The Rams have placed kicker Blake Grupe on injured reserve. ESPN reported he hurt his right knee in the Week 6 loss to the Cardinals. ESPN's Adam Schefter adds that Grupe tore his ACL. Yahoo Sports described the injury as a torn ACL suffered while attempting a tackle on Sunday. Pro Football Talk put it simply: the Rams "officially need another kicker."
NFLTradeRumors gave the most detail on how it happened. Grupe, 27, was injured in the first quarter while trying to make a tackle on a kickoff. It was his first game with the club. Yahoo adds that the Rams signed him last week after releasing Harrison Mevis. One Yahoo item framed the move as a minimum four-week absence. A torn ACL normally means far longer, so that figure doesn't fit the diagnosis. We have no reporting on a return date.
Our box score shows Grupe still contributed before he left. He made his only field goal try, from 44 yards, for three points. He also has one tackle, a solo, which is presumably the play that cost him the season. Mevis, whom the Rams cut to make room, had five games played this year and one tackle of his own.
The game was close enough that kicking mattered. Arizona won 18-16 at SoFi Stadium. The last play in our data is Arizona's C. Ryland making a 43-yard field goal. The Rams went 2-of-4 in the red zone and 0-for-2 on fourth down. Their other points came from a Stafford touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson and a Blake Corum touchdown catch.
Los Angeles is 2-4 and fourth in the NFC West, on a two-game losing streak. Both losses were by a combined five points: 37-34 to Buffalo on Oct. 12, then Sunday's 18-16 defeat. Their most recent win was 24-20 at Philadelphia on Oct. 4. A team losing that tightly can't treat a kicking vacancy as a minor issue.
The Rams play next at Las Vegas on Sunday, Oct. 25. The reporting doesn't say who will kick there, or whether the Rams will turn to a free agent or someone already on the roster. Whoever it is will be the third kicker the Rams have used in roughly a week, after Mevis and Grupe.
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