FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For all the difficulties the Los Angeles Rams have had over the past two months, punting hasn’t been one of them.

And that’s one of the things that concerns New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick while preparing to face the Rams on Sunday.

Los Angeles (4-7) will arrive in New England having lost six of its last seven games, including a 49-21 drubbing at New Orleans last week. But two of its four wins have come in low-scoring punt fests: 9-3 over Seattle in September and a 9-6 win at the New York Jets in November.

The common denominator was the “tremendous weapon” Belichick said they have in punter Johnny Hekker.

In his fifth season out of Oregon State, Hekker has been one of the NFL’s most accurate punters since signing with the Rams in 2012. He not only has arguably the league’s best leg when it comes to yardage, but marksman-like precision on directional punts, plus an accurate arm when throwing on fakes.

“Yeah, he’s dangerous,” Belichick said. “I mean, he’s like a quarterback. He can throw, he can run. You’ve got to defend him like you’d defend one of those guys.”

This season Hekker has put a NFL-best 35 punts inside the 20-yard line, with just one touchback. In addition, Hekker has limited teams to a 4.5 yards average per return, while ranking second in the league with a 44.9 net yards per punt average.

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