The Rams were supposed to be the closest thing the NFL had seen to a superteam in some time. Instead, they’re 2-4, have lost three of their last four games and are last in the NFC West. So much has gone awry, so quickly.
Sunday was rock bottom (for now). The Rams lost to the division’s ugly stepchild, the Cardinals – a team they had beaten in 16 of their last 19 meetings – on a day when Arizona didn’t manage to score a touchdown. They didn’t need to, because Arizona kicker Chad Ryland connected on six field goal attempts, the last one a 43-yarder as time expired.
The game was a tale of two kickers, in that the Cardinals had a superb one and the Rams didn’t have one at all. Days after releasing Harrison Mevis following a league-worst four misses in the season’s first five weeks, the Rams came into this game with Blake Grupe, whom they’d plucked off the Jets practice squad. Grupe got hurt covering a kickoff return in the first quarter, leaving the Rams literally kickerless for the duration. (Mevis, a big fella whose nickname is the Thick Kicker, or “Thiccer,” has about 80lbs on the 5ft 7in Grupe.) The absence of a specialist kicker affected the game.
The Rams tried for a two-point conversion after a touchdown in the second quarter, preferring not to have punter Ethan Evans attempt a point after. The Cardinals sacked Matthew Stafford, and the attempt failed. In the third quarter, the Rams faced a fourth-and-one at the Arizona 27-yard line, in what would normally be easy field-goal range. (Of course, Sean McVay may have gone for it anyway in such a spot.) Unable to even consider a kick here, the Rams pushed up the middle and were stacked up at the line for a turnover on downs.
Arizona drove the other way for three points. Sean McVay’s bunch could have won anyway. When the Rams tied the game with 42 seconds left, McVay did sound out his punter, Evans, who nailed his PAT, suggesting maybe he was more reliable as a kicker than his coach believed.
But then the Rams’ defense had a meltdown, taking an unnecessary roughness flag and allowing Jacoby Brissett to quickly march Arizona 40 yards to set up Ryland’s winner. Final score: 18-16 to Arizona, an utter disaster for the home team. A bit of everything has gone wrong.
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