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By Tyler Erzberger
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The Los Angeles Rams lost a close contest on Sunday night to the Seattle Seahawks, ending their chance of reaching the Super Bowl.
While both teams made plays back and forth that swung the tide throughout the game, one play and one mistake will haunt the Rams for possibly decades to come.
Down four in the third quarter and having stopped the Seahawks on the first drive of the second half, the Rams felt like the momentum shifted coming out of the locker room.
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Following a routine punt, kick returner Xavier Smith waited for the ball with his hand raised for a fair catch. But as the ball came nearer, Smith flinched and fell backwards, nervously holding his hands in the air as the ball bounced off his chest and onto the ground, where the Seahawks happily scooped it up.
Smith, stunned, watched in horror as he slowly made his way to the sideline. A play later, the Seahawks were in the endzone, and they took a commanding lead that the Rams couldn't catch for the rest of the night.
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It wasn't the first botched return Smith had on the night, looking nervous in one of the opening kicks, where he luckily fell on it.
Following the monumental misplay, Sean McVay swiftly benched Smith and put starting running back Kyren Williams as the kick returner for the rest of the game.
Even before the game ended, thousands of comments flooded Xavier Smith's personal Instagram and the internet, criticizing the play.
While generally a player screws up by trying to make a play on the ball, Smith looked as if he were a deer in headlights, fumbling backwards at the sight of the routine punt that he's completed thousands of times before in his career.
The Rams hold Smith's exclusive rights as a free agent this offseason, but it's difficult to see the team bring him back following one of the worst plays in recent franchise history.
While one team mourns, another is already planning the trip down south to Northern California for the Super Bowl. Sam Darnold and the Seahawks will play Drake Maye and the New England Patriots for the Lombardi Trophy in two weeks.
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