INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Rams rookie kicker Joshua Karty only practiced once this week as he dealt with a groin injury coming out of last week's game against the Cardinals. In that one practice, he was a limited participant.
Just how limited?
"On Friday, I warmed up a little bit," Karty said. "Was good enough to go."
Enough so that he was prepared to make the last-second, game-winning field goal in Los Angeles' 27-24 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at SoFi Stadium. Karty made both of his field goal attempts – both in the fourth quarter – and also converted all three of his extra point attempts.
Karty said as soon as he got through pregame warmups, he felt better than he expected and not working through as much pain as he thought. Getting better as the game wore on became a theme.
"But yeah, I didn't get the full work week," Karty said. "I kicked a couple balls on Friday, so the rest of my body felt pretty fresh. But you know, as the game wore on, I think my kicks got a lot better and better. And the extra point at the end and the field goal at the end, those were my best two kicks. And so as the adrenaline came in and I got more and more warm, I just felt like I was settling into the game much better."
Karty is now 4-for-4 on field goals this season and 6-for-6 on extra point attempts.
"I thought special teams was a huge edge for us today," McVay said. "I mean, for Josh Karty, for Ethan Evans, for Alex Ward to be able to make their kicks in crunch time, the extra points to tie it up, the field goal to ultimately win it."
As for the uncertainty with his questionable status entering the game?
"I kind of googled myself this morning and I saw I was still questionable," Karty said. "I was like, 'Oh, okay, I guess I'm still questionable!' I guess not. I knew I was at least 100% giving it a good go. There could have been a chance something would happen, but I was fairly confident I would play and make it through the whole game. But this my first time in the NFL with an injury, so, like, I didn't know how the communication aspect worked within the team, with the media and stuff. So that was kind of funny."
