Why the Rams Special Teams Should Still Be Considered a Strength Despite Heartbreak
Last Sunday, the Rams choked away the chance at being 3-0 against the Philadelphia Eagles, a fellow NFC contender and the team that knocked them out of the 2024 NFL Playoffs the last time they met. The Rams lost with a final score of 33-26, which fails to represent how close the Rams were to winning. In their last two drives, kicker Joshua Karty and the Rams had two chances at easy field goals at 36 yards and 44 yards of distance. The second came with three seconds left in the fourth quarter, down by one, 27-26. Both kicks were blocked, with the second returned by Jordan Davis for a touchdown for good measure to reach the final Eagles total of 33.
With such a dramatic and embarrassing conclusion to the game, the Rams’ special teams unit has understandably taken some flak this week. This is especially true considering that the Titans’ Arden Key also blocked an extra point attempt in Week Two late in the fourth quarter when the game had basically already been decided. The Rams’ kick blocking has some things to work out, considering how rare it is for field goals to get blocked normally. In 2024, the Rams allowed none of their field goals to get blocked compared to having a quarter of their 2025 kicks blocked. Rams Analyst and former player, D’Marco Farr, points to this being a cadence issue, wondering if NFL teams have found a tell on the exact timing of the field goal kicks getting snapped and are using this to their advantage. If it is just a cadence issue and not a blocking issue, we should fully expect Sean McVay and special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn to figure out these kinks and fix these problems moving forward.
This coaching staff deserves some trust in their ability to bounce back from this loss because of the way their special teams were legitimately game-changing earlier in the game. Throughout the game, we routinely saw Karty be a true weapon in the kickoff game, utilizing a knuckleball kick that was low to the ground and tricky to return, which routinely forced the Eagles into awkward return situations. The Eagles had a total of four muffed kickoff returns in the game between returners John Metchie and Tank Bigsby. The Rams had seven kickoffs with starting positions of 20, 19, 14, 35, 10, 21, and the shortest starting field position on the Eagles’ own nine-yard line. This is not a story starting in just this game, as the Rams have the lowest opponent starting field position in the league through the first three games of 2025. Their opponent’s average starting position is 21.6 yards; for comparison, the second closest is the Panthers with 25 yards, and the league median is 30.6 yards. This gave the Rams’ defense a major advantage and was a major factor in how the Rams were able to put themselves in the position to win the game in the first place. Assuming the Rams can fix their kick blocking and potential cadence issues, the Karty and the Rams’ special teams will continue to be a major factor in making the Rams a true contender this year.
