Rams Returned a Blocked Punt for a Touchdown for the 21st Time in Team Annals

 By John Turney 

Jake Hummel (left) and Hunter Long (right)

Yesterday, Rams reserve linebacker Jake Hummel blocked Sam Martin's punt, which tight end Hunter Long picked up and ran in the endzone for a Rams touchdown. Ultimately, it proved the margin of victory in a 44-42 win over the Buffalo Bills. 

Credit: Fox Sports

It was the first blocked punt by a Rams player since Cory Littleton who got one in Week 7 of the 2018 season against San Francisco. Long became the first Ram to score a touchdown on a punt block since defensive back Blake Countess did it in Week 3 of 2018 vs. Chargers.

The Hummel and Long duo combined for the  21st blocked punt in Rams franchise history that was recovered in or taken into the end zone for a touchdown. 

It was just the fifth time that such a play provided the points needed to get the win and it was the 15th time that the Rams snagged a victory when blocking a punt for a touchdown. 

How do we know all this?

Pro Football Journal researcher and historian Nick Webster, with a big hat tip to Quirky Research (who is one of the best in the country to dig into sports stats), has taken a deep dive into documenting blocked kicks and punts. 

Thirty years ago it was not easy access to the materials to find blocks -- either punts or placekicks. Back in the 1990s, along with the sack research that now appears on Pro Football Reference, Nick and I would note blocked kicks/punts along with tackles, forced fumbles, passes defensed and other individual defensive stats while tallying quarterback sacks. The goal was to backdate as much defensive data as possible. 

Since then newspapers have been put online (back then it was microfilm or hard copies) as well as full games (used to be VHS) and our own film archive has allowed finding blocks far less time-consuming. Further on NFLGSIS official NFL gamebooks are available back through 1981. Before that one had to travel to NFL cities or the Pro Football Hall of Fame to be able to pore into them. 

As a results researchers can fill in the statistics that were missing a play here or there. 

So with that preface let's take a look at Rams' blocked punts taken back for touchdowns and let's start chronologically. 

The first documented punt-block-six in Rams history was in 1939. On November 5 of that year, Coach Ernie Nevers' Chicago Cardinals lost to Dutch Clark's Cleveland Rams 14-0. The first touchdown of the game was when All-Decade end Jim Benton blocked and recovered a punt in the end zone, putting the Rams up 7-0. 

Jim Benton

Was Benton's block it the margin of victory? No, not really, but a key play for sure.

Two years later on October 5, 1941, All-Pro tackle Chet Adams blocked a Hugh Gallarneau punt that was recovered by Elwyn Dunstan who took it 35 yards to the house. That was the most return yardage on any of these plays in question. Nonetheless, the Ram lost to the Chicago Bears 48-21.

Chet Adams

In 1942 in a game played on September 20 against the Eagles, the Rams' end Johnny Wilson scored a touchdown on a punt block. But who blocked it? Good question. One Philadelphia paper credited Chet Adams but that was an anomaly. Most papers, including the ones from Ohio, reported that it was Jim Benton. The preponderance of the evidence is that it was more likely Benton than Adams. Or you can toss a coin. 

On November 3, 1946, a Detroit Punt was blocked by All-Decade lineman Riley Matheson and recovered by guard Len Levy in the endzone for a score. The Rams won handily 41-20. Levy played two years for the Rams and two years for the Los Angeles Dons of the rival All-America Football Conference. He was second-team All-AAFC in 1947. 

Riley Matheson

It would be a dozen years before the Rams would have another punt-block-six. 

That time it was defensive end Lou Michaels who blocked a Lions punt and end Leon Clarke grabbed it and took it six yards for the score in a 42-28 victory over the team from Motor City. Michaela went on to score 955 points in his NFL career and was a good defensive end. Clarke, too, had a decent career.

Credit: Los Angeles Rams

Two seasons later the Bears' Ed Brown had a punt blocked by defensive tackle John LoVetere which he also recovered and returned it the same distance as Clarke did in 1958 -- six yards.

John LoVetere

Ten years later on October 4, 1970, Pat Curran blocked and recovered a punt in the end zone as part of a 37-10 rout of the San Diego Chargers. The original gamebook credited running back Jeff Jordan with the touchdown and the papers ran with that, but it was subsequently corrected giving Curran the score. 

Credit: NFL Films

Here's more—

On September 28, 1975, in a game in Candlestick part safety Bill Simpson blocked a Tom Wittum punt -- one of three the 49ers punter would have blocked that year -- and rookie cornerback Monte Jackson took it six yards for a touchdown. The Rams won the game 23-14.

Credit: NFL Films

From 1978 through 1980 the Rams would have five kick-block-sixes (and 17 total blocked punts and placekicks) in that three-year span. It had become an art.

The first was on opening day when Pat Thomas blocked one and safety Nolan Cromwell got the recovery for six. The Rams won 16-14 and it's only because of the special teams. Pat Thomas also blocked a field goal attempt that day as All-pro rookie kicker Frank Corral kicked the game-winning field goal with seven seconds left in the game.

Credit: NFL Films

A few weeks later it was Cromwell who blocked a punt with his left hand and wide receiver Dwight Scales returned it 30 yards for the touchdown. Those six points came in handy in a 26-20 win over the Saints in the Superdome.

Credit: CBS Sports

Cromwell struck again in 1979 in Chicago when he blocked a Bears punt which running back Jim Jodat picked up and took 13 yards to the end zone. But the Rams did not come out winners that day losing 27-23.

Credit: CBS Sports

In a key game late in the season special teams ace Ivory Sully blocked a Greg Coleman punt that was taken 27 yards for a touchdown by Joe Harris. Yes, we know that the official records say it was 31 yards, though there was a typo that caused the papers to report that it was 51 yards. But when you see the game tape Harris picked it up at the 27-yard line. The official gamebook also shows a correction that changed the player who blocked the punt from Sully to Harris, but it's clear that it was Sully who rejected the punt.

Credit: CBS Sports

That example just shows that there used to be some errors in the old gamebooks and that gets transferred to Pro Football Reference.

The same thing is true for the 1980 blocked punt (by Irovy Sully) that running back Jewerl Thomas fell on in the end zone in a game against the Dolphins. Pro Football Reference records this as a fumble recovery in the end zone. The same is true for a couple of the plays we've documented as punts.

Credit: NFL Films

There was a dry spell for seven years, though in 1984 Sully and linebacker Norwood Vann blocked punts for safeties in a game versus the Giants. The luck of the bounce sent those two out of the endzone before someone could fall on them.

In the strike year of 1987, the Rams had three punt-block-sixes but were just 1-2 in those games. The first was in Week 2 against the Vikings - safety Johnnie Johnson got the two-fer, getting the block and the touchdown. 

Credit: CBS Sports

In weeks four (vs Steelers) and nine (vs Cardinals) Nolan Cromwell blocked punts and defensive backs Kirby Jackson and Jerry Gray scored on those, respectively.

It would be 18 years before the Rams would get the next one. Brandon Chillar took a block 29 yards for a touchdown on a punt blocked by Drew Wahlroos, you remember him, in a three-point win over the Jaguars. That one certainly made a difference.

The Jaguars would get another punt blocked in 2017, one that Cory Littleton blocked and running back Malcolm Brown took eight yards into the end zone. The Rams won 27-17. 

Credit: Fox Sports

In early December against the Eagles, wide receiver Mike Thomas got his hand on a punt that defensive back Blake Countess took 16 yards for a touchdown. The Eagles still came out with the "W", though.

Countess would get his second-16-yards recovery of a blocked punt the next season teaming with Littleton who blocked a Chargers punt -- a game the Rams won 35-23.  That made Countess the only Rams to snag two blocked punts and tally a touchdown.

That's them -- the 20 that preceded the Hummel/Long combo that was so vital to the Rams win yesterday.