Ravens have a Justin Tucker problem

Over the past 10 years, there has been almost nobody in the NFL who has been better at their job than Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.

He has been automatic. He has been clutch. He has made kicks that almost no other kicker in the NFL would even be allowed to attempt. It has been a game-changing advantage for the Ravens to have every week. 

That no longer appears to be the case.

It almost might be time to start wondering if the Ravens have to start looking for a new kicker after another tough game for Tucker in the Ravens’ 24-18 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. 

Tucker missed two more field goals and an extra point, bringing his total of missed kicks to 10 on the season.

It is the first time in his career he has ever missed 10 kicks in a single season.

Some of those misses have been especially costly, and Sunday was no exception to that. His missed kicks accounted for seven points in a game the Ravens ended up losing by six points.

Earlier this season, he missed a field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders, and they lost by three points, then missed two field goals against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game they lost by two points. 

There are a lot of unknowns that would happen if Tucker made some of those kicks, so it is hard to argue how those games would have gone with different scores and situations, but it is still a tough look for Tucker right now, given how many kicks he has missed in close games. Those are the games he used to swing in the Ravens’ favor. 

After Sunday’s loss, Baltimore is 8-5 and trails the Steelers by two games in the loss column while also losing the head-to-head tiebreaker at the moment. 

The question now becomes how much confidence head coach John Harbaugh and the Ravens will continue to have in him. He has a resume and a track record that is nearly unmatched in the history of the league for kickers. Is there a chance he can get back to that? Or is this simply a matter of a kicker losing their touch? There is nobody on the free agent market right now who is going to have a better track record than Tucker, but the results this season are not where they need to be.