There once was a time when the Baltimore Ravens could all but guarantee they’d put points on the board if they reached their opponent’s 35-yard line. That was because they had one of the NFL’s all-time best kickers in Justin Tucker. The perennial All-Pro has fallen on tough times this season.
Since Week 8, Tucker has made just seven of the 12 field goal attempts. His five missed field goals have come from 50, 47, 50, 47 and 53 yards out.
Tucker missed two field goal attempts and an extra point in Sunday’s 24-19 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He is now 19-of-27 on field-goal attempts this season and has missed two extra points. His 10 missed kicks leads the NFL and his field-goal percentage of 70% is by far a career low.
“As simply as I can put it, I missed the kicks, and I’ll leave it at that. I just left the points out there. I feel like I cost us this one,” Tucker said on Sunday.
Tucker has made his share of game-winning field goals. His 66-yard field goal is the longest in NFL history. The misses are a rarity for the normally on-the-money kicker. But his teammates aren’t losing any trust in him.
“I have the utmost confidence in ‘Tuck’ [Justin Tucker]. He’s a [future] Hall of Famer for a reason,” Ravens linebacker and team captain Roquan Smith said.
“Hell yes, I have confidence in [Justin Tucker],” quarterback Lamar Jackson added. ”[Justin Tucker] is the G.O.A.T. still. Whatever is going on, just block it out. I believe he’s still the G.O.A.T.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he’s not moving on from Tucker despite the recent struggles. Harbaugh, a former special teams coach, knows how mental kicking is. So, he wants to make his kicker confident while still setting an expectation to make the attempts. He’s empowering Tucker to fix his mistakes.
Tucker will get to clear his mind over the bye week before coming back on Monday to start preparing for the New York Giants on December 15.
Legendary former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick weighed in on Tucker recently during an appearance on the Let’s Go Podcast.
“I don’t see that there’s like a lack of talent. I think there’s something mechanically that he’s not doing consistently,” Belichick said. “If you have the key to unlock that problem, then probably everything could be great.”
“I think Coach Harbaugh is doing the right thing. I would stick with Justin Tucker. This guy was the most accurate kicker in the history of football. He gets great height on the ball. He’s been super consistent. He’s obviously having a little bit of a rough patch right here, but it doesn’t look to me like his talent level has declined. There’s something mechanically that just isn’t quite right all the time. I think they just gotta work hard and try to find that.”