Rams Lose Their Kicker Early, Then Lose on Arizona's Sixth Field Goal

Chad Ryland scored all 18 of Arizona's points, the last three on a 43-yarder as time expired, dropping the Rams to 2-4.

Arizona never reached the end zone at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, and it beat the Los Angeles Rams anyway, 18-16. Every point came off kicker Chad Ryland's foot: six field goals, the last a 43-yarder with no time left, the Associated Press reported.

Data from TheSportsDB has the final at 18-16. Both teams now sit at 2-4, and for the Rams it's a third loss in four games, AP reported. Next up for the Rams is a trip to Las Vegas next Sunday, while Arizona hosts Denver.

Six kicks for 18 points looks like a defense that bent and never broke. That number tracks where Arizona's drives died, though, not how far they went. The team's own recap on therams.com pinned the loss on untimely unforced errors and on long, sustained Cardinals drives.

The other side of the ball is the stranger stat. The Rams entered the day as the league's No. 1 offense by total yards and finished with 286, against a defense AP called one of the NFL's worst before Sunday. They also gave the ball away twice in Arizona territory in the fourth quarter, once on a Tyler Higbee fumble forced by Cody Simon and once on downs.

Part of the trouble was up front. Left tackle Alaric Jackson was out on a suspension, and AP reported that Arizona went after his fill-in, David Quessenberry, and the rest of the line's left half again and again, landing several big hits on Matthew Stafford, who's 38.

The rest was special teams. New kicker Blake Grupe made a 44-yarder in the first quarter, then hurt his knee making a tackle on the kickoff that followed, AP reported. From then on, punter Ethan Evans handled placekicks.

Somehow, it nearly worked. Down 15-9, the Rams took over at their own 15 with 2:48 left. Stafford stepped up and hit Puka Nacua for 42 yards, one of three Nacua catches on the drive. Colby Parkinson was ruled down at the 1 on a 6-yard catch, then given the touchdown on review. Evans made the extra point, his first career placekick, and the Rams led 16-15 with 47 seconds to go.

That review cut both ways. It also put 29 seconds back on the clock, and Arizona spent every one of the 47 it had left. A long catch by Jalen Brooks and an unnecessary roughness flag on Josh Wallace covered 36 yards, and three snaps later Ryland made it six.

The man on the other sideline knows this offense. New Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur spent the previous three seasons as Sean McVay's offensive coordinator, and AP counts him as the eighth McVay assistant to become an NFL head coach. Sunday was his first shot at his old boss, who had won 16 of 19 meetings with Arizona.

The Cardinals came in as double-digit underdogs, according to AP, and they also beat the Chargers at SoFi in Week 1. They're 2-4. Both wins came in Inglewood.

Source: sports.mynorthwest.com, retrieved October 19, 2026. Other sources: therams.com.