Story by
'It's crushing': Justin Tucker, Ravens try to push past kicker's career-worst day
- Story by
- 'It's crushing': Justin Tucker, Ravens try to push past kicker's career-worst day
BALTIMORE – The groans of uneasiness as Justin Tucker ran onto the filed Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium turned into boos by the time he jogged off of it. With 1:26 left in the third quarter, Tucker had missed his second field goal of the game (third overall counting an extra point attempt earlier) in the Baltimore Ravens ' 24-19 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
Ravens fans openly voicing their disdain for a franchise favorite – one of the best players at his position in the history of the sport – would have been inconceivable at the start of the season. But fair or not, in a game decided by five points, Tucker left seven points on the board.
Advertisement
The 2024 campaign has been that type of nightmare for Tucker.
"As simply as I can put it, I missed the kicks. And I'll leave it at that," Tucker told reporters after the game. "I just left the points out there. Feel like I cost us this one. But it doesn't really do anybody any good to dwell on it."
Tucker is now 19-for-27 on the season; he had never missed more than seven field goals in a year (2015) prior to this season.
On Sunday, Tucker missed an extra point that banged off the left upright and would have given the Ravens a 10-0 lead. He proceeded to miss from 47 (wide left) and 53 yards (wide right) out, respectively, to keep the Ravens trailing once Philadelphia took the lead. He was good from 34 and 50 yards in the first half.
Advertisement
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh said the team had no designs of moving on from Tucker. After the kicker's second missed field goal, Harbaugh – a former Eagles special teams coordinator – approached Tucker on the team's bench and offered a hug.
"He'll be the first to tell you that he needs to make kicks," Harbaugh said. "I just think if you look at Justin Tucker's history, he's capable of doing that."
In 2022, Tucker was second-team All-Pro and made 37 of 43 attempts, with five of those misses from more than 50 yards. But this season, he missed in each of Baltimore's first three games to set the tone for what has been a frustrating season. The five-time All-Pro was 1-for-3 in a two-point loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers two weeks ago.
"The only thing that we can do – that I can do – is continue to work, move forward, take it one kick at a time. I hate that I've had to have this same conversation over the course of this season, but that's something that comes with the territory in this job description. The kicks are either good or they're not. Today, I did not do a good enough job to help our team with the football game."
Advertisement
The first seven misses of the season for Tucker (including Sunday) went wide left.
"The adjustment is pretty clear," Tucker told reporters last month. "I just need to make it a point not to let the ball carry to the left. So that's something that we're going to continue working on in practice."
Tucker said Sunday the emotions were "raw" for him in the immediate aftermath of the loss.
"It's crushing," he said, "but at the end of the day, my feelings don't really matter. What matters is getting back to work and doing everything I can to help this football team."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justin Tucker stats: Ravens kicker's woes extend with three misses
