One a game.

That’s how many first downs Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff aims to steal with his legs, and so far that’s what he’s delivered.

Goff scrambled for 7 yards on a third-and-6 in the fourth quarter of the Lions’ Week 1 win over the Los Angeles Rams, had a 3-yard run on a third-and-2 late in the first half of their Week 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and closed out last week’s win over the Arizona Cardinals with an 8-yard keeper on second-and-7 that allowed the Lions to take two kneeldowns snaps to end the game.

“The one run, it was just absolutely amazing,” Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery joked Thursday at the team’s practice facility in Allen Park. “You don’t get a chance to see many runs like that. I know the run you guys think I’m talking about, I’m talking about Jared Goff’s run at the end of the game. Closing the game with a big-time throw and a big-time run like that, I gave the backs hell like, ‘How can you be outdone in that section right there by J.G.?’ And he did, he did a hell of a job right there and he got down. Probably the only thing that was more impressive was that first down signal that he threw up right there. I’ve never seen him show that type of emotion in that setting.”

Goff doesn’t offer much in the way of mobility as a quarterback.

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He has topped 100 yards rushing in a season once in his career, in 2018 when he finished with 108 yards, and last year had 21 yards rushing and two touchdowns in 17 games.

While some top quarterbacks (Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts) have built-in rushing packages in their offense and others (Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert) use their legs mostly to create plays in the pocket, Goff said he spends time working on his running by, well, running.

“If you don’t run, you’ll lose it,” Goff said Thursday. “And I’m not getting any younger and as time goes on, you’re fighting that battle of making sure you’re still running — especially as a quarterback. Running and actively running and doing it in the offseason, doing it in-season because at practice I really don’t, so I have to actively put myself into some drills that make me run and get those fibers and those fast-twitch muscles going — as many as I have.”

The Lions rank fourth in the NFL in rushing (163 yards per game) through three games, and have one of the league’s best backfield tandems in Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery.

They don’t have many designed quarterback runs for Goff in their offense, and the ones they do are either sneaks or caught-you-sleeping type plays. But Goff has improvised his way to all three of his first downs this year.

Against the Rams, Goff dropped back to pass out of shotgun and had a five-man route concept downfield. With no one open and protection starting to breakdown, he scrambled up the middle and veered to his right, where he picked up a block from Sam LaPorta and had just enough speed to outrun safety Quentin Lake for a first down.

Against the Bucs, Goff carried twice on back-to-back plays during a two-minute drill late in the first half. On his second carry, Goff faked a handoff to Gibbs in the backfield, rolled right, got another good block from LaPorta and tucked the ball with no receivers open on that side of the field.

Last week against the Cardinals, Goff bootlegged to his right and took off for the sticks after defensive end Dennis Gardeck crashed hard after the run. Most of the Arizona secondary had their backs turned in man coverage.

Goff said he was at “peak speed” when he ran a 4.82-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine in 2016, and while he admittedly probably couldn’t top that time now, he’s enjoying the small gains as a rusher that are big wins for the Lions.

“I’ve been hiding (my speed) for eight years and now in my ninth I’ve decided to pull it out,” he said. “No, we do joke about it, but I do think if I can get one a game, one first down with my legs a game, maybe it’s two, that’s kind of a big thing for us. One third down, if I can scramble and pick one up. I’ve gotten one in the first three games, so I try to that every game, find a way to get one and it certainly helps us.”

Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, “Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.” Preorder it now from Reedy Press.

Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

Sabrina Carpenter arrived Thursday at Little Caesars Arena seemingly driven by a mission: to stake a place among the leading, talking-point pop tours of 2024.

In a fun, frothy, vivacious and occasionally risqué show, the 25-year-old managed to make a solid case for it as she played to a sellout crowd in downtown Detroit on the third night of her Short n’ Sweet Tour.

“Please Please Please,” “Taste” and “Espresso” are some of the most delectably catchy tunes to come through the pop pipeline in a while, and they became cornerstones of a Thursday set list that featured all 12 numbers from “Short n’ Sweet,” the chart-topping album that lends the new tour its name. On a crisp night outside LCA that reminded us autumn is officially here, Carpenter served a 1½-hour indoor dose of sunny summertime sounds.

The signature wavy blond hair and fluttery vibrato were accompanied by ample energy from the pint-sized singer-songwriter, a 5-foot-tall star for whom “a little goes a long way,” as one video-screen inscription cheekily put it Thursday night.

She may be the year’s hottest breakout pop star, but Carpenter is no rookie: Having come through the Disney system as a teen actress a decade ago, Carpenter spent four early albums with a music career stalled in second gear.

Then came a new record deal and an A-list batch of collaborators such as Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff — and with the 2022 album “Emails I Can’t Send,” Carpenter was emphatically on to the self-proclaimed “big girl” chapter of her story. With a series of plum opening spots on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, she was primed for another step up, and “Short n’ Sweet” delivered it in a potent way this summer.

Sabrina Carpenter remembers her first concert in Michigan

Sabrina Carpenter, making her Little Caesars Arena debut on Thursday, reflected on a far less flashy visit to metro Detroit in 2016.

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After previous stops at venues such as the Fillmore Detroit and Masonic Temple Theatre — along with Pontiac’s cozy Pike Room in 2016, as she recounted onstage Thursday — Carpenter was going full-scale with this latest Motor City visit.

On a main stage designed as a two-story New York penthouse apartment, Carpenter spent the first stretch of her LCA show in a pink negligée, kicking things off with the lush textures of “Taste” and “Good Graces” while undergirding “Slim Pickins” and “Lie to Girls” with vintage pop chording that revealed the old-school inspirations that fuel her latest work.

The night unfolded as a turn-of-the-’80s TV program, complete with voiceovers, videotaped mock-commercials and a pair of oversized studio cameras onstage to drive home the point. Carpenter would later emerge in a black bodysuit for a cocktail party segment (with a jazzy take on “Feather”) and sparkling gown for an elegant “Dumb & Poetic,” and the live episode would include a roll of closing credits listing tour personnel.

Her lyrics are laced with sexual references — some upfront, some implicit — but Carpenter gives it all a self-aware wink that makes it more camp than coarse. On Thursday, “Bed Chem” had her briefly writhing in a plush bedroom suite, while the exuberant dance-pop of “Juno” came with a quick flash of panties following a round of flirting with a Brighton fan named Dakota down front. She led the mostly teenage, female crowd in a call-and-response spotlighting three words: “camaraderie,” “horny” and “friendship.”

But the Short n’ Sweet show was otherwise a standard pop extravaganza that stayed between the lines, with 11 dancers, a four-piece band, a pair of backing singers and a confetti-blasted finale supplementing the action. (Then again, not every standard pop concert includes a lengthy black-and-white clip from 1966 with Leonard Cohen musing on poetry — as Thursday’s show did — so maybe something a little deeper is afoot here.)

Carpenter is proficient as a live performer and serviceable as a singer, but her real power lies in the craftsmanship of her songs. They’re astutely crafted pop tunes, more sophisticated than they might seem at first listen, nodding to previous golden eras without lapsing into retro laziness.

The menu of preshow music that kept fans occupied before the 9:05 p.m. start helped tell that tale: selections of ’70s disco-pop (ABBA, Andy Gibb), ’80s power pop (the La’s) and ’90s melodic rock (the Cardigans), foreshadowing the blend of influences that would inform Carpenter’s own set.

At one point, gathered with her dance crew on a heart-shaped B-stage, Carpenter played musical spin-the-bottle — a game to determine one cover-song performance for the evening. Having tackled ABBA in Columbus and Shania Twain in Toronto, she gave Detroit a rendition of “Kiss Me,” the 1999 alt-rock-pop hit by Sixpence None the Richer.

A soft-lit “Don’t Smile” closed the regular set before Carpenter returned, a Detroit-branded coffee mug in hand, to kick into the inevitable encore of “Espresso,” the career-defining hit with the instantly memorable hooks.

In a pop era that includes the likes of Charlie XCX, Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo, Carpenter may not be the most cutting-edge figure rocking the mainstream right now. But she’s clearly carving out a distinctive creative lane of her own — and we’ll see if Short n’ Sweet can grow into something long and lasting.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

There may not be a team heading into the MLB playoffs that anyone wants to face less than the Detroit Tigers.

They are red hot, crashing the American League postseason picture with a torrid pace that began back at the start of July. Not even the temperatures dropping have been able to cool off the Tigers, who are in a tie with the Kansas City Royals for the second wild card spot.

Two games clear of the Minnesota Twins with four to play, Detroit is in a great spot. After completing their series against the Tampa Bay Rays, they will face the lowly Chicago White Sox for three to finish out the regular season.

Odds are certainly in their favor for qualifying for the 2024 MLB Playoffs.

Who has helped them get to this point? Ace starting pitcher Tarik Skubal is probably the only household name that casual baseball fans recognize.

A heavy favorite to win the Cy Young Award this season, he has been anchoring the pitching staff all year. A bonafide star, he gives the team a chance to win every time he steps on the mound.

But, he has received some help during this incredible run. In the lineup, the Tigers have several players who will become well-known in October.

MLB insider Jeff Passan highlighted some of them in a “Who are some under-the-radar players with industry buzz as potential October stars?” category of a recent piece over at ESPN.

“Riley Greene is the best player on the resurgent Detroit Tigers, and Kerry Carpenter is their best hitter, but two other left-handed bats in a quite-lefty-heavy lineup are making excellent impressions during this late surge. Center fielder Parker Meadows and shortstop Trey Sweeney have won everyday jobs and are doing enough offensively and defensively to keep them. Meadows struggled early and was hurt, and Sweeney came over along with Thayron Liranzo in the deadline deal for Jack Flaherty. Meadows returned Aug. 3, Sweeney arrived Aug. 16, and the Tigers are 23-9 in games they both played,” Passan wrote.

No one expected Detroit to be in this position, as their playoff odds were under 1.0 percent at one point. They would become only the fifth team in MLB history to make the playoffs after facing a double-digit deficit at least 115 games into the season.

The emergence of their young hitters has certainly helped. They are using speed and athleticism to make up for their lack of power, as they are in the bottom half of baseball in most batting categories outside of triples.

With all of the positive momentum in the world, this is a team peaking at the right time. They are going to give whoever they face off against a tough challenge even if they are presumed heavy underdogs entering the postseason.