There were plenty of key plays when the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens 26-24 in a winner-take-all Week 18 game at Acrisure Stadium.
But, holy water aside, sports writers in Baltimore — and angry Ravens fans on Instagram — zeroed in Sunday and early Monday mostly on Ravens kicker Tyler Loop missing what would have been the game-winning, 44-yard field goal as time expired.
A headline in the Baltimore Banner called for staffing changes.
“This team fell just short of the playoffs but well short of lofty preseason ambitions,” wrote Childs Walker. “Despite the best efforts of players and coaches, it never resembled the juggernaut we saw during the best stretches of 2023 and 2024. Instead of flirting with the top of the mountain, the Ravens tumbled down it, leaving fans to wonder if it’s time to start over.”
Another headline screamed: “What’s wrong with the Ravens?”
Super Bowl aspirations for the Ravens seem like a distant memory.
“As they have the entire year, the Ravens did not play like a team ready to make a run to the Super Bowl,” Nikhil Mehta wrote in the Baltimore Beatdown blog. “The offense built a 10-0 lead at the beginning of the second quarter and did not score again until midway through the fourth quarter.”
Ravens fans spammed Loop’s Instagram feed with insults and, allegedly, death threats after the botched kick.
Loop’s five most recent Instagram posts each had more than 12,000 comments, as of 8 a.m. Monday.
Most expressed shock. “Are u serious dude?” one fan wrote. “Literally kicked the postseason straight in the trash — you suck,” added another.
One Instagrammer posted a pic of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin blowing a kiss.
“Someone put this man in Witness Protection,” commented cam_mcle on a different Instagram post from Loop.
Headline writers at both the Baltimore Sun and WBAL News Radio were more diplomatic — but leaned heavy into the same theme: heartbreak.
“Ravens’ season ends in heartbreak as Loop’s miss seals 26-24 loss to Steelers,” the radio station’s headline read.
Others jumped on that theme, too.
“The #Ravens were one field goal away from the postseason,” sports journalist Carita Parks wrote on X. “After making the playoffs the past two years, the team must now grapple with what happens in the off-season and another heartbreaking ending.”
For others, the vitriol simply boiled over.
“For the love of God, can they please get rid of Loop?” Donna K. Smith posted early Monday to the 71,000 members of Facebook group Baltimore Ravens Fans. “He is HORRIBLE!!”
Fan Paul Mello II echoed the sentiments of many Ravens fans when he added a meme to the group chat. It featured Loop in a Steelers jersey.
“Let’s congratulate the Pittsburgh Steelers’ player of the year, Tyler Loop.”
