Baltimore goes down kicking — missed PAT
BALTIMORE — Justin Tucker has won a dozen games for the Ravens with his highly accurate right foot.
This one will be remembered as the one he lost.
Tucker missed a conversion attempt for the first time in his career after Baltimore scored the potential tying touchdown with 24 seconds left, enabling Drew Brees and the Saints to escape with a 24-23 victory Sunday.
Brees threw two touchdown passes, reached two more milestones and engineered a fourthquarter comeback that helped the Saints (5-1) wipe out a 10point deficit.
It was 24-17 before Baltimore’s Joe Flacco directed a beat-the-clock drive covering 81 yards and ending with a 14-yard touchdown pass to John Brown.
That seemingly set up overtime, given that Tucker is the most accurate kicker in NFL history in terms of field-goal percentage. Not only that, but he was 222-for-222 on conversions since breaking into the league in 2012, and was the only NFL kicker without a miss (112for-112) since the placement of the ball was moved back in 2015.
This attempt, however, went wide right.
“I can’t tell you exactly what happened,” Tucker said, “but at the end of the day, I feel like I cost us the game.”
The Saints were relieved to escape with their fifth straight victory.
“You’re talking about one of the top kickers,” head coach Sean Payton said. “I’m sure we’ll watch the tape tomorrow and think it shouldn’t have come down to a missed extra point.”
Brees brought the Saints back against a unit that had allowed only 12 second-half points all season. He threw a 5-yard TD pass to Michael Thomas with 4:58 remaining to put New Orleans ahead 21-17, and the Saints tacked on a field goal just before the two-minute warning.
Earlier, Brees threw his 500th career touchdown pass, connecting with tight end Benjamin Watson for a 1-yard score to put New Orleans up 7-3 late in the second quarter.
Brees joined Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Brett Favre as the only QBs in league history with 500 TD passes.
Previously 0-4 against Baltimore, Brees is one of three quarterbacks — along with Favre and Manning — to beat every team in the league.