5 days Ago By Sam Cohn
A disconcerting season from the NFL’s most accurate kicker of all time continues. Ravens veteran Justin Tucker sent a pair of first-quarter field goals wide left, from 47 and 50 yards, before finally connecting on a 57-yard attempt in the third. That’s six points left on the table in a divisional loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers decided by two.
An 18-16 loss pushed Baltimore 1 1/2 games back in the AFC North standings. “Tuck needs to make more kicks,” coach John Harbaugh deadpanned postgame. “He knows that.
” Tucker made more of a point to aim further out to the right half between the uprights after hooking his initial two tries. But as he has said all season, his confidence never wavers the next time he steps onto the field. “It’s certainly frustrating,” he said, “especially when we know that these games come down to the wire, like this one did today, that I let a couple get away.
” Tucker’s Sunday struggles were the first time he’d missed a pair of field goals in a single game since 2022. It has happened five times before Sunday. Here’s the short list: “I still remember misses that I had 12 years ago, and I will wake up at night thinking about one that got away,” Tucker said.
“But that’s just the nature of playing this position — you have to treat each one like its own kick. So, the first two that I missed today, I was still trying to make it a point to do just that — treat each kick for what it’s worth — and ultimately, just decided to make a slight adjustment moving forward for the remaining opportunities that we would have for the rest of the day. “I just made it a point and communicated with [long snapper] Nick [Moore] and [holder] Jordan [Stout]; ‘Hey, I’m going to pick a target line that’s going to be more right-third of the uprights, and we’re just going to just smash a ball and go from there.
'” Back in September, when Tucker missed a field goal in three consecutive weeks to open the season, Harbaugh downplayed it as a “technical issue.” Something he was confident the five-time All-Pro with a maniacal attention to detail could sort out. “He knows exactly what it is,” Harbaugh said at the time.
“He just needs to smooth it back out.” That was after Week 3. Tucker was then perfect until a Week 8 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
He missed an extra point two weeks later, during “Thursday Night Football” against Cincinnati and unraveled against the Steelers on Sunday. Justin Tucker field goal percentage over expected per : 2016: +18.8% 2017: +13.
0% 2018: +8.5% 2019: +9.9% 2020: +10.
1% 2021: +14.0% 2022: +9.8% 2023: +4.
0% 2024: -5.4% — Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) The field conditions at Acrisure Stadium were not an issue, he said, but it “wasn’t ideal.” University of Pittsburgh and Clemson played on the field on Saturday.
Throughout the course of a game, grass between the hashes can naturally get chewed up a bit. It’s something they’re accounting for in warmups – which included Tucker connecting on a 60-yard try – and as the game wears on. Tucker’s misses on Sunday were part of an uncharacteristic outing for the Ravens’ league-best scoring attack.
His first attempt would have knotted the game at 3 apiece. His second could have given Baltimore an early lead in a matchup where points were hard to come by. Meanwhile, Tucker’s counterpart, Steelers kicker Chris Boswell, sank his six kicks to account for all of his team’s 18 points.
Sunday became the first time in the history of the rivalry one team did not score a touchdown and won the game. Tucker is now one errant attempt away from tying his most field-goal misses in a single season. The last time he missed seven field goals was 2015, but it took him 40 tries to get there.
He’s only at 22 through Week 11. That 2015 campaign was also the only time he’s finished made fewer than 85% of his field goals in a season. At 73%, Tucker is tracking toward his first sub-80% season.
Related Articles In his career, Tucker had an 89.7% success rate on field goals entering Sunday. His 1-for-3 outing drops him to 89.
3%, still a half tick better than Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker (89.2%), who underwent knee surgery this week that will sideline him for at least three games. The “most accurate kicker” crown still sits atop Tucker’s head, but it’s hanging on by a few strands of well-coiffed hair.
Asked earlier this season if his range has changed at all, now in year 13, Tucker said he felt as good as he’s ever felt. It was just a matter of cleaning up a few details in his swing and strike. “He made the long one, which is good to see, which means he’ still very capable,” Harbaugh said.
“Kick ‘em straight and we’ll be good.”.
