Tag: Joshua Karty

Rams viewed kicker as one of their ‘dire needs’ in the draft

Les Snead did not mince words about the Rams’ desire to draft a kicker, which they did in Round 6

There really wasn’t a position on the Rams’ roster that couldn’t use a little bit of help. Though they did fill some needs in free agency, they left themselves open to drafting a player at just about any position depending on who was available at the time of their pick.

Some positions were bigger needs than others, though. Kicker, for example, was likely in the must-draft category.

After the draft concluded on Saturday, general manager Les Snead told reporters that kicker was one of the team’s “dire needs,” though he didn’t say what the other ones were.

“I think we go in and we write down, let’s call it – I guess we call it dire needs. One of them was a kicker,” Snead said. “We didn’t really handle that until the sixth so there is an element of strategy, monitoring that situation. How many you have draftable? When are they going knowing what teams might be really going probable to draft a kicker? There’s always a list of needs. Maybe there are medium needs, maybe there are less than medium needs and you try to, at that point, let the board say, wow, we still may need that position, but there’s a better player, at least subjectively at that moment in mind and you somewhat follow your board, follow your needs and that’s the puzzle.”

The Rams addressed their hole at kicker in the sixth round, taking Stanford’s Joshua Karty at No. 209 overall. He was the second kicker off the board after Will Reichard went to the Vikings, ensuring that they got one of the kickers they really liked in this class.

“The neat thing is there were a few kickers that we all liked,” Snead said. “I think a lot of the NFL teams liked. I think they all got drafted and the good thing is we kind of waited and there were less teams that needed kickers or that were willing to draft them, so it enabled us, to all of us, probably to get a quality kicker here in the little bit later portion of Day 3.”

Both Brett Maher and Lucas Havrisik struggled as the team’s kicker last season, and that was after the Rams cut Tanner Brown and Christopher Dunn – two undrafted rookies who didn’t pan out during the offseason.

The hope is that Karty can solve the team’s struggles on special teams, potentially for several years to come. He made 24 of 27 field goals from 40-plus yards in the last two years, which was an area that the Rams’ kickers struggled from in 2023.

Stanford kicker Joshua Karty delivers in the clutch in epic comeback win over Colorado

Karty tied the game on the final play of regulation and then hit the game-winner in double overtime

If you’re like me, and most of the rest of America, you probably bailed on the Stanford/Colorado game on Friday night at halftime. Waking up to the stunning news that the Cardinal overcame a lifeless 29-0 halftime deficit to shock Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes 46-43 in double overtime.

One of the heroes for Stanford, now 2-4 on the season, is kicker Joshua Karty. The senior had a big night, calmly nailing the game-winning field goal on the road. He also drilled the game-tying field goal from 47 yards on the final play of regulation.

Karty, who was on the Shrine Bowl preseason watch list, has now connected on 13 of his 16 field goal attempts in 2023. He was a perfect 18-for-18 for Stanford in 2022, and has missed only one extra point in his three seasons as their kicker. His career-long field goal is 51 yards.

As a bonus, Karty also has a touchback rate on kickoffs over 80 percent — an asset that has served as a tie-breaker for some NFL teams in kicking battles recently.

Notre Dame at Stanford: Second-Quarter Analysis

More fun for the Irish.

Notre Dame is treating Stanford like the inferior opponent it is. In fact, the scoreboard is making the game look closer than it should be. The Irish could just go through the motions and probably still have a lead. Whether that’s the case or not, they have a 24-0 lead at halftime.

The Irish began the second quarter by continuing a drive that began in the first. Jack Coan hit Braden Lenzy for a 15-yard completion, then found George Tackas for a 2-yard touchdown. It was Tackas’ first touchdown in two years. Yep, it definitely is that kind of night.

The Cardinal’s first drive of the quarter lasted only two plays because Rylie Mills had a strip-sack of Tanner McKee, and Justin Ademilola recovered the ball after it was bobbled around on the turf a bit. The ensuing drive started at the Cardinal’s 23-yard line, but it was immediately set back by a holding call. The Irish were able to get enough yardage back to allow Jonathan Doerer to come out and kick a 36-yard field goal.

The Cardinal had another in what’s become a series of three-and-outs. Though the Irish took over at their own 25, Coan and the rest of the offense had a perfect mix of run and pass plays to move the ball further frustrate the Cardinal’s defense. Kyren Williams capped the 12-play drive that lasted over five minutes with a 1-yard touchdown run.

The Irish did suffer a setback on the next drive when Bo Bauer was ejected for targeting. Fox color analyst Brock Huard speculated whether watching one of their own be on the receiving end of a targeting might fire the Cardinal up. It looked like that would be the case when McKee threw an apparent touchdown pass to get his team on the board, but the score was nullified by an illegal block that was called at the line of scrimmage. The Cardinal were unable to recover from that, and they ended up punting once again.

The Irish had one final second-quarter possession in which they went three-and-out. The ensuing punt took a bounce into Irish territory, which prompted the Cardinal to attempt a 59-yard field goal with three seconds left. The Irish took a timeout in an attempt to freeze kicker Joshua Karty. We don’t know if that really worked, but while Karty’s kick had the distance, it was wide left, putting the perfect bow on this first half.