Sean McVay isn’t worried about Rams’ special teams woes, ‘but we need to be better’

The Rams have had some lapses on special teams, but Sean McVay isn’t too worried.

Special teams was a strength of the Rams in 2017 and 2018, but in the last three seasons, it’s become an inconsistent group. They cycled through kickers last season, got subpar play out of Johnny Hekker and have yet to find a reliable return specialist since moving on from Pharoh Cooper.

Through two weeks this season, the Rams have allowed long kickoff returns to open each game. Their coverage has been poor in that phase of the game, giving the Bears and Colts good field position right off the bat.

Then in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win, Nick Scott got in the way of Matthew Orzech’s snap to Johnny Hekker, causing the ball to hit his arm and bounce into the end zone where it was recovered by the Colts for a touchdown. That blunder nearly cost the Rams a win, but Matthew Stafford and the offense quickly regained the lead.

Sean McVay was asked this week if he’s concerned about Los Angeles’ special teams struggles, but he doesn’t sound too worried despite admitting those mistakes have to be cleaned up.

“I think there have been some situations that we want back – a couple of coverage opportunities in the kickoff game that I think are correctable issues,” McVay said. “And then we had the one punt mistake yesterday, but the thing that gives me peace is I have total trust in Joe DeCamillis and Dwayne Stukes, like I mentioned yesterday, and they’re correctable issues. I don’t think it’s a personnel thing. I don’t think it’s a scheme thing. I think it’s an execution. Sometimes those snaps are so limited, especially on special teams where you talk about it’s one down and it’s all everything right here. They do a nice job with Indianapolis but those are things yesterday that occurred where you have to tackle better on the kickoff coverage. We had them kind of pinned where we wanted to, and he did a nice job making a return. And then it’s a simple just a little elementary area that, hey, we make a mistake where we can slide over a little bit more when we shifted for protection purposes. The snap hits him and it results in a touchdown, which feels like a terrible thing, but I think it is something that we can correct. So, in a long-winded way, I’m not concerned, but there has got to be a sense of urgency that has consistently existed. It’s not like anything’s going to change, but we want to be intentional about addressing those things, correcting them, being solution-oriented, and then moving forward accordingly. But we need to be better. There’s no doubt about it.”

The saving grace for the Rams has been Matt Gay, who is a perfect 11-for-11 on his kicks this season. He’s made all four of his field goal attempts and seven PATs, looking like someone the Rams can count on week in and week out.

As long as he doesn’t suddenly regress and begin missing kicks, the Rams should feel good about the way he’s played thus far. The other phases of special teams, however, need to improve, as McVay said.

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