A little over one year ago, the Los Angeles Rams' special teams issues revealed themselves when Joshua Karty's game-winning field goal attempt was blocked by Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis. Davis then took the blocked kick back for a touchdown as time expired, putting a cap on their incredible comeback victory.
That was only the beginning, with more issues occurring in the weeks that followed. The Rams masked them enough to make it to the playoffs, before those problems led to their loss in the NFC Championship Game. The Rams overhauled their operation during the offseason, but some things have yet to be fixed.
On Wednesday, head coach Sean McVay was asked about his special teams group, and whether he felt they were in a better
position for their Week 4 trip back to Philadelphia than they were one year ago.
“Yeah, I do and that particular phase, without a doubt," said McVay. "This is a great challenge. You look at it every single week, you take anything for granted and you get humbled real quickly. It’s so difficult, whether you're playing at Philly, at Denver, whether you're playing the New York Giants, whether you're playing in Australia, whatever it is, you look around this league, if you're not ready to go and locked in, you get caught. The sense of urgency, the operation, our appreciation for our preparation throughout the course of the week has to be key and critical."
While the whole group needs to improve, McVay is particularly pleased with Harrison Mevis and the kicking operation.
"We have to start being able to stack some blocks and play collectively better," he continued. "But that particular operation I thought was a major step in the right direction, especially Mevis going 4-of-4 and 2-of-2 on the extra points. But you have to do it again. Because of their interior defensive line and the way they do it, they always have a great field goal rush so that certainly is not anything we're taking for granted.”
The biggest change the Rams made last season was their move to bring in Mevis for Karty. Since then, Mevis has only missed two total field goals and has converted all of his extra point attempts. He was also perfect in the postseason.
Mevis' quick hop to the ball on his kicks, compared to Karty's slower run-up, has been a key solution to Los Angeles' kicking woes.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Sean McVay feels better about Rams' special teams 1 year after Eagles collapse
