Cardinals Stun Rams as Chad Ryland, the Kicker the Patriots Cut, Goes 6-for-6

Every point the Arizona Cardinals scored against the Los Angeles Rams came off one right foot, and it belonged to Chad Ryland, a kicker the New England Patriots decided they could not trust. He outscored the preseason Super Bowl favorite by himself, and the last kick left his foot as the clock ran out at SoFi Stadium.

Most of the coverage has gone to the Rams falling apart and to Mike LaFleur beating the coach who trained him. Both are true. Both miss the man in the middle of it. Kicking is the loneliest job in football, the one position where a single miss becomes your whole reputation, and Ryland has already lived through that verdict once.

The kicker New England let go

The Patriots traded up to take him in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, 112th overall. His rookie year went badly. He made 16 of 25 field goals, a 64 percent rate that was the lowest in the league among qualified kickers, and in August 2024 New England waived him after he lost the job to Joey Slye. Five weeks later, Arizona signed him to its practice squad and promoted him when Matt Prater got hurt; that month he kicked three game-winners and was named NFC special teams player of the month. In March the Cardinals brought him back on a one-year deal.

His week did not start clean either. Against Detroit he missed from 53 yards. On game-day morning, ESPN reported, his mother sent him a rare text: have a good game, trust your process, command the field.

Six kicks and a one-point margin

He commanded it. Ryland went six for six, a career high, and became the first kicker this season to make six in a game. ESPN Research put his 18 points as the most by a Cardinal who scored all of his team’s points since Ernie Nevers scored 40 in 1929. Only Jim Bakken, with seven in 1967, has made more field goals in a game for the franchise.

None of that would have mattered without the last one. Matthew Stafford found Puka Nacua for 42 yards, and a replay review turned Colby Parkinson’s catch into a touchdown with 47 seconds left. The extra point that put the Rams ahead 16-15 was kicked by their punter, Ethan Evans, his first career placekick: new kicker Blake Grupe, in his first game for Los Angeles, had hurt his knee making a tackle on a first-quarter kickoff. One sideline lost its kicker to a tackle. The other leaned on its kicker all day.

Jalen Brooks, who had dropped a possible first-down pass minutes earlier, caught a 21-yard throw from Jacoby Brissett, and an unnecessary roughness penalty on Josh Wallace moved Arizona into range. Three snaps later Ryland hit from 43. “Look at that last drive, we did it to a ‘T,'” he said afterward, according to the team’s website, describing how the offense got the ball to the hash he prefers before he knocked it through.

The warning inside the win

A perfect afternoon hides a problem. Arizona reached the red zone five times and scored no touchdowns, and two of its scoring drives ran 14 and 15 plays before ending in a kick. ESPN counted this as the Cardinals’ fifth win since 2000 without a touchdown. LaFleur knows it. “I never want to see six kicks again unless they’re extra points,” he said, before adding: “But if you’re going to kick it, you might as well make it.”

The defense earned its share. It came in having allowed 148 points during a four-game losing streak and held the league’s top offense to 286 yards, with sacks from Josh Sweat and Budda Baker and a forced fumble by Cody Simon. LaFleur, McVay’s offensive coordinator for the previous three seasons, won his first meeting with a coach who had beaten Arizona 16 times in 19 games. “We’ve got to figure it out, and it starts with me,” McVay said.

Arizona entered as a 13.5-point underdog, the biggest upset of the season by the spread, and both teams now sit at 2-4. The Cardinals host Denver next Sunday; the Rams travel to Las Vegas with questions about Grupe’s knee and about Davante Adams, who left late favoring his left knee.

LaFleur called Ryland a stud and said he was funny on the sideline. The Patriots once looked at the same kicker and saw the league’s worst field-goal percentage. The Cardinals just saw the only player on their roster who scored against the Super Bowl favorite, and until the offense finds the end zone, they will keep asking him to do it again.

Tags: NFL, Los Angeles Rams, Arizona Cardinals, Chad Ryland, Mike LaFleur