With the Ravens trailing 35-34 late in the fourth quarter on Monday night, quarterback Lamar Jackson was in the locker room dealing with cramps, and backup quarterback Trace McSorley had just suffered a knee injury when he was tackled at the 44-yard line. What would the Ravens do on fourth down?
What happened was Jackson emerged from the locker room and threw a 44-yard touchdown pass. But Ravens kicker Justin Tucker had another idea: He wanted to kick a field goal.
Although most people don’t think of being at the 44-yard line as being in field goal range, Tucker was pressing Harbaugh to let him try it.
“He wanted to go out there,” Harbaugh said after the game. “He thought that gave us the best chance to win.”
Jackson’s touchdown pass gave the Ravens the lead, then the Browns marched down the field to tie the game, and then Tucker nailed a 55-yard game-winner. Harbaugh said he wouldn’t have trusted most kickers to attempt a 55-yard field goal on the slick field in Cleveland.
“That was a really tough kick, because the field was really soft,” Harbaugh said. “But to make that kick, with the crosswind on that field in December in the open end, in the ‘Dawg Pound’ end, [for] most kickers, that’s unmakeable. The only kicker that I know of that you’d feel confident in making that would be Justin Tucker.”
Tucker has been a consistently excellent kicker throughout his career. Although he may not prove to have the longevity of Morten Andersen, or to kick in as many big games as Adam Vinatieri, Tucker has proven himself week in and week out, year in and year out, to be the best kicker in NFL history.