Pharoh Cooper sparks L.A. Rams’ rout with sensational punt return

Pharoh Cooper was one of the most versatile college football players when he was starring for the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Those mulch-dimensional talents are on display most Sunday’s in the NFL, as Cooper has established himself as one of the league’s premier kick returners while playing for the Los Angeles Rams.

Cooper flashed his skills Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. Cooper didn’t get to return a kickoff in the first half of the NFC West divisional game, but he dazzled fielding punts.

The player with the Twitter handle @KingTutt_chdown did everything but score a touchdown on one punt return. He fielded a punt just on the Rams’ side of midfield, ran to his right, eluded a number of would-be tacklers and raced past many more before being tripped up at the goal line.

It was a 53-yard punt return for Cooper. In the game, the former USC star returned seven punts for a combined 128 yards, a whopping average of 23.0 yards gained per return. In the second half, Cooper returned two kickoffs for 52 yards.

Cooper scored the first touchdown of his NFL career earlier this season when he brought back a kickoff against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

So far this season, Cooper has returned 30 kickoffs for 845 yards, an average of more than 28 yards per return. He’s fielded 29 punts for 390 yards, nearly 14 yards per return.

Cooper also has nine receptions and one rush this season.

In three seasons at South Carolina, Cooper scored 24 touchdowns, a combination receiving (17), rushing (4) and passing (3). Overall, Cooper gained 2,163 receiving yards, 513 rushing yards and 118 passing yards. The two-time All-SEC first-team selection also gained 359 yards on kickoff returns and 172 punt return yards in his 36-game career that included 25 starts.

Cooper was drafted by the Rams in the fourth round (117^th overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft.

This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Pharoh Cooper sparks L.A. Rams’ rout with sensational punt return."