Justin Tucker stared in a stunned state of shock after watching the first missed extra point of his career whistle wide in Sunday's one-point loss to the New Orleans Saints.
The best kicker in football isn't going to let the flub affect him moving forward.
"As simply as I can put it, I missed a kick," Tucker said Wednesday, via the team's official website. "We're probably going to make a lot more. In fact, I know we will. I'll leave it at that."
For his career, Tucker had made 222 extra points out of 222 tries. His 223rd try sliced right. While he's missed a few field goal attempts in his career, most have been long-range shots. Tucker has made 95 percent of his field goals inside 50 yards (179 of 189).
The 28-year-old currently sits as the NFL's all-time most accurate kicker. It's been some time since the eight-year pro has had to overcome an eyebrow-raising mistake.
"I remember kicks from my rookie year that I didn't like the way they came off my foot. From time to time, that will pop up in the back of my head somewhere," Tucker said. "I have to embrace it and suppress it at the same time, because it's not important to what I'm about to do. That will not be pertinent to what's going to happen on this next kick."
While Sunday's miss is perplexing even to Tucker, it's not something he'll let bother him moving forward.
"This one was just tougher for me to figure out," Tucker said. "I can analyze it and be as critical as possible, but at the end of the day, it's a missed kick."
Adversity in football comes to all at some point, even kickers.
