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The Baltimore Ravens’ 2025 season ended in the most horrifying, devastating fashion: a missed 44-yard field goal by rookie kicker Tyler Loop.
The Ravens entered Week 18 needing a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the AFC North and make the postseason. Despite barely resembling a playoff team for much of the season, they still had the chance to be one. Getting in the dance with Lamar Jackson under center would still give them an outside shot at a Lombardi Trophy.
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But, as they have the entire year, the Ravens did not play like a team ready to make a run to the Super Bowl. The offense built a 10-0 lead at the beginning of the second quarter and did not score again until midway through the fourth quarter. The defense refused to break in the first half before allowing 24 points in the second. Each unit had its successes, but they could not put together the kind of complementary football that consistently wins games in the NFL.
The momentum of the game swung back and forth all night, but the decisive moment may have come early in the third quarter when Ravens safeties Kyle Hamilton and Alohi Gilman had a head-to-head collision on an incomplete pass. Both left the game to be evaluated for a concussion – during which time the Steelers scored their first touchdown – and only Gilman returned. Baltimore’s defense held at first, limiting Pittsburgh to a field goal after T.J. Watt’s freak interception and forcing a punt on their next possession. But both times the Ravens took the lead in the fourth quarter, their secondary got carved up to give it right back to the Steelers.
Hamilton’s absence was palpable on those drives, as was Baltimore’s complete and utter lack of a pass rush. Aaron Rodgers was sacked twice on the night but only lost four yards; the rest of the game, he had all day in the pocket. Initially, he used that time to target his running backs for catch-and-runs underneath, but once Hamilton was gone, Rodgers took over the middle of the field. No Ravens defender could step up and make a play.
Lamar Jackson almost made none of that matter. After an uneven first three quarters, he donned his cape and made not one, not two, but three huge plays that kept the Ravens in the game. On the first, he pulled a vanishing act to evade a sure sack and dropped a perfect ball to Zay Flowers for a 50-yard touchdown. That put the Ravens up 17-13. The Steelers drove right back down the field to make it 20-17. Then came Part 2, a fake toss that left Flowers wide open downfield for another 50-yard score and a 24-20 lead with 3:49 to play. And when Baltimore’s defense collapsed again, this time with less than a minute to play, Jackson answered the bell once more.
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After a missed extra point by Steelers kicker Chris Boswell, Keaton Mitchell’s best kickoff return of the season put the Ravens at their own 47-yard line with three timeouts and 55 seconds. Getting within range of a game-winning field goal felt doable. But, as always, the Ravens insisted on making it as hard as possible. Self-inflicted mistakes quickly put them in a 4th-and-7 near midfield, and Jackson reached into his bag for one last bit of magic. With the pass rush closing in, he stepped up and lofted a pass where only Isaiah Likely could get it. Likely held up his end of the bargain with a spectacular grab to set the Ravens up for a 41-yard field goal. Baltimore opted to take a short loss to center the ball – a decision that may draw some scrutiny this week – and give Loop a 44-yard attempt to win the game.
The rookie pushed his kick wide right, and the rest of the team could only look on, completely stunned.
The shock was evident immediately after the game and in postgame press conferences. So, too, was the frustration. Jackson flung a water bottle into the wall as he jogged to the locker room (via The Baltimore Sun) and later highlighted a potential missed penalty call on the Steelers on Loop’s missed field goal on social media:
Jackson is understandably upset after this loss, especially since a horrible leverage call – that the NFL admitted they got wrong – cost the Ravens their first matchup with the Steelers. In his postgame presser, he said that he was “devastated” and “furious,” and who can blame him? He promised Baltimore a Super Bowl ring almost eight years ago, and despite several superhuman efforts, he and the Ravens have come up short for the seventh season in a row. The two-time MVP did everything he could on Sunday night, once again coming painfully close to victory only to watch it slip away.
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Loop will draw fierce criticism (and unwarranted vitriol) in the coming days, but he alone is not to blame. This loss is representative of the 2025 Ravens as a whole: a talented team plagued by injuries that can never get out of their own way. That could accurately describe the last several seasons in Baltimore, which should raise some uncomfortable questions this offseason. John Harbaugh and his coaching staff oversaw regression on both sides of the ball with a number of, shall we say, curious decisions throughout the season. The Ravens’ roster was clearly lacking in the trenches on both sides of the ball heading into the year, which was a consistent factor in their losses. These are not new problems, either.
And then there’s Jackson. The offseason circus began early with speculation about his future in Baltimore with another round of contract negotiations on tap. This loss will only feed the frenzy, which will be further fueled by discussions of Harbaugh’s job security in the coming days.
Like any coach or player after such a loss, neither Harbaugh nor Jackson had any comments about the future in their press conferences. They were, as is all of Baltimore, simply stunned.
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