The Lions had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 as a team, but Jared Goff fell just behind

At the end of the Lions' win over the Seahawks on Monday night, Troy Aikman pondered on ESPN how the NFL's official passer rating system could possibly give Jared Goff anything other than a “perfect” passer rating for his efforts. The reason lies in the touchdown pass that Goff caught but didn't throw.

As a team, the Lions went 19-for-19 passing for 273 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. That equates to a perfect passer rating of 158.3. But that also includes the touchdown pass that Amon-Ra St. Brown threw to Goff on a trick play. Individually, Goff completed 18 of 18 passes for 292 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. That means he threw a touchdown on 11.1 percent of his passes, which is just shy of “perfect” for passer rating purposes.

To finish a game with a perfect passer rating, at least 11.875 percent of touchdown passes must be thrown, with no interceptions, a completion rate of 77.5 percent and at least 12.5 yards per attempt. Goff completed three of those four but had few touchdown passes, meaning Goff's passer rating for the game was 155.8. If the Lions had called a pass for Goff for a touchdown instead of the pass to Goff, Goff would have finished the game with a perfect 158.3.

Passer rating has been the NFL's official statistic for evaluating passers for more than half a century, and there is no sign of that number changing. This is far from the best way to rank quarterbacks, in part because arbitrary cutoffs like an 11.875 touchdown percentage are “perfect.” But it's what the NFL uses, and that's why it draws so much attention from fans and media.

The Lions become the 57th team in NFL history to finish a game with a perfect passer rating of 158.3, and the second team to do so this year, joining the Cardinals in week two. It was a historic night for Goffeven if the passer rating system says he wasn't perfect.