Greg Zuerlein being placed on IR with back injury. Wow...

[tomas]

Memo to chicken little:
The sky is not falling
Are you telling me that a kicker is as big of a loss as a starting QB and Running back.

 

[den-the-coach]

I like Kickers....When they make them.

 

[gabriel18]

Ray Finkle is all I can think about when I hear Fickens name. Laces out.

 

[JackKirbyFan]

Saw it referenced in a twitter comment:
Ficken in German translates to how we feel about this in English:

https://translate.google.com/?rlz=1C1DLLB_enUS640US641&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob#de/en/Ficken


Best wishes and good luck to Leg. Hopefully he can bounce through this like Jonathan Quick got through his back surgery.

Who is Johnathan Quick?

 

[Classic Rams]

Hmm, no one said the sky was falling, or that it equates to losing a QB or RB, but losing an accurate long range kicker is a pretty big loss, obviously! If this new guy misses a few and the Rams come up with no points on drives.... we lose the edge, our spec teams just got that much weaker. Unless this new guy surprises us - doubtfull - he may just be another Chuck Nelson. We've been spoiled with the near automatic FGs and XPs and we'll feel the misses. So yeah, again, this sucks. I'm not going to pretend that we won't miss Greg or that it's not a big loss. We'll see though.... hoping for the best, prepared for the worst.

 

[TSFH Fan]

Who is Johnathan Quick?

Thanks for the setup!

He's this guy

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZN152qwGqQ


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HRJzpL1UTk

Edit:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wx17kQZr7A


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sotx4yuBB8

 

[ramsince62]

damn, well look at the bright side fellas. I'd rather him go down than a lot of other players. We will be fine.

Yeah, why would we need the highest scorer on the team?

 

[norcalramfan]

First off, get well soon Zuerline! Full recovery!



As soon as this news came across my phone, those things sprung to the front of my mind... seemed innocent last week.. now it made sense... there was something wrong. I remember the look on his face when he kicked out of bounds... it wasn't pain, but it was an odd look... almost one of resignation.






These comments are my biggest concern... I've had back problems (golf) and shots into my spine. That's nothing compared to a herniated disk that requires surgery.
Hoping it isn't... but this could be a bigger issue down the road.

These comments below... all true. Ties to what I said above.





Based on what I read, they've known about this for some time... so, I'd have to believe they conducted a search a while back. If Ficken is the choice, given Fassell's experience, I'll have to just put my faith in them. But, I'm not delusional... those points we used to count on from 45+ yards out will not longer be sure things... and, past 50? Probably no more this year. They'll just have to adjust play calling and execution to get those first downs.


Yup... here we are again... Rams overcame a huge loss in 1999-2000, can they again? But, again, Ficken is not Zuerline... not even close.

Can the Rams find ways around this drop off?

The more I think about the more I believe they were prepared for this. We all saw GZ have a subpar game and IMHO the coaching staff just said that's it, Ficken is going to be better than GZ at this point and not to take a chance on aggravating the injury.

 

[den-the-coach]

he may just be another Chuck Nelson. We've been spoiled with the near automatic FGs and XPs and we'll feel the misses. So yeah, again, this sucks. I'm not going to pretend that we won't miss Greg or that it's not a big loss. We'll see though.... hoping for the best, prepared for the worst.

Well, Nelson was like a 4th round pick and was one of the most accurate kickers in college back then, but they used a kicking tee in college back then and Nelson had trouble kicking off the ground. Thank goodness Mike Lansford came back off of IR that year and kicked the Rams into post season in 1983 with a winning 42 yard field goal when time expired against Bum Phillips & the Saints.

As to Sam Ficken Rams get to try him out for a few games before taking him to post season and I totally trust John Fassel on this, I realize that Ficken might not have the booming leg of Zuerlein, however, Ficken just needs to make the extra points and FG's from 50 yards in. He's kicked a 54 yard FG in college and watching the videos, he seems to have increased his trajectory and leg strength, but we will find out soon enough.

 

[ramsince62]

Ficken struggled mightily early in his college career but he came on very strong his last two years.

Hopefully he doesn’t have freshman jitters all over agsin.

Nah, he's never played in an NFL game before in his life, why should he be nervous?

 

[ramsince62]

I see a few fake FG's coming up soon

Only if Fisher comes back....

 

[OregonRamsFan]

Losing GZ is huge. Really good kickers are as rare as they come. But as you all know, we rally behind Ficken now.

 

[shovelpass]

Seriously....best punter I ever played with was a stone cold athlete...could really run...love to work with the wr's and db's and blow some of us out in sprints...Think he claimed to run a 4.4

Dallas and Seattle have fairly fast punters, both have ran it for 1st downs.

 

[Jacobarch]

Yeah, why would we need the highest scorer on the team?

The sky is falling

 

[Antonius]

Yeah, why would we need the highest scorer on the team?

Don’t get it twisted. GZ is great, but he’s the leading scorer because the OFFENSE is so potent.

 

[XXXIVwin]

I’m going out on a limb, Ficken is gonna be great for us. I’ve watched plenty of his tape and he looks legit. Came through in the clutch in college, and now has significantly improved his trajectory, kickoffs, and long range accuracy. Gonna be some pun-filled appreciation threads for Ficken after the Tennessee game.

 

[A.J. Hicks]

From the first few kicks I have seen in this video it sure looks like he worked on that low trajectory weakness.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fd6_IsUZT0

 

[tomas]

 

[Mojo Ram]

Tough break. Could be about 30-40 other players that could go down that would be tougher though. Maybe the offense gets better in red zone TD % as a result.