The Baltimore Ravens saw their season come to an end on Sunday in the 2012 AFC Championship Game, as they lost 23-20 to the New England Patriots. The game ended on a Billy Cundiff 32-yard field goal attempt that would have tied the game and forced an overtime, but instead sailed wide left.
Ravens Fans React To Billy Cundiff’s Missed Field Goal, Loss To Patriots
Bill Hanstock is a writer, author and Emmy Award-winning producer. He began writing for SB Nation in 2011.
Many Ravens fans, perhaps not understandably, are heartbroken, while others are quite furious at Cundiff. Bruce Raffel of SB Nation’s dedicated Ravens blog Baltimore Beatdown chimes in:
There is no reason whatsoever for an NFL placekicker to miss a field goal from that distance regardless of the pressure. This game should have gone into overtime and while the outcome would have been in doubt, to lose in this manner may haunt the team and its fans not only for the off season, which begins right now, but possibly for years.
At the same time, before any fans want to gang up, light torches and set themselves upon One Winning Drive to demand Cundiff’s head on a platter, remember the ridiculous third down call that led to the incomplete pass on 4th down in the preceding series. Therefore, look as much at the coaches and the players for the entire sixty minutes before simply blaming a loss on one single play or player, as absolutely frustrating it obviously was.
It was certainly a tough loss for Ravens fans, as they had a Super Bowl berth within their reach and saw it slip away on a lousy kick, but as Raffel points out, it is important to keep things in perspective.
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