Kyle Goon: The Ravens shouldn’t have let it get this uncomfortable with kicker Tyler Loop

There’s no reason — actually, let’s say there’s no excuse — for the Ravens to be in this position.

It has been 237 days since Baltimore’s season ended after Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal attempt that could have sent the Ravens to the playoffs. There were severe consequences, headlined by head coach John Harbaugh getting fired.

And yet, 237 days later, there has been no kicker brought in to challenge Loop — not even a warm body to push him nominally.

I expect new head coach Jesse Minter to usher in a lot of positive changes when the season kicks off Sept. 13. But he’s handling the guy who missed his only career game-winning field goal attempt in January the same way as the last coaching staff — which is to say the wrong way.

Although Minter didn’t condemn Loop after Friday night’s 2-for-4 effort, with misses from 58 and 51 yards, he didn’t dismiss the idea that the Ravens could bring in competition to push him.

“You want to see makes in games,” Minter said. “He has had a good camp overall but, again, it comes down to making the kicks in the pressure situations in games.”

At last the coaches grasp the gravity of the bind Loop has put them in — but it’s a pity they didn’t recognize it when training camp began and they could have done a lot more to prevent arriving here.

When asked if the latest misses are cause for concern, Loop didn’t hesitate: “No.”

But he might be the only person in Baltimore who feels that way.

Everyone on the Ravens roster has to earn his way to his spot, either through what he’s done in seasons past or with preseason performances that show his value. Everyone, that is, except Loop, who is just 5-for-8 on his field goal attempts in three preseason games. If you add Baltimore’s practice at the University of Maryland, he’s 6-for-11 kicking in stadiums since training camp began.

That’s not good enough. And you have to wonder, with just two weeks before the season, is it getting too late for the Ravens to audition other kickers or even have a competition?

The trust in Loop this summer has been baffling to me. In June, even as Loop talked about how much peace he felt after his season-ending mistake in Pittsburgh, I was convinced the Ravens needed to force him to win his job back.

His rookie year was mediocre at best. Although his 30-for-34 mark appears respectable, he was just 1-for-4 on attempts of 50 yards or more. The Ravens probably could have given him more long attempts (Loop was revered, after all, for his power), but they rarely put him in difficult positions on field goals. He also led the NFL in kickoff penalties with eight.

With all those marks against him, why have the Ravens treated him like some sacred cow?

They tried to imbue him with confidence last year in camp, cutting undrafted kicker John Hoyland before the first preseason game. Harbaugh spoke glowingly about his talent and potential — two things we’ve yet to see Loop show much in the games that count.

You can clear out some of the noise from his Friday night performance by dismissing his 58-yard miss (a stretch) and his 24-yard make (a gimme). But missing his second 51-yarder after making the first one? As Loop said himself after missing his first kick of the preseason against the Eagles: “It is all about how you respond.”

So far, Loop is showing us he doesn’t respond well to real pressure. He’s been much more accurate in Owings Mills, when the only thing on the line is the team doing extra pushups or running extra sprints. Loop said this week in practice featured some of his best ball-striking of camp, and he hit attempts from 62 and 68 yards in his pregame warmup.

Too bad none of those kicks counts. The ones that do go into the stat sheet are much less impressive.

He’s 2-for-5 on attempts at or over 45 yards this preseason — last year, NFL kickers were successful 74.1% of the time on field goals of 45 yards or more.

Dismissing the blemishes on Loop’s record as a mere small sample overlooks the reality of this preseason. After the way Pittsburgh went, every in-game kick has mattered for Loop. It would be easier to go into the season with him as the guy if he had shown more of the long-range talent that special teams consultant (and Harbaugh-era holdover) Randy Brown keeps telling everyone he has.

What do the Ravens do now? That’s the difficult question.

It’s obviously too close to the season to move on from Loop completely. It might be too close to bring in an actual competitor. If the Ravens signed a kicker to their 53-man roster after Sunday, it would cost someone else on the team his job — someone who has undoubtedly done more than Loop to earn the team’s confidence.

Although Baltimore could work out guys before the season, it feels too late in the game to do anything else but roll with Loop as the starting kicker — for better or for worse. If it goes as badly as it has in this preseason, the Ravens’ hand may be forced. This roster has too much talent to be held back by a kicker who can’t keep composed under pressure.

“The expectations I have for myself are higher than anyone else is gonna have, and tonight: not good enough,” Loop said. “All we talk about is be the best when your best is needed, and I need to do that.”

Maybe the disappointment of this preseason lights a fire under him the way the Ravens have hoped. But the problem is we did this once already.

After Pittsburgh, Loop should have felt all the pressure in the world to be better in time for training camp. In preseason games, we just haven’t seen evidence that he can be trusted.

It has taken the Ravens too long to reach a simple conclusion: The same process will likely only give you the same results.

With the season just around the corner, those may be the subpar results the Ravens just have to live with.