If this ends up being the end for John Harbaugh in Baltimore, let’s remember him walking briskly up behind Tyler Loop, catching him a few long strides away from the entrance to the visitor’s locker room and putting his arm around the embattled kicker as the pair walked into the abyss (but not before getting machine gun-style videotaped and photographed by the waiting media on the way).
Loop, bless his heart, will never forget that missed kick as long as he lives. He’ll also never get the benefit of the doubt or the proper qualifiers attached to that moment—that Acrisure Stadium in sub-30 degree temperatures is one of the four most difficult places to kick in the NFL, according to league data. That the entire stadium is a blender of howling winter wind. That the frozen turf is post-Pangea-like, chunked up and unforgiving, disallowing for proper foot placement.
