I Cannot Believe The Way The Ravens Lost That Game

I really cannot. I never thought this would ever be a blog I would have to write. It’s stunning. Absolutely stunning. Life is full of variables. This wasn’t supposed to be one of them. Justin Tucker makes kicks. That’s what he was put on this earth to do and that’s exactly what he does. And somehow at one of the most inopportune times, he finally misses.

I guess to a degree, I always knew that extra point streak was going to end at some point. When they moved the XP back to 33 yards, I was actually stunned and impressed with how long he kept it going… but eventually it just settled in that that extra 13 yards made no difference for him. I just hoped and prayed when any miss finally came, it wouldn’t be in a spot like this one. Obviously that’s not how it went.

Of course I’m pissed off. Of course I’m upset. But I think we need to have some perspective here. He’s won us far more games than he’s lost us (1). We’re incredibly lucky to have the guy. And to be honest, I’m more concerned about how he responds to this than the loss itself. He’s never really had to bounce back from a rough game because he’s never really had one. To a degree, this is the first time we’re really going to see what Justin Tucker is made of. Obviously that sounds crazy to say given the fact that he’s made so many pressure-packed kicks, but this is the kind of thing that could derail somebody’s psyche. You just have to keep in mind that you’re gonna lose a game every once in a while to something like this. Freak shit happens and this was certainly freak shit. We have bigger fish to fry than the New Orleans Saints. We need JT to be at his best for the rest of the games on the slate. Better to lose this one than the one against Pittsburgh in two weeks.

Rest of the team was mostly meh today. John Brown showed the fuck out. Joe Flacco came up huge on that last drive, as he has done so many times just to have people let him down in the end. I can’t believe I have to add Justin Tucker to a list of people that have blown games that includes Mark Clayton, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Breshad Perriman, Jeremy Maclin, Billy Cundiff, and Lee Evans. Unbelievable. But other than Flacco and Smoke, not a lot to write home about. Plenty to work on this week. Gotta regroup and take care of business in Carolina next week. Let’s just be sure the Chiefs do a job tonight and keep the Ravens where they started the day in the standings. Tough tough loss to swallow but this team will bounce back.