We’re only now realizing how well the Baltimore Ravens were doing.

Only now, as Justin Tucker endures the most difficult stretch of his career – a career that still ranks among the greatest kickers of all time in NFL history – can we truly understand how much the lack of his greatness hurts. Kicks used to feel automatic as he trotted around the field. Now they are anxiety provoking.

Even though Tucker is the leading scorer in Ravens history, Baltimore needs to bring in someone who can credibly compete for his job this bye week.

Two weeks ago, coach John Harbaugh said he would not bring in any competition for the kicker position, and after Sunday’s 24-19 loss – a deficit that theoretically could have been erased had Tucker missed his two field goals ( he also missed an extra point) – Harbaugh indicated he was sticking with Tucker.

“If you ask me, ‘Are we going to move on from Justin Tucker?’ “I don’t really plan to do that at the moment,” he said. “I don’t think that would be wise. But he’ll tell you – he’ll be the first to tell you – that he has to do kicks because he can.”

Unfortunately, we’re at the point where Tucker is so unreliable and his attempts are so annoying that the Ravens need to bring in someone to at least challenge him. If Tucker wins the contest, then so be it, but the Ravens will have to force their survival instincts to, pardon the expression, step up.

How can we take this franchise’s playoff aspirations seriously if they don’t?

“Anytime we lose — especially for me, considering my performance today just wasn’t up to our standard — it’s devastating,” Tucker said. “But at the end of the day, my feelings don’t matter.”

When we look at the facts, we may all have to swallow our feelings about Tucker, one of the most popular Ravens of all time.

It’s admittedly surreal to reach this point with 35-year-old Tucker, the last Ravens player from the Super Bowl LXVII squad. At the beginning of November, I argued here that Tucker deserved a chance to improve – to find a path forward, as he has done throughout his amazing career. After all, he was the forerunner of a generation of extremely reliable, cannon-legged kickers who changed the definition of “field goal range” in the modern game.

You have to believe that a man who set the standard for place-kickers and still has years to go to reach the best of the best will find a way to meet that standard againI wrote.

But as I defended Tucker, I imagined that we were witnessing a wobble, a small turbulence that would resolve itself over time. Perhaps this interpretation was influenced by sentimentality.

I didn’t realize that we were watching the beginning of a nosedive.

Because that’s exactly what it appears to be: a sudden decline of one of the greatest place-kickers of all time. In the last three games, Tucker has missed four of his eight attempts. He has missed four or fewer kicks in eight of his 13 NFL seasons. He has also missed two extra points in the last four weeks. He never missed both a field goal and an extra point in the same game… until Sunday against the Eagles.

He’s now at 19 of 27 field goals this season, one of the lowest accuracy marks in the NFL – and the most kicks he’s ever missed in a season (his previous high was 7 in 2015). It was disheartening to see fans booing when Tucker missed his second 53-yard attempt in the third quarter, but considering what he’s done on the field this season, it’s not wrong to disapprove .

It would still be alarming if the Ravens won. But the really damning thing is that they aren’t. Tucker has missed a field goal attempt in all five of the Ravens’ losses. In three of those losses – the Raiders, the Steelers and the Eagles – Baltimore would have tied or had the lead had they made those failed attempts, which is the literal difference between winning and losing (in fact, the Ravens won those games by a margin of 100% lost). a total of 22 points; Tucker’s errors in those games totaled…yes, 22 points).

“I feel like I cost us this,” Tucker said Sunday night. But that’s not it Only This one.

Except for his last miss, every single one of those misses went wide left, pointing to a mistake that Tucker keeps repeating. When he continued to go left early in the season, Tucker and the Ravens attributed it to a vague “technique issue” that they understood. The fact that it continued is now evidence against Tucker, an indication that he is having trouble correcting himself – or that his problem is something else entirely.

His weekly argument that “every kick lives for itself” doesn’t hold water when almost every missed shot looks pretty similar. Although he claimed he wasn’t trying to adjust to the drift to the left, his 50-yard throw he made before halftime was close to the right post, and Tucker still had a troubled look on his face even though it went through .

The decline doesn’t necessarily have to do with his age. Several great kickers played well into their 40s. Maybe Tucker will too. But how can the Ravens, losing their bid for another division title to the Steelers, give him more freedom to take matters into his own hands?

Of course, we can’t blame everything on Tucker’s right foot. The Ravens weren’t particularly sharp and the special teams were a constant disappointment week after week. Jordan Stout missed punts short. Tylan Wallace almost made a punt return.

Tucker is merely the most visible and surprising aspect of the Ravens’ regression in a period they have historically dominated. But as with any other aspect, missteps require immediate correction. If Tucker costs Baltimore another game, it seems feasible — perhaps even likely — that the Ravens will kick him to the curb this offseason.

Trust me, just the idea of ​​Tucker losing his job freezes me inside. It feels incorrect at an elementary level. More than anyone else, he embodied the special teams excellence of this franchise.

Some of the best kickers often do their best work in relative anonymity, but some of the best moments of Tucker’s career are the powerful, extra-long, no-time kicks that helped him overcome one of the NFL’s least respected positions and made him popular in this region.

Many of his teammates said they supported him – Lamar Jackson as vehemently as anyone.

“He’s still the GOAT,” Jackson said. “I just have to get back to who he is. … Hell yeah, I have faith (in Tucker).”

This is what we demand. That fiercely competitive spirit must be reignited in Justin Tucker – not just to win, but to do his job. If he can find that side of himself, if the Ravens can get their GOAT back, that’s the best ending anyone could ask for.

But one way or another, it feels like the end of this unfortunate saga is near.

We hope it doesn’t swing to the left.