The Los Angeles Rams had a rough second half that led to them losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 7.
The Rams went into halftime leading 9-3, and held control of the game until the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh was able to mount a comeback in the final period as they took advantage of great field positions and carved up Los Angeles’ secondary for huge chunk gains.
However, the Rams had opportunities to keep momentum but Brett Maher missed on multiple field goal attempts and an extra point to allow the Steelers to hang around for most of the afternoon. Maher missed two 50-plus field goal attempts that gave Pittsburgh opportunities to put points on the board.
After Maher’s disappointing performance, Los Angeles decided to release the veteran and sign Lucas Havrisik off the Cleveland Browns’ practice squad, via Adam Schefter of ESPN:
This move felt like it was coming after Sean McVay said that he and the team would look into the kicking situation following the loss. Maher nearly cost the Rams another win earlier in the season when he missed two field goals in Week 2 against the Indianapolis Colts that went into overtime.
Special teams has always seemed to plague Los Angeles and this recent performance from Maher was another reminder of that. Maher was a late addition to the 53-man roster after Los Angeles went into the preseason with rookie Tanner Brown, but now the team will be relying on Havrisik for at least Week 8 against the Dallas Cowboys, barring any other changes.
The kicking woes make the loss of Matt Gay look even more significant as the former Ram signed a four-year deal with the Colts that made him one of the highest-paid kickers in the league. Hopefully Havirsik is an improvement over Maher, but that remains to be seen.
Darrell Henderson didn’t know he would start against Steelers
McVay has had to do a lot of shuffling the past couple of weeks as he worked in new running backs against the Steelers. After injuries to Kyren Williams and Ronnie Rivers, L.A. brought in several players to fill the void.
Darrell Henderson was signed to the active roster this past week and admitted that he didn’t know he would draw the start against Pittsburgh.
More must-reads: