The Los Angeles Rams finished Sunday needing their punter to kick an extra point, because the kicker they had just added was gone after one quarter. Ethan Evans made it, putting Los Angeles ahead 16-15 in the final minute, and it still was not enough.
Chad Ryland answered with a 43-yard field goal as time expired, and the Arizona Cardinals beat the Rams 18-16 at SoFi Stadium. CBS Sports called it the biggest upset of the season so far in its Week 6 winners and losers. The loss dropped Los Angeles to 2-4, last in the NFC West on tiebreakers, and left Arizona at 2-4 as well.
Blake Grupe, the newly signed kicker, hit a 44-yarder to give the Rams a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. On the ensuing kickoff he tried to make a tackle, and theScore described how the 156-pound Grupe was trucked by Cardinals returner Devin Duvernay and sent flying. He left with a knee injury and did not return.
What followed exposed how much the Rams had been leaning on one specialist. After a second-quarter touchdown they went for two and failed, and twice more they turned the ball over on downs in Cardinals territory, according to theScore’s Sunday rundown. Points that a healthy kicker would likely have banked never reached the scoreboard.
Arizona did not make it easy on itself. The Cardinals drove into the red zone five times without scoring a touchdown, and Ryland kicked six field goals, five of them short, to make up the difference. The Rams, meanwhile, finished with a season-low 286 yards and could not keep Arizona out of field-goal range when it mattered most.
The decisive drive turned on a flag. USA TODAY reported that a 15-yard penalty on Rams defensive back Josh Wallace for an illegal hit, after his shoulder grazed the helmet of Cardinals receiver Jalen Brooks following an acrobatic catch, moved Arizona into range for Ryland. The newsletter called it a letter-of-the-law call with negligible impact and no intent. It was also the second game-deciding play Wallace has been involved in this season, after a pass-interference ruling in the Week 3 loss to Denver.
The Rams entered the season with Super Bowl expectations, and the sum of the first six weeks reads like a team losing its footing in small ways. Left tackle Alaric Jackson was suspended for two games after a postgame punch, and Myles Garrett, whose arrival was supposed to upend the NFC West, is recovering from knee surgery. CBS noted that Puka Nacua’s absence hurt the offense early and that Matthew Stafford has not been as sharp as he was during his MVP season last year.
The kicking situation has become its own storyline. CBS wrote that three different players have attempted a field goal or extra point for Los Angeles over the last two games. On Sunday, the Rams answered the problem by asking a punter to protect a one-point lead, and he delivered. The next part, stopping a field-goal drive in the final minute, was beyond them.
For Arizona, which opened the season by stunning the Chargers, the win was ugly but meaningful. The Cardinals scored no touchdowns and still left SoFi with a division win over a team many had picked to challenge for the title. For the Los Angeles Rams, the work now starts with finding a reliable kicker and a defense that can finish a game.
