Season of the kicker unravels with missed field goal sending Ravens home and Steelers to playoffs

Wouldn't you know it? The season of the kicker came down to a missed kick.

Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell hadn't missed an extra point all season until Ravens safety Kevon Johnson got a hand on the PAT after Aaron Rodgers threw a 26-yard touchdown pass with 55 seconds left Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens in a win-or-go-home final regular-season game.

That blocked extra point, which the NFL this week officially changed from a missed PAT, left the Steelers clinging to a 26-24 lead and when Lamar Jackson connected with Isaiah Likely for a 26-yard gain on fourth-and-7 from the 50-yard line, it looked as if Rodgers would be missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

He sat on the Steelers bench looking forlorn as Jackson took the next snap and shuffled toward the right hashmark to set up rookie kicker Tyler Loop for the potential 44-yard game-winner.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh — who parted ways with the team on Tuesday after 18 seasons in Baltimore, a person with knowledge of the move told The Associated Press — called timeout with 2 seconds left and Loop trotted out to send the Ravens into the playoffs and end the Steelers season.

He hadn't missed inside of 50 yards all season.

The snap was good, the hold was good but Loop didn't kick the ball cleanly. He said he knew as soon as it came off his foot funny that he'd pushed it to the right.

Maybe Harbaugh should have tried to get Loop a little closer, but 44 yards is a gimme for kickers nowadays.

“It was a close kick,” said Harbaugh, who put his arm around Loop as they walked off the field and into the tunnel afterward. “We wanted to center the ball. We wanted to make sure we got the (chance to) kick. We didn't want something bad to happen on the run. I don't think that was a bad decision.”

Field goals of 40- to 50-yards are now considered short kicks. Fifty-plus is medium.

Sixty-plus tries used to be unheard of. Not anymore.

Kickers have enjoyed unprecedented success with long-distance field goals of 60 or more yards the past two seasons thanks to rule changes favoring the specialists, such as the new K-ball, and more trust from coaches, leading to game strategy shifts and historic accuracy.

Jacksonville kicker Cam Little kicked the two longest field goals in NFL history this season, nailing a 68-yarder at Las Vegas in Week 9 and splitting the uprights with a 67-yarder Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

Sixty-yard field goals are no longer a big risk but a realistic expectation for today's kickers. Dallas' Brandon Aubrey made three field goals from beyond 60 yards this season, and overall kickers were 12 for 22 on field goals of 60-plus yards in 2025.

Denver Broncos kicker Wil Lutz said the tweaks in the kickoff rules in 2025 allowed kickers to save their legs by not having to blast every kickoff out of the back of the end zone as they used to. That, in turn, has allowed them to have more oomph on field goal attempts in the fourth quarter or overtime.

“Anytime your body feels better it helps,” said Lutz, whose five game-winning field goals helped the Broncos (14-3) earn the top seed in the AFC playoffs and the first-round bye that goes with it. “Yeah, you feel fresher, you feel good, feel strong. I would say most kicker injuries probably came from full-speed kickoffs and you're not seeing that.”

Loop had plenty of length Sunday night, it's just that he didn't kick the ball as he had on all the other 29 field-goal attempts he'd made from inside 50 yards this season.

“The operation was great,” Loop said in the sullen locker room afterward. "It was a great situation, exactly what we wanted. And unfortunately, I just mis-hit the ball. We call it ‘hitting it thin,’ it spins fast and goes off to the right.

“I love this team and I love these guys. I wish it would have ended different."

Behind the Call analyzes the biggest decisions in the NFL during the season.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) greets tight end Pat Freiermuth (88) after an NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Baltimore Ravens kicker Tyler Loop (33) reacts after missing a field goal in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear watchdog said Wednesday it is scrapping the safety screening for two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan after the plant's operator was found to have fabricated data about earthquake risks, in a setback to Japan's attempts to accelerate reactor restarts to boost nuclear energy use.

Chubu Electric Power Co. had applied for safety screening to resume operations at the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in 2014 and 2015. Two other reactors at the plant are being decommissioned, and a fifth is idle.

The plant, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Tokyo, is located on a coastal area known for potential risks from so-called Nankai Trough megaquakes.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it started an internal investigation in February after receiving a tip from a whistleblower that the utility had for years provided fabricated data that underestimated potential seismic risks.

The regulator suspended the screening for the reactors after it confirmed the falsification and the utility acknowledged the fabrication in mid-December, said Shinsuke Yamanaka, the watchdog's chair. The NRA is also considering inspecting the utility headquarters.

“Ensuring safety is the first and foremost responsibility for nuclear plant operators and (data fabrication) is an act of betrayal to their task and one that destroys nuclear safety," Yamanaka said.

The scandal surfaced Monday when Chubu Electric President Kingo Hayashi acknowledged that workers at the utility used inappropriate seismic data with an alleged intention to underestimate seismic risks and apologized. He pledged to establish an independent panel for investigation.

The screening, including data that had been approved earlier, would have to start from scratch or possibly be rejected entirely, Yamanaka said.

The move is a setback at a time Japan's government seeks to accelerate reactor restarts to cope with rising energy costs and pressure to reduce carbon emissions.

Public opinion in Japan remains divided due to lingering safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns.

Of Japan's 57 commercial reactors, 13 are currently in operation, 20 are offline and 24 others are being decommissioned, according to NRA.

This aerial photo shows Hamaoka nuclear power plant, owned by the Cubu Electric Power Co., in Omaezaki, central Japan, March 26, 2025. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)