There’s been a lot of unpleasant surprises for the Baltimore Ravens this season, chief among them being the struggles of kicker Justin Tucker.
Many consider Tucker to be the greatest kicker in NFL history, but through three games this season, he’s made just five eight field goals, with his three misses being the most in the league. He missed a kick from 50+ yards out in each of the first two games, but a miss from 46 yards out in Sunday’s win over the Dallas Cowboys raised even more concerns. This also marks the first time in Tucker’s illustrious career that he’s missed a kick in three straight games.
The Ravens continue to stand by the future Hall of Fame kicker, though on Monday, head coach John Harbaugh slightly changed his tune. Harbaugh, who was a longtime special teams coordinator before coming to Baltimore, identified a “technique issue” as the source of Tucker’s struggles.
“From a conversation standpoint, we’re pretty close,” Harbaugh told reporters. “We’ve been together for a long time, and [we’ve] had a lot of conversations, and we know each other. So, that was just two guys talking [about] where we’re at. I just love [Justin Tucker], [and] I respect him. He’s everything that you want in a player [and] in a friend, so that was really the basis of that.
“Beyond that, for Justin, it’s just a technique issue right now that he’s working through. He’s got a technique thing going on, and he’ll work through it. He knows exactly what it is, and he just needs to smooth it back out, and I’m very confident that he will.”
The fact that all three missed kicks went wide left, with the most recent one taking a particularly sharp hook, could support Harbaugh’s claim, though only time will tell if Tucker can fix it.
No matter what happens, though, the Ravens will still have Tucker’s back through it all.
“Justin knows that we support him; I’ve tried to make sure he knows that – that’s part of it, just relationship-wise,” Harbaugh said. “The talent and the ability, all of that stuff is there. That hasn’t gone anywhere.”
