The Los Angeles Rams look poised to bounce back from their Week 2 loss against the Washington Redskins when they head up north to face the San Francisco 49ers. It will be a battle of former colleagues with Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan manning the sidelines for their teams.
After an impressive Week 1 showing against a hapless Indianapolis Colts defense, Jared Goff found himself falling back into bad habits against the Redskins. Instead of reading the defense and assessing his options, he locked onto who he would pass to early. The best example of this came on the team’s final drive where he threw an interception, ending the game there.
Still, there were positive takeaways from the game which could not be said much during the 2016 NFL season. According to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN, Goff is finished with discussing last year:
You guys keep wanting to talk about last year, man,” Goff said. “We’re done with that. We’re on to this year. Last year was a whole different deal, and this year is exciting.”
The 22-year-old was heavily scrutinized in his rookie season after the team traded so much draft assets to take him first overall in the 2016 NFL Draft. A mix of poor coaching, a bad offensive line, and a weak receiving corps all contributed to Goff’s struggles in his first NFL campaign.
Things are vastly different in the young quarterback’s second year, as all of last year’s problems have been addressed. With new weapons and operating within a quarterback-friendly system, Goff should thrive and remind people why he was so highly-touted coming out of college.
