Field Gulls
The Seattle Seahawks’ comeback victory on Thursday Night Football has evidently left a sizeable impact down in southern California.
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Rams fired special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn following a 38-37 loss in overtime. Blackburn was in his third season running the Rams’ special teams unit, having first been hired for the position in 2023.
Three of Los Angeles’s four losses this season have been at least partly due to lapses on special teams, the latest of which occurred in Seattle on Thursday night. To make matters worse, all three of those losses came against teams that L.A. is directly competing against for playoff seeding, including two division rivals in the NFC West.
Back in Week 3, the Rams attempted a pair of field goals on each of their final two drives of the game. Unfortunately for kicker Joshua Karty, both attempts were blocked by the Eagles, and Philadelphia’s Jordan Davis returned Karty’s second attempt for a 61-yard touchdown. Instead of winning 29-27, Los Angeles fell to the defending Super Bowl champions, 33-26, ending their undefeated start to the season.
Karty’s struggles continued against the 49ers two weeks later, missing a 53-yard try with the Rams down by 10 in the third quarter. L.A. scored two touchdowns to eventually pull even with San Francisco, but Karty could not secure the extra point, keeping the score at 20-20. The second-year kicker redeemed himself with a 48-yarder to force overtime, but the Rams were unable to come away with a victory.
After missing a PAT attempt and a field goal in Week 9 vs. the Saints, Karty was benched by Los Angeles in favor of Harrison Mevis. Needless to say, the Rams have struggled with consistency at the kicker position this season.
Which brings us to their latest problems on special teams in Week 16. Up 30-14 in the fourth quarter, Seahawks punt returner Rashid Shaheed brought a punt back 58 yards for a touchdown, eventually pulling within one possession following a successful two-point try. After Seattle tied the game at 30-30 on a far more controversial two-point attempt, L.A. marched to the Seahawks’ 29-yard line with a chance to regain the lead with a field goal. Mevis missed the field goal from 48 yards out, keeping the score at 30-30.
This would be the closest that either team would get to winning in regulation, and although the Rams got another TD in overtime, it would not be enough to stop Seattle from claiming victory. Now, with two games remaining before the start of the playoffs, Los Angeles sits one game out of first place in the NFC West, wondering how things might be going had a few special teams plays turned out differently.
However, this is not to say that the Rams’ blunders on special teams under Blackburn are exclusive to this season. In 2023, Blackburn’s first year on the job, L.A. finished near the bottom of the league in both field goal percentage (74.4, 30th) and extra...
