Costly mistakes in Buffalo
The Los Angeles Rams will "evaluate everything" about their kicking unit after Monday night's 37-34 overtime loss to the Buffalo Bills, coach Sean McVay said following the game.
Rams kicker Harrison Mevis missed a 50‑yard field‑goal attempt wide left in the first quarter and later had a 48‑yard kick blocked in overtime that would have been the game‑winner, ESPN reported. McVay was blunt in his assessment: "In the kicking game, especially with our PAT, field goal, not even close to good enough," and added, "It cost us the game tonight."
After the game McVay also expressed regret about a critical play‑call on third down, saying, "I'm sick that we came up short, and I'll be regretting kicking that and not having a better call to be able to go for it on third down and go to fourth or whatever it was."
Patterns beyond a single night
Monday's miscues were not treated as an isolated breakdown. The Rams have had three blocked field‑goal attempts since the start of last season, tied for the most in the NFL, ESPN Research found. Over the span of Sean McVay's tenure since 2017 — including playoffs — Los Angeles has recorded 81 missed or blocked kicks, the third most in the league, ESPN reported.
McVay's promise to "evaluate everything" signals a comprehensive review rather than a quick personnel move, with the coach squarely placing responsibility on the kicking game for the loss. His comments framed the sequence in Buffalo as part of a larger problem the team must address.
Special‑teams failures directly determined the outcome in overtime, and the statistical context underlines the frequency of those failures across seasons. That backdrop helps explain why the Rams are signaling a full review rather than treating the night as an outlier.
The Rams' next steps — whether schematic adjustments, practice emphasis shifts, or personnel changes — were not announced immediately. For now, the team faces the immediate task McVay laid out: dissect the kicking operation and try to fix the phase that he said "wasn't even close to good enough."
