Games are typically won and lost on offense and defense, but the third phase is not to be forgotten. Special teams is also a critical part of a team’s success, whether it’s flipping field position with punts, making field goals or providing a spark with long returns.
The Rams have gotten very little from John Bonamego’s unit this season, and in part, it’s the coaching staff’s own fault. They picked Samuel Sloman as their kicker this year. They decided to put Cooper Kupp back as the primary punt returner. They’re the ones who have made Raymond Calais inactive the last couple of weeks.
The coaching staff’s stubbornness on special teams has become a problem, and that was even more evident on Sunday night against the 49ers.
Sloman missed his third extra point attempt of the season before making a 42-yarder. Kupp was sent back to return punts, even after Nsimba Webster had returns of 15 yards and 9 yards, while also returning a kickoff 30 yards.
Put simply, there’s no reason Kupp should return one more punt this season as long as Webster is healthy. He’s not explosive enough, he doesn’t make good decisions on when to field punts or let them go, and the risk of injury is not at all worth the minimal reward of a possible 10-yard return.
It’s so abundantly obvious to everyone watching that Webster is a better returner than Kupp. Yet, McVay keeps putting Kupp back there to field punts when Webster is more than capable of doing the job and nowhere near as critical to the offense as Kupp is.
And as for the kicking situation, it might be time to make a change. Sloman didn’t just miss his third PAT attempt. He had it blocked, driving it much lower than any extra point try should be kicked. It’s a bad tendency for a kicker to have, especially on kicks that are supposed to be near-automatic.
It was encouraging that he made a 42-yard field goal, his first attempt of the season between 40 and 49 yards, but it shouldn’t give the Rams enough confidence to pass on outside options. At the very least, they should try out a kicker or two to see if Sloman really is their best option.
Because at this point, it’s getting more and more difficult to believe that. McVay said he wanted Sloman to be more consistent, and there’s nothing the rookie did on Sunday night to elicit confidence.
If Kupp keeps returning punts or Sloman continues to miss kicks without being held accountable, the Rams are going to keep digging themselves into holes that will be more difficult to climb out of.