Ravens Insider: Tyler Loop’s miss puts spotlight on Ravens’ checkered kicking history

ExtremeRavens · Monday at 07:55 AM

It all came down to a kick.

On a night that served as the de facto AFC North championship game, the Ravens faced the moment without the certainty that they had relied on for more than a decade.

After an offseason in which the Ravens released franchise legend Justin Tucker — who spent 13 seasons with the team and established himself as one of the greatest kickers in NFL history before more than a dozen sexual misconduct allegations ended his tenure — there was a new kicker in Baltimore. The team drafted Tyler Loop in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL draft to lock down the position for the next decade.

So, of course, a division title and a playoff berth came down to a kick. One directly over the end zone that a Pittsburgh priest had blessed with “holy water” before the game.

It ended with Loop’s head down, both hands gripping his facemask as the Steelers’ sideline rushed onto the field to celebrate. Lamar Jackson hopped in anticipation, then stopped. A blank stare overcame him as he congratulated players from the opposing team. A missed 44-yard field goal attempt, wide right. Season over.

“Devastating. Furious,” Jackson said after the 26-24 defeat. “I’m everywhere with it right now.”

The 26-24 loss echoed the end of the 2011 season, when Billy Cundiff missed a potential game-tying kick in the AFC championship game with 11 seconds left. Tucker was brought in as an undrafted free agent the ensuing offseason.

He was transformative. Thirteen years of near-automatic kicks erased any potential fear that Cundiff created. He turned the franchise’s most painful memory into its greatest certainty. And for more than a decade, even when everything else faltered, the kick rarely did.

Until Sunday night.

Loop said that he knew the moment the ball left his foot that he missed it. The Ravens coach him to strike the ball on the fourth lace, he said, but he missed too low.

“Unfortunately, I just mishit the ball,” Loop said. “We call it hitting it thin. It spins fast and goes off to the right.”

The miss was set up by Jackson’s 26-yard completion to tight end Isaiah Likely on fourth-and-7, which moved the Ravens into field goal range with 21 seconds left. Pittsburgh had made the go-ahead opportunity even possible a drive earlier when kicker Chris Boswell missed an extra point attempt after Calvin Austin III’s go-ahead touchdown catch, keeping it a two-point game with 55 seconds to go. Boswell had made 89 extra points in a row before his crucial miss.

Asked what he would have done if Loop’s kick had gone in, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin offered a blunt response.

“If my aunt had male parts, she’d be my uncle,” Tomlin said.

Loop said after he was drafted that he welcomed the chance to follow in Tucker’s footsteps. He said he wanted “to be chasing perfection.”

NBC analyst Rodney Harrison said that it looked like Loop was doing exactly that in his warmup kicks — and that it worked against him. Harrison said Loop appeared uncomfortable, like someone who had never been in that moment before.

He hadn’t. It was Loop’s first kick all season in that situation.

His latest attempt to tie or take the lead before Sunday came from 44 yards with 4:59 remaining at Cleveland on Nov. 16.

Coach John Harbaugh walked with Loop after the game, an arm around his waist. Loop later sat at his locker and read a prayer he had written before kickoff.

Jackson later reposted a video on X suggesting a leveraging penalty should have been called on Steelers receiver Ben Skowronek, though no flag was thrown and the TV broadcast never suggested a missed call.

Baltimore Ravens place kicker Tyler Loop (33) reacts after missing a field goal during an NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Durisko)

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Baltimore Ravens place kicker Tyler Loop (33) reacts after missing a field goal during an NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Durisko)

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Loop said that his phone was filled with encouraging messages from family and friends. Loop spoke with reporters for more than seven minutes, repeatedly emphasizing how much the season meant to him.

“I’m super grateful to Baltimore — the organization, the city — just how they’ve embraced me this year is incredible,” he said. “Just for it to end like that sucks.”

The team stood by him. Long snapper Nick Moore and holder Jordan Stout remained at his side as he spoke with reporters. Jackson said Loop should just “leave it in the past.” The quarterback said that he had spoken to Loop earlier in the fourth quarter and was “livid” after the kicker sent a kickoff out of bounds — a penalty that gave the Steelers possession at the 40-yard line — with 8:42 remaining, just after Jackson connected with Zay Flowers on the first of two deep fourth-quarter touchdown passes. Pittsburgh scored a go-ahead touchdown on the ensuing drive as part of a wild back-and-forth ending.

On the final play before the missed kick, Jackson took a knee — losing 2 yards — to center the ball for Loop, a decision Harbaugh later defended.

“It was a close kick. You want to center the ball,” Harbaugh said. “We wanted to make sure we got the kick. We didn’t want something bad to happen on the run.”

Loop finished his rookie season converting 30 of 34 field goal attempts, the 12th-highest percentage in the NFL. This was his first missed field goal attempt inside 50 yards all season.

Stout said that he told Loop that the moment did not define him. He added that even if Loop couldn’t absorb the message immediately, he planned to keep supporting him and being there in the days ahead.

“No one should have to start out their rookie year like this, especially at the end of the year. He doesn’t get another chance to show people what he’s capable of,” Stout said. “Ten years down the line when he’s the best in the league, I think he’ll look back on it as the moment that made him.”

Meanwhile, Tucker — who owns the third-best field goal percentage in league history and once held the record for the longest field goal — remains a free agent eligible to sign with a team after serving a 10-game suspension imposed by the NFL.

And despite a promising rookie campaign that suggested Loop could fill those shoes, it will be remembered for one kick. The final one. It’ll lead to only more questions about the futures of Harbaugh and Jackson with the Ravens. And it resurrects a familiar ending to a season in Baltimore.

This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Michael Howes at mhowes@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, or x.com/Mikephowes.

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Ravens Insider: Tyler Loop’s miss puts spotlight on Ravens’ checkered kicking history

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