Justin Tucker's weird season continued Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Tucker has now missed more kicks this season than he did all of last year, as he missed wide left from 47 and 50 yards in the first half against the Steelers, leading to a 9-7 deficit at halftime.
The difference, at least on the scoreboard, was between the kickers as Tucker missed both of his opportunities and the Steelers' Chris Boswell hit all three of his from 32, 52, and 32, respectively.
Boswell then opened up the second half scoring with a 57-yard bomb. That kick and the 52 were in the same direction that Tucker kicked.
Tucker did come back with a big-time kick on the Ravens' ensuing possession, drilling a 54-yard kick in the opposite direction, in the open end of Acrisure Stadium.
The Ravens aren't accustomed to being on the wrong end of a kicker battle, but Tucker is having the toughest season of his 13-year career.
He now has six missed field goals on the season and a failed extra point. All seven misses have been wide left.
He's now 15 of 21 on the season for a career-low 71.4 field-goal percentage.
Tucker's career-high in field goal misses was seven in 2015 – his fourth NFL season – when he went 33 of 40. He missed six field goals in 2022, but that was a Pro Bowl season in which he made a league-high 37.
Asked this week whether there was any kind of trend with Tucker's struggles, Special Teams Coordinator Chris Horton said each kick is different and that he "didn't make good foot to ball contact" on the missed extra point against the Bengals last week.
"Every kick is its own separate kick when he goes out there, because every foot to ball contact, every snap to hold, you try to make those things as consistent as you possibly can," Horton said. "He's in a good place. He's in a good place, [and] he's going to be OK."
Tucker isn't the only usually reliable kicker struggling this season. The Falcons' Younghoe Koo, a 2020 Pro Bowler, has missed seven. Greg Zuerlein, who made the second-most field goals last season, has shanked six.
