NFL: Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
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The Baltimore Ravens were a field goal away from making the NFL playoffs. The thinnest of margins kept them out of the postseason for the first time since 2021 and left rookie kicker Tyler Loop with an empty feeling. His first year in the league ended on a disappointing note: a missed game-winning field goal attempt in the 26-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Loop said he knew the ball was headed wide right from the second it hit his foot.

The 44-yard try was Loop's first miss from inside 50 yards this season. Everything went properly in his process until foot hit leather. That's when the first-year Raven said he made contact with the ball too low on his shoe.

"Operation was great," Loop said after the loss. "It was a great situation, exactly what we wanted. Unfortunately I just mishit the ball. We call it hitting it thin. It spins fast and it goes off to the right. That was it."

Loop converted a 40-yarder earlier in the game and was 2-2 on extra point attempts. He said his warmups were solid, each of his prior kicks went off without a hitch and the process on the final play of the game was nearly perfect. The outcome was the only thing that went awry.

"I got back there and looked at the play clock," Loop said. "I saw 22 seconds. Took my steps. Took over. Visualized what the ball looks like when it's held down. Jordan (Stout) picked up his fingers, and that was my cue to go. Saw the ball, tried to visualize the ball going through the uprights where I want it. Swung. The result didn't match my process."

Baltimore invested draft capital in Loop, selecting him in the sixth round out of Arizona. He made a strong first impression during his rookie season, going 30-for-34 on field goal attempts on the year, but displayed room for improvement with three misses from beyond 50 yards and a pair of missed extra points.

None of the errors this season were as costly as the one that put the finishing touches on the Ravens' sub-.500 campaign. If Loop converted the attempt, Baltimore would have won the AFC North and secured the No. 4 seed in the playoffs. That would have been quite the feat given that the Ravens opened the year at 1-5 and spent about a quarter of the season without quarterback Lamar Jackson.

"I want to do better," Loop said. "Unfortunately, the nature of the job is you have makes -- and those are awesome -- and then unfortunately you have misses. For that to happen tonight sucks. We've been through a lot of adversity this year as a team early on. We fought, we fought and we fought and worked really hard together. Those guys have had my back, and I want to try my best to have theirs.

"It's disappointing and it sucks, but also the nature of the job is I gotta move on and I gotta get ready for the next kick. That's next year. Tomorrow starts training for that."