One week after earning the Rams’ continued confidence with a great performance in Baltimore, Lucas Havrisik is in danger of losing it again. In Sunday’s win over the Commanders, Havrisik missed a 43-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that would’ve put the Rams up 31-7, a much more comfortable lead with less than 10 minutes to play.
He pushed the kick wide right, giving the Commanders great field position down three touchdowns. Washington found the end zone a minute and a half later, and then again with less than two minutes to play.
It may not have impacted the game in the end because the Rams still won, but Washington nearly came back and would’ve had a chance to tie it if Kyren Williams didn’t successfully milk the clock in the final minutes.
Sean McVay expressed optimism in Havrisik Monday despite another shaky outing, acknowledging it was a “big kick” that he missed.
“Obviously the one that stands out,” McVay said. “I thought because of the magnitude of that kick, especially given the circumstances where you are inside of 45, you got a chance to really go up where it’s a three-possession game there. Thirty-one points in that situation would have made it a totally different feel towards the latter part of the game. I think you want to be careful to overreact to one kick, but it was a big kick. I do know that this guy has shown the ability to respond. We saw that against Baltimore so I’m optimistic that is what we will see this Thursday.”
McVay said that while the Rams have asked Brett Maher and Havrisik to attempt a lot of long kicks this season, it’s the kicks from inside 45 yards that they must be consistent on. Havrisik has missed three of his last four attempts from 40-49 yards, which is such a critical range in close games.
The Rams don’t appear likely to make a kicking change before Thursday’s game against the Saints, so it’ll be Havrisik in the spotlight again in a contest that has massive playoff implications.
“I do know this, when you look at a lot of these really successful kickers, especially the young ones, there are some growing pains that you go through and usually you end up working through it,” McVay added. “A lot of these guys that are having a huge amount of success experience some form of adversity early on in their careers, but it is about how do you respond and that’s why there is a confidence and an optimistic approach as it relates to Lucas. I think he’s shown some good things and I just think you always evaluate your process. But the kicker position in general is a very fickle one.”