltered in the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had a good half in the win against the Arizona Cardinals. Goff himself said he didn't perform to his full capacity (four interceptions against three touchdowns). The defense kept the Lions on the podium.

On Monday evening the situation changed.

“I was very confident it was going to happen,” Goff said of the offense’s return to vigor. “I thought the first half last week showed who we are. … To have a complete game that feels like that, that’s what you want.”

It definitely is. Here's hoping Goff gets the game ball at some point. And that he puts it in a place where it won't get lost, bumped into or even smeared. After all, perfection is difficult to achieve. And now that a Lions quarterback has done it, it doesn't seem so impossible anymore.

With the Lions largely living up to their tremendous preseason hype despite a slew of injuries, many impossible things seem more likely these days.

Are the Tigers out of the playoffs on Tuesday?

Contact Mitch Albom: [email protected]. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchhalbom.

On By John Fenwick

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