PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAMS : Slumping Hatcher May Get the Boot

Coach John Robinson is running out of patience with the slump of punter Dale Hatcher and is beginning to look for alternatives.

Hatcher is averaging a league-low 38.1 yards this season, and consecutive bad punts in Sunday’s 27-6 defeat by the Washington Redskins translated into a second-half field position advantage for the Redskins.

“The tragic thing is he’s a great punter on our practice field,” Robinson said.

Hatcher, signed this year as a free agent, appears to be falling into the same pattern that soured his previous five-year stay with the team: an inability to kick when the pressure is on.

“With a guy who’s got some (mental) barrier, you always think, ‘Well, the barrier will go down and he will be able to produce,’ ” Robinson said. “But it just hasn’t happened.”

A thumbnail version of why the Rams have managed only 26 points in their last three games and have scored more than 20 points in a game only twice: They rank second to last in yards rushing, and their three main wide receivers have combined for only three touchdowns and one reception longer than 40 yards.

“The thing that seems to be so perplexing is we just don’t make plays,” Robinson said. “I’m not sure we’ve completed a deep pass all year. I honest-to-God can’t remember one. And two years ago we were the best in the league with the same cast of characters.

“You see that ball go up and then you see the guy down there, you say, ‘Oh, we’ve got one.’ Then it doesn’t happen.”