The Ravens' best choreographed celebrations so far this season came during their 40-0 win on Thursday Night Football, and they were busted out by the kicker and offensive linemen.
First, add this to Tucker's lore. Known for his celebrations, the Pro Bowl kicker is breaking out a new barrage of routines with teammates.
Tucker did a leaping fade-away jump shot with safety Tony Jefferson. He did a spinoff on the LeBron James pre-game powder toss with running back Javorius Allen. He did a sleeve wiping thing with safety Anthony Levine. He formally shook the hand of quarterback Ryan Mallett.
"I like to have a unique celebration with basically everybody on the team," Tucker said. "I like to have a lot of reasons to pull them out. I think the best reasons are PATs."
Tucker said he has maybe a dozen different celebrations as of now. "It's a decent number, but, as with anything in the football world, we can always improve," he said.
Tucker shifted the attention away from his own "celly" to the performance the offensive linemen put on. In short, he got upstaged.
After Joe Flacco's 34-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, the offensive linemen busted out a choreographed bowling routine.
Center Ryan Jensen, left guard James Hurst and right guard Matt Skura were the pins. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley was the bowling ball and right tackle Austin Howard was the bowler. Stanley laid down at Howard's feet and rolled several yards into the pins, knocking all three over. Howard celebrated with a double pistol Shooter McGavin-esc move.
Howard said they came up with it during Wednesday's practice, the day before the game.
"Actually, we thought about that just the last 10 minutes of practice," he said with a smile. "Like, 'Hey guys, we should do this.' We kind of pulled it off. I don't know what it's going to look like on TV. It was fun."
This year, the league relaxed celebration rules to allow choreographed routines. Can't say I expected the first one to come from the offensive linemen. Count Tucker, and anybody else who saw it, as a fan.
"I'm jogging onto the field about to kick the PAT and I jog past these dudes doing their best Ernie McCracken," Tucker said, making a “Kingpin” reference. "That's a big bowling ball."
Unfortunately, this is the best video we have of the celebration. It doesn't quite capture the moment in all its glory. All cameras zoomed in on Maclin after the touchdown, not expecting a celebration 30-some yards down the field.
