After Brett Maher missed two field goals in the Rams’ overtime win over the Colts in Week 4, Sean McVay backed his kicker and decided not to make a change. After Sunday’s loss to the Steelers, it’s becoming more difficult to defend Maher as the Rams’ best option at the position.
Maher missed a 53-yard field goal in the first half and a 51-yarder (badly) in the second half, but the real inexcusable miss was an extra-point attempt after the Rams’ first touchdown before halftime.
It’s the way Maher is missing, too, yanking his kicks to the left. It could be a sign that it’s mental, which is worrisome for Los Angeles.
After the loss, McVay said Maher has to be better and that the team will look into what might be best at kicker moving forward.
“We’ll look at it and we’ll see. He’s got to be better. That’s seven points that we missed out on that were key and critical for the momentum of the game and the type of game that it was. Those were tough ones today,” McVay said.
Maher was 16-for-20 coming into the week, and after going 1-for-3 on Sunday, he’s now just 17-for-23 on the year. Four of those six misses have come from beyond 50 yards, but nowadays, kickers are expected to make kicks from distance regularly.
Maher just hasn’t been consistent enough from anywhere, and now there are concerns that maybe he could have the same mental block that caused him to miss 5 of 6 PATs in the playoffs last season.
