Rams Punt Return Coverage Struggles Again vs. Raiders
It's one thing to have scoring drives on offense. It's another thing to get a defensive score. It's an even bigger thing to have a special teams score.
Against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Los Angeles Rams allowed wide receiver Derius Davis to make a house call on an 81-yard punt return. While the Rams didn't allow a special teams score in their 34-17 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders Saturday, the unit showed glaring holes and needs for improvement.
Special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn said Monday he wants to see the unit "cast a wide net" on both kick and punt returns while setting an edge and converging on the ball carrier.
On last night's opening kickoff, DeAndre Carter had enough running lanes to bring it out to the 32-yard line and set the Raiders' offense up, setting the tone for the Rams' special teams unit.
Carter nearly returned the second punt for a touchdown in as many weeks against Los Angeles, getting around the right edge and needing to beat one man to coast to the end zone. Carter fielded the punt inside his own 20, tip-toed down the sidelines, but ever-so-slightly stepped out of bounds after a 31-yard return to near midfield.
With the short field to go, Las Vegas was able to set up for the first of Daniel Carlson's two field goals.
Raiders wide receiver Tre Tucker gave Los Angeles its only break on special teams when he dropped a kickoff, throwing off the timing and only returning it to the Las Vegas 10-yard line. Rams linebacker Jake Hummel intercepted the first pass of the Raiders' ensuing drive for a touchdown.
However, on punts, Tucker earned his stripes with returns of 16, 24 and 26 yards, which helped set up drives that resulted in 10 points.
The Raiders averaged 22 yards per kick return and 19.4 yards on five punt returns.
Rams punter Ethan Evans has been lights out in two preseason games, averaging 53.5 yards on 13 punts. Blackburn believes Evans' approximate 4.7-second hangtime is "good," but if some of his punts have distance but not enough arc, that allows for better return opportunities with gunners not getting down the field quickly enough.
Head coach Sean McVay said after the game there were some missed tackles on the coverages. McVay's had to dial in his perspective on the coverage miscues, telling himself some of the problems stem from players that won't be on the field come Week 1.
"There's been a lot of situations where I think you want to give some grace," McVay said. "'Would have been the main 11 guys that we've barely been working on that unit that we anticipate covering punts when we play the Seattle Seahawks on (Sept.) 10th?' I'm not trying to make excuses, but there are some real continuity things that we want to continue to tighten down."
The Rams have allowed some returns to near midfield which only requires approximately 30 yards of offense to get within comfortable field goal range. These short fields will put stress on Los Angeles' young defense and likely create insurmountable deficits like it has faced in the first two weeks of the preseason if it isn't cleaned up by the regular season.
You can follow Casey Smith on Twitter @casey_smith2419
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