Matt Gay started the season going a perfect 6-for-6 on field goal attempts in the first three games, also making all 11 of his PATs. But in the last two weeks, he’s hit a couple of speed bumps.
Against the Cardinals, he missed a 46-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, his first miss of the year. Then in Week 5 against the Seahawks, he clanked an extra point attempt off the upright and also booted two kickoffs out of bounds.
There isn’t major reason for concern with Gay, but his recent woes shouldn’t be ignored. Sean McVay isn’t worried and pins some of his issues against the Seahawks on the windy conditions at Lumen Field.
“I think one of the things that can’t be minimized, that wind was a real factor, especially when we were going left to right on a couple of those where the kicks went out of bounds,” McVay said on the “Coach McVay Show.” “Matt’s never going to make any excuses. We expect him to perform at a high level, but what I told him that I think says as much about him as anything is, All right, hey, it didn’t go well. But how do you have the ability to just take a deep breath, take a step away, be totally still, be totally present. And then in the moment where you’ve got a chance to really ice the game and put it out of reach and put us up nine, when you’re kicking a field goal there, that to me says a lot about the confidence that we had in him to send him out there in that situation. He delivered in a big way. I think that’s a good thing that he can build on. We don’t want to have those types of things occur, whether it’s missing the extra point or putting a couple of those kickoffs out bounds, but we know that’s not reflective of who he is. If anything, this past weekend gives you a reminder of how difficult the kicking position is and you feel fortunate that we’ve got a good one who we know will be able to learn from some things that didn’t go well. But at the end of the day, what he did do was come through in the clutch for us and that’s not lost on me by any stretch.”
Gay’s numbers still look very impressive this season. He’s 10-for-11 on field goal attempts, making two in every game. He’s also made 15 of 16 PATs, including two games where he went 4-for-4.
On kickoffs, only 19 of his 31 kicks have gone for touchbacks. That’s a rate of 61.3%, which ranks fourth-lowest among all kickers this season, and his two kicks out of bounds are the second-most in the league. The lack of touchbacks could be by design because Gay has plenty of leg to kick the ball through the end zone, but the Rams might be trying to keep opponents inside their own 25.
Gay is by far the Rams’ best option at kicker despite his odd night against Seattle, and there’s no reason to believe a change will happen this season.
