Ravens kicker Justin Tucker suffers through first-half double doink

With the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens playing to punch their own ticket to the AFC championship game, the stakes couldn’t be much higher. But beyond tying to beat one another in the NFL playoffs, both teams have had to contend with another opponent: the uncooperative weather in Buffalo’s Bills Stadium. The swirling winds have played mayhem with the kicking game, costing both teams points, but have had a particular impact on four-time All-Pro kicker Justin Tucker of the Ravens.

Tucker’s reputation has been as near-automatic. He made 26 of 29 field-goal attempts this season, going 11-for-12 in the playoffs in his career before this year’s NFL postseason. But after missing on one of three attempts in the first round of the playoffs, things got worse for Tucker in Buffalo. In the first half, Tucker missed his first two attempts, hitting the left upright from 41 yards in the first quarter, and then from 46 yards in the second quarter Tucker hit the right upright. He finally redeemed himself at the end of the first half with a 34-yard field goal.

His fellow placekickers watching had nothing but sympathy for his plight trying to deliver in these conditions:

But NFL players past and present were also watching and worried about what this might mean for whether Tucker would be jinxed, and what this might mean for the Ravens’ playoff hopes with the goalposts visibly swaying in the strong winds:

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