The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens, 18-16, at Acrisure Stadium one day after the Pitt Panthers lost to the Clemson Tigers on the same field, and Baltimore Ravens K Justin Tucker, who missed two field goals in the first half, said the field condition wasn’t an issue but “wasn’t ideal.”
“I wouldn’t say the surface was an issue, but it wasn’t ideal. That’s something that we make it a point to account for by going out there in pregame warmups and getting our feet under us, figuring out what the wind may doing, but we’ve dealt with that plenty of times here, elsewhere, at home. And then throughout the course of the game, the most action takes place in between the hashes, and it naturally gets chewed up,” Tucker said via Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Twitter.
Tucker isn’t fully blaming the surface for his misses, but he made it clear that it didn’t help. It didn’t seem to be an issue for Steelers kicker Chris Boswell, however, as he went 6-of-6 and made three field goals from 50-plus yards. Tucker remains one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history, but he’s had a down year, as he’s just 16-of-22 on field goals this year.
The two misses loomed large in the outcome, as Pittsburgh won by just two points. Had Tucker made even one of the two field goals he missed, which came from 47 and 50 yards, the Ravens likely would’ve won the game. It’s uncharacteristic to see Tucker miss two field goals in one game, and this is the first time this season he’s missed two field goal tries in the same game.
It’s an interesting stat that in all four of Baltimore’s losses this season, Tucker has missed a field goal. He missed one in Week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, one in Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders, and he missed another one in Baltimore’s Week 8 loss against the Cleveland Browns before missing two against Pittsburgh today. His other miss came in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, but the Ravens won that game.
At 34 years old and in his 13th NFL season, age may be catching up to Tucker, and it might be tough for him to keep his streak of eight straight Pro Bowl appearances alive. But he’s still one of the best to ever do it, and he’s not someone you can write off. Sometimes, kickers just have rough seasons, as the Steelers saw with Boswell in 2018, when he was just 13-of-20 on field goal tries.
While the surface may not have been perfect, the Acrisure Stadium grounds crew got right to work to prepare the field after the Pitt game yesterday afternoon.
It’s not something that was an issue for Boswell, nor has it been an issue for the 10th-year veteran, whose accuracy at home is unparalleled. But clearly Tucker felt field conditions were a little bit off and that they may have impacted him to some degree on his two misses.
