Big leg, athleticism of Rams’ punter a concern for Patriots

After Los Angeles missed a field goal, the Patriots tied the game thanks to a John Stephens touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. With a rookie QB making just his third start, they may opt to go run heavy this week.

The skinny on the skinny Goff?

“Sometimes you get a wake-up call”, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said. “I hope (Hekker) gets a good workout; yeah”.

It’s great for the Rams that their punter is the best in the business, because they sure do need him a lot.

“I was a big fan of him growing up”.

While the Patriots don’t have a single, dominant pass rusher, their defense does have a lot of good players that know their roles and how to succeed in them, thanks to a great coaching staff. You saw the way he moved in the pocket.

Brady, who always downplays individual accomplishments, is dealing with a knee injury that had him hobbling a bit in last Sunday’s win over the New York Jets. He went 20-0f-32 and threw three touchdowns in just his second National Football League game.

Was it his losing record while playing as the quarterback for the California Golden Bears that struck a chord with the New England coach? As a result, they’ve been able to load up against Gurley. But, according to Bill Belichick, one man who should be absolved from any and all blame is the punter. When you lose 49-21, it’s not just a bad day at the office. It’s like, “He’s coming”.

The Ravens got a big win against Cincinnati to keep pace with Pittsburgh in the AFC North, and John Harbaugh once again showed why he is a head coach to be reckoned with. “Those are tough guys to tackle”. It was ugly. The outlook for this week doesn’t get much better, as they travel to Foxboro to take on Tom Brady and the Patriots.

The Rams are relatively unfamiliar to the Patriots, much like the 49ers were.

Today we learned that Belichick had strangely high praise for the No. 1 overall pick. We look behind the numbers to see who had a Week 12 that really helped them, or just entertained the hell out of us. That’s really the first problem. It was a precision throw which allowed his receiver to go and make a play, but also kept the ball away from the defender. Is it a zone team? Tom Brady led the come-from-behind game-winning drive in the final five minutes, his 50 of his career. Instead, he spent a lot of time talking about the Rams’ punter, Johnny Hekker. Even if it is a big guy, we’re going to go tackle him and do our best to go get him down and get in there. We know that, we talked about that. Two plays later he threw to wide receiver Kenny Britt for 17 yards setting up the score and a 7-0 lead three plays later. Especially since Goff did seem to get in a groove last week. And as they rotate through, different guys play in different situations, and they do a good job with it. I mean honestly, he threw an unbelievable deep ball downfield. I still remember in the Dallas game being backed up inside our 10-yard line, he hit a 55-yarder out of the end zone.

“We definitely were mad about it, and disappointed”, defensive lineman Aaron Donald said. “You kind of have to respect multiple aspects of his athleticism”.

“Start with saying they’re a very talented team”.