Why Jared Goff didn't have a perfect pass rating or perfect play after an 18-for-18 night

Jared Goff pitched a perfect game on Monday night.

The Detroit Lions quarterback completed 18 of 18 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-29 victory over the Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field.

Still, the Rams' former No. 1 draft pick didn't finish with a perfect passer rating.

“Didn’t I do that?” Goff said when informed of the statistical anomaly during his postgame press conference. “Yeah, I don’t know. This system is strange.”

Against the Seahawks, Goff set the NFL record for most passes during a game without an incompletion, surpassing Kurt Warner's 10-for-10 game for the Arizona Cardinals in 2005. However, Goff's total stats for the evening were only good for 155, 8 passer rating of 158.3 possible.

Last month, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray became the latest quarterback to achieve a perfect passer rating against the Rams, completing 17 of 21 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

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Obviously, passer rating is about more than just completion percentage.

Goff was sacked three times by Seattle, including once for a safety stop late in the game. Also in the fourth quarter, an incomplete pass from Goff was wiped off the books by an offensive pass interference call against teammate Brock Wright.

But none of this impacts a quarterback's passer rating.

The metric that prevented Goff from receiving a perfect rating was the percentage of touchdown passes per pass attempt. The minimum perfect passer rating is 11.9%, and Goff came in slightly short at 11.1%. Oddly enough, he actually would have received a perfect rating if he had attempted two fewer passes.

Speaking of oddities, the Lions posted a perfect passer rating as a team, and Goff played a key role in the play that put them over the top. Midway through the third quarter, Goff caught an eight-yard touchdown pass – the first touchdown reception of his career – from receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.

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So, yeah, it was a pretty incredible game for Goff, who was somehow overlooked when coach Dan Campbell was handing out game balls. The coach instead passed them to receiver Jameson Williams, safety Kerby Joseph and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson before sheepishly admitting to reporters that he didn't realize Goff had completed all of his passes.

“I just gave the game ball to someone else, so I feel terrible right now,” Campbell said when informed of Goff’s stats. “I knew he played a hell of a game. I didn't know he was perfect. I didn't know he was literally 18-for-18, but I knew he played really well. You could feel that.”

When told by reporters about Campbell's remorse for not giving him a game ball on such a special night, Goff laughed.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m just glad we got the win.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.