For all the talent they have, the Baltimore Ravens ultimately were not good enough to join the party in the NFL playoffs.
Derrick Henry and company lost in an agonizing manner on Sunday night to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pa., as kicker Tyler Loop missed what would have been a walk-off 44-yard field goal.
Loop had been 8-of-8 from the 40-49 yards until that botched kick, and his first NFL miss from that range may have just defined his still young pro career.
Following the Ravens’ 26-24 loss to Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers, Henry revealed the encouraging message he told the rookie kicker.
“I feel for Tyler. I just told him to keep his spirits up, deal with it tonight and then tomorrow the sun rises again,” Henry told reporters after the game, as transcribed by Bobby Trosset of The Vault: A Daily Ravens Podcast.
“I just told him the story after this is gonna be great for him because God put him in this position to use him as an example. Can’t wait to see him overcome it on the other side. I just told him to trust God’s plan, man. He wouldn’t have him put in this position if he wasn’t strong enough to handle it.”
While it’s convenient to blame Loop for the loss, the Ravens could have done more to avoid a situation in which the game came down to a high-pressure field-goal attempt. For one, Baltimore was just 3-of-12 on third downs and also committed nine penalties to just five by Pittsburgh.
Loop will not soon recover from his miss, but he’s got an entire offseason to train and come back better in 2026.
