NFL Draft: Cal QB Jared Goff has dud performance vs. Utah

Cal Bears quarterback Jared Goff had a big stage and an even bigger road game for his undefeated team going into Utah last night. The stage collapsed, and Cal is now yet another ‘former’ undefeated in college football as Utah’s defense got to Goff to the tune of five interceptions.

It’s just one game, so it’s important not to overreact, but this was really bad. Goff threw more interceptions (though they weren’t all his fault) in one game than Marcus Mariota threw in either his sophomore or junior season (4 in each).

Goff is a big time NFL prospect. I don’t think anyone’s going to argue that, but what we saw on Saturday night was someone who might still be a work in progress, and that’s okay. Utah was throwing a lot at Goff, and they were forcing a ton of mistakes by the Cal offense. It was in some ways a preview of what a hostile NFL environment might be like for Goff, and he didn’t adjust throughout this game.

Despite having five interceptions and barely completing 50 percent of his passes, we saw from Goff some of the throws that have you believing he’s going to be a top draft pick in 2016. He had one throw in particular from the far hash that wound up being a 50-yard touchdown to receiver Trevor Davis that looked like an angel playing a harp came and gently dropped the ball in his hands.

The throw was so beautiful it nearly rocked me to sleep on Saturday night.

I don’t make it a habit to overreact to one game, especially for a young college football player. This was only the second game this season where Goff had a completion percentage under 70 percent. It was his first multi-interception game, and while he obviously made quite a few bad throws in this game, they weren’t all his fault.

If Goff was your number one player in the country before this game, I don’t think you should move him down your board based on this game, but I think it raises some questions.

1. Was the stage too big?

2. How will he respond against NFL athletes given his response to intense pressure from Utah?

3. Why all the silly mistakes?

4. How will he come back next week?

These are just some things that are on my mind after we watched a player that I had just earlier that day told people was easily the best QB in college football right now, being talked about up there with the best players recently drafted at the position. It’s not that QB prospects have to be dominant in every single game, as we all know, it’s just that you hate to see such a down performance in a big spot.

This just wasn’t his night, but to me, that’s okay.

Just don’t do it again.

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