Los Angeles lost to Arizona on a last-second field goal after losing their kicker, and the Super Bowl hopefuls now sit last in the NFC West.
The Los Angeles Rams were supposed to be the NFL's closest thing to a superteam. Right now, they look like just another team in a crowded middle. A 2-4 record, three losses in their last four games and a spot at the bottom of the NFC West is not what anyone pictured when the star-studded roster came together.
Sunday was the low point so far. The Rams lost to the Arizona Cardinals, a team they had beaten in 16 of their previous 19 meetings, and Arizona did it without scoring a single touchdown. They didn't need one. Kicker Chad Ryland nailed six field goals, the last a 43-yarder as time expired to seal the win.
The game came down to kickers. Arizona had a great one, and the Rams ended up with none. Days earlier, LA cut Harrison Mevis, who had missed four kicks in the first five weeks, the most in the league. They brought in Blake Grupe from the Jets practice squad as the replacement, but he was hurt covering a kickoff in the first quarter and could not return. The Rams played the rest of the afternoon with no kicker at all.
The contrast between the two was hard to miss. Mevis, nicknamed the Thick Kicker, or "Thiccer," has roughly 80 pounds on the 5ft 7in Grupe. Neither could help LA on Sunday. With the season barely a third gone, the Rams have real questions to answer about their special teams and about whether this talented roster can turn things around in a tough division.
