Jared Goff keeps Rams offense running against the Cardinals through the air and on the ground
For the last few weeks, Jared Goff said he was “begging” coaches to call a particular play.
It did not require him to air out a long throw. In fact, it was not a pass at all.
On Sunday night against the Arizona Cardinals, Goff finally got his wish.
He faked a handoff, read the defense and then ran nine yards for a touchdown in the 33-0 victory at Twickenham Stadium.
“I keep going, ‘Call it, call it, call it,’ ” Goff said of the read-option play. “And so when it came in, I was like, ‘All right, here we go.’
“And sure enough, the read was there and we blocked well downfield as well and was able to punch it in.”
Goff’s touchdown run came at the end of a two-minute drive in the second quarter, a play that gave the Rams a 20-0 lead in a victory that improved their record to 5-2.
“Jared Goff got a rushing touchdown,” offensive lineman Rodger Saffold said. “Who would have guessed?”
Goff, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft, completed 22 of 37 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown, with one interception.
The turnover, “just a dumb play,” Goff said, was the only major blemish on a comeback of sorts for Goff, who last week completed only 11 of 21 passes for 124 yards — all season lows.
Goff connected with receiver Cooper Kupp on a bubble screen that Kupp turned into an 18-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
“He did great,” coach Sean McVay said of Goff.
Goff said it could have been better.
“We still, I think, left a couple out there where we would like to finish drives for sure,” he said. “That’s something that we’ll be really focused on heading into the next nine weeks of the season for sure is finishing those drives.”
The Rams’ first two drives inside the 20-yard line ended with field goals, rather than touchdowns, continuing a problematic trend that began in Week 4 against Dallas and continued against Seattle and Jacksonville.
But running back Todd Gurley scored on an 18-yard run against the Cardinals, and Goff completed a drive with his read-option touchdown.
“I don’t think I looked very athletic out there,” he said, adding, “I just tried to find a little seam there at the end and push it in.
“Got up and really didn’t know what to do after, what the celebration was. So I just kind of threw it to the center there.”
Goff injured his left hand on the play, but said it was fine.
Goff directed a 16-play, 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter that took more than 10 minutes and ended with his scoring pass to Kupp.
“Finishing off with a touchdown is huge and it was a good way to finish the game that we maybe didn’t feel great about before that,” Goff said.
Saffold said there was much to feel good about regarding Goff.
“We were running one pass-protection play, and he escaped in between two guys, like dipped underneath and ran out,” Saffold said. “Like, ‘What?’
“That was crazy, so you could tell that everybody’s getting comfortable, everybody knows the system.”
Goff usually arrives for postgame news conferences in a dress shirt and jeans. On Sunday, he wore a dapper suit.
Asked whether he was going out with teammates afterward, Goff said no.
“I had this suit lined up for a little while now coming to London,” he said. “But, no, I just didn’t have anything else to wear.”
Follow Gary Klein on Twitter @latimesklein
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