By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Western Alamance alum Joshua Karty will be kicking in the NFL playoffs.
The rookie for the Los Angeles Rams helped the team to a divisional championship.
The Rams play at home against the Minnesota Vikings in Monday night’s NFC wild-card round matchup. It’s the last of six playoff games (two Saturday, three Sunday) in the first batch of NFL postseason games.
Karty, a sixth-round draft pick out of Stanford, went 29-for-34 on field goals this season. That included 6-for-7 from 50 yards or longer. He also was 32-for-36 on extra points.
His 85.3-percent success rate on field goals placed him 15th in the NFL among kickers with 20 or more attempts. He was 15th in total points for all players with 119.
The Rams (10-7) won the NFC West by virtue of a tiebreaker against the Seattle Seahawks, who were left out of the playoffs.
Karty went 4-for-4 on field goals, including a career-long 58-yarder and a 57-yarder, in Sunday’s 30-25 home loss to Seattle. That put him at 13-for-13 across the final five regular-season games.
The Rams are the fourth seed in the NFC among seven playoff-qualifying teams. Minnesota finished with a 14-3 record, but it was behind the Detroit Lions (15-2) in the NFC North.
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