Steelers Now
Baltimore Ravens kicker Tyler Loop’s game-deciding 44-yard missed field goal against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 18 last season is a memory that will live forever in the lore of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.
With Loop’s miss, the Steelers clinched the AFC North and a playoff berth, while the Ravens went home.
Loop had been clutch in 2025, but he failed when it mattered the most in the Ravens’ heartbreaking 26-24 loss to the Steelers.
Loop had not missed on a field goal attempt inside 50 yards all season until his 44-yard field goal went wide right on the last play of the game.
Loop spoke with the Baltimore media on Wednesday about the devastating miss.
“The biggest thing I did was just acknowledge and accept it, and it took a day or two,” Loop said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “I’m confident in the process that I’ve developed. I’d say the biggest part of moving on was just letting the people that I care about and the people that I care about me know, ‘Hey, I’m good. Nothing’s changed for me. I still feel confident in my abilities.’ … Nobody wants that kick back more than me but you got to move on.”
There have been over 60,000 field-goal attempts in NFL history. Loop’s miss in Week 18 is the only one of those attempts that came as time expired in the fourth quarter in the final week with both teams’ playoff hopes resting solely on the result of his kick, according to OptaStats.
“For it to end like that sucks, and I want to do better,” Loop said after the game. “Unfortunately, the nature of the [kicker] job is you have makes, and those are awesome, and unfortunately, you have misses, and for that to happen tonight sucks.”
Loop said he just mishit the ball.
“It was a great situation, exactly what we wanted, and unfortunately, I just mishit the ball,” Loop said. “We call it hitting it thin. It spins fast and goes off to the right.
“The second it made contact with my foot, I felt it lower. We talk about hitting on the fourth lace of the shoe. It felt a little lower down the foot and hit it thin.”
Free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins explained in an interview this offseason what it was like in the Ravens’ locker room after Loop’s game-deciding missed field goal.
“That was probably the hottest I have seen the locker room,” Hopkins said. “Derrick (Henry) and I were just looking at each other like, ‘Did that really just happen?’ I didn’t think it was real for a second. I thought I was still dreaming like, ‘There ain’t no way he missed it,’ but you know he human. It was hot, though. It shouldn’t even have gotten down to depending on him to make a 40-yarder. We failed as an offense. We should have ran the ball with Derrick like as offensive players. I ain’t going to say it was...
