The Bears defense had more of a chilling effect on Jared Goff than the weather.
But the weather doesn’t seem to have helped.
Via Rich Hammond of the Orange County Register, the Rams quarterback’s struggles Sunday night were consistent with a pattern over the course of his young career.
Goff was 20-of-44 for 180 yards with four interceptions against the Bears. It was 29 degrees at kickoff. In his five games played with the kickoff temperature at 40 or below, he’s won just twice, and the Rams didn’t score 30 in any of them. He has a completion percentage of 49.7 in those five games, 63.7 percent in the other 30 games he’s played.
We’ll give him a bit of a pass for the two in 2016 under Jeff Fisher, when the entire offense was in a deep freeze (apparently between 7 and 9 degrees), but he’s done nothing to suggest cold weather is a condition he enjoys.
“I think if you said is it easier to throw it when it’s nice weather,” Rams coach Sean McVay said, “in dry elements, different things like that, the ball doesn’t feel (awkward) in your hand when you catch it or when you’re throwing it –- I think that definitely does play a factor in just the efficiency at which you’re able to throw the football, but I don’t think that affected him.”
Goff wore gloves in an earlier chilly game this year at Denver (14-of-28 for 201 yards and an interception), but he didn’t Sunday night.
He won’t have to worry about it again in the regular season (two home games and a trip to Arizona), and it might not come up in the playoffs. But until he goes outside in the cold weather and plays well, it’s a reputation that will follow him around.