8 winners and 4 losers in the Rams Week 14 win over the Bills

Winner 5: P Ethan Evans

The unwarranted attention on the LA Rams special teams should do more than single out one flawed play. As a counter argument to that sentiment, let's turn towards second-year punter Ethan Evans. He punted twice, for an average of 47.5 gross yards per punt. But once again, digging a bit deeper shows that Evans never allowed the Buffalo Bills to return a punt. One punt sailed 53 yards to the Buffalo Bills nine-yard line and out of bounds. The final play of the game was an Evans punt that bounced on the football field inside the five-yard line before bouncing into the end zone. That play exhausted the 0:07 seconds remaining on the game clock, effectively ending the game.

Fundamentally sound football.

When rookie punter Ethan Evans entered the NFL, he possessed a booming let that shot the football an average of 49.2 yards downfield. That was good enough to land him among the Top-10 punters in terms of gross yards. But he outkicked his coverage, and the Rams ended up in 30th place in terms of net punting yards, a mere 40.7 net yards per punt.

Evans is still perfecting his craft. His gross punts in 2024 are only averaging 43.6 gross yards per punt. But his net now averages 39.9 yards per punt, a substantial improvement in terms of gross to net difference. And the Rams punter has improve to the 29th ranked punter this season.

But wait, there's more.

In all of 2023, Evans punted just 20 times inside the opponent's 20-yard line. He has seven touchbacks, 12 fair catches, and 32 punts were returned for 495 yards. In just 13 games in 2024, he has already punted 24 times inside the 20 yard line. He has just two touchbacks, including the very strategic touchback in Week 14 that ended the game. He also has 11 fair catches, and just 15 punts that have been returned for 128 yards.

Sometimes statistics, even the most well meaning data analytics, simply fail to tell you the entire story. Evans has vastly improved at punting in 2024. And that is despite what the statistics may tell you.