. It appeared they had fixed their STs.
I looked up the culprit from the blocked punt, #34, rookie DB Tanner Ingle. He’s had a total of 43 special teams snaps all season, and 17 of those were in the wildcard game. He was promoted from the practice squad to replace an injured player. My bet is, he hasn’t been practicing on special teams and is a green rookie who got fooled on that one play by a veteran. The punt blocker, Isaiah Simmons, is a 6’4 OLB/DB (Ingle is 5’8) who is a 6 year veteran and who has had 650 career snaps on special teams.
Does that relieve the new STs coordinator from responsibility? No, that’s not supposed to happen regardless. Especially in a playoff game. Should the new STs coordinator have anticipated that Ingle against Simmons was a mismatch? Yes. But I also think that one play was the result of one player screwing up, and that is easy to fix. You straighten Ingle out or replace him or both.
So what you’re saying is that the Rams HAVE fixed special teams, and this one play was one of those damn flukey things that happen sometimes.
I think I agree with that. One bad play in two months is probably not illustrative of an ongoing problem.
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