Jared Goff needs to match first performance against 49ers for Rams during Week 17

The Los Angeles Rams hope to see a big game from Jared Goff to help the team lock up the No. 2 seed in the NFC during Week 17.

After a rough three-game span, the Los Angeles Rams watched Jared Goff put together a decent enough performance last weekend against the Arizona Cardinals to provide a little extra boost to his confidence.

After tossing just one touchdown pass to go along with six interceptions during those three games from Week 13-15, Goff did just enough on offense against the Cardinals by completing 19 of 24 passes for 216 yards to go along with two touchdowns (one rushing).

Normally, these kind of numbers wouldn’t seem like that big of a deal, but when looking at the rough span Goff had been dealing with, this was just what Los Angeles needed to see before their regular-season finale against the San Francisco 49ers.

Originally, the hope behind this epic Week 17 battle between these two NFC West rivals was that Goff would be squaring off against another young quarterback on the rise in Jimmy Garoppolo. But after the 49ers star suffered a torn ACL back in September, Goff will be facing Nick Mullens instead.

In comparison, Mullens has looked decent at time for San Francisco, but the chances of him helping the 49ers pull off an upset in this one when looking at what is exactly on the line for the Rams seems slim.

Of course, if Los Angeles is going to in fact take down San Francisco for the second time this season after defeating them 39-10 the first time around, Goff will need a similar performance from Week 7.

During that game, Goff did just enough on offense, similar to the most recent win over the Cardinals, to help the Rams get by after completing 18 of 24 passes for 202 yards to go along with two touchdowns.

While these numbers may not stand out like some of Goff’s other games from his 2018 campaign, keep in mind this game seemed well over way before halftime even rolled around. Not to mention, with Todd Gurley and Malcolm Brown combining for 128 rushing yards to go along with two scores, Goff wasn’t facing as much pressure to move the football through the air.

Even if Goff would seem to be at a disadvantage if Gurley were to sit out for a second week in a row, C.J. Anderson made it clear during last weekend’s win over the Cardinals that he can fill in if needed at running back.

If this does happen to be the case where Anderson is relied on once again, at least this will take some of the pressure off Goff under center. After all, as great as Gurley and Anderson have looked at times on offense for Los Angeles, everyone knows how far this team will go in the playoffs will most likely fall on the shoulders of Goff, which is why Week 17 is so important for the former No. 1 pick.