“I just put my helmet on and hit it, straight to the locker room,” Zay Flowers revisits the kick that ended the Ravens’ season

Baltimore’s season came down to one last drive in Pittsburgh. The Ravens got into field-goal range with the AFC North on the line. Then they watched Tyler Loop’s 44-yard attempt sail wide right as time expired, sealing a 26-24 loss to the Steelers, an 8-9 finish, and the end of Baltimore’s season.

That finish has remained one of the franchise’s defining images of the offseason, and Flowers recently added a sharp detail to it. Appearing on the “4th and South” podcast, the Ravens wide receiver described how he initially saw the ball near the 20-yard line, assumed the kick was close enough, and started jawing at Steelers players before realizing the operation made the attempt longer than it had looked from the field.

Flowers had been Baltimore’s biggest playmaker that night. The game itself had turned wildly in the fourth quarter. And the Ravens were trying to keep a division title and a playoff berth alive against the one opponent that makes every snap feel louder. Aaron Rodgers hit Calvin Austin III for a 26-yard touchdown with 55 seconds left.

That pushed the Steelers back in front, 26-24, and turned what had looked like a Baltimore comeback into one final possession. Pittsburgh’s victory clinched the AFC North and the conference’s No. 4 seed while Baltimore was eliminated on the spot.

1. The Exact Moment Zay Flowers Knew the Ravens Season Was OVER

The last minute in Pittsburgh gave Flowers’ story its shape. Flowers had been central to the Ravens’ push. Lamar Jackson found him for fourth-quarter touchdowns of 50 and 64 yards, the second putting Baltimore ahead 24-20 with 2:20 remaining. In a game that demanded chunk plays late, Flowers supplied them. The individual production around him was substantial. Jackson threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns. Derrick Henry ran for 126 yards. Flowers finished with four catches for 138 yards and two scores. Baltimore still lost a game with five lead changes, four of them in the fourth quarter. Here’s what Flowers said on the podcast, “When we, when we, I seen it like, catch it, you feel me? You’re at the 20, so you’re like, ‘Damn, we close.’ But from a kicker’s perspective, you gotta add the 10, you gotta add the 7. Yeah. So when I’m on the field, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s game!’” Then he continued, “I’m talkin’ shit, I’m talkin’ to them boys, ‘Game over, sorry ass niggas!’ I’m talkin’, I’m talkin’, and then I’m walkin’ off the field and I look back. I kind of like, look back, I’m like, ‘Damn, we kind of far.’ Like, as I see the field goal, I’m like, ‘Damn, we kind of far.’ Put my helmet down, I’m like, ‘I ain’t even gonna look.’ Kick, boom, somebody’s like, ‘He made it!’”

2. Inside Zay Flowers’ Breakout 1,200-Yard Season and His Controversial Claim About Harbaugh’s Practices

Baltimore took Flowers with the 22nd pick in the 2023 draft, betting his acceleration and separation ability would translate from Boston College into an offense built around Jackson. Three seasons in, the Ravens have their lead receiver. His 2025 regular season was the most productive of his career: 86 catches, 1,211 yards and five touchdowns. Those numbers put the night in Pittsburgh in clearer focus. It was not an outlier performance from a secondary option. It was a high-end version of a season in which Flowers had already become one of Baltimore’s primary answers in the passing game. Week 18 also showed the way Flowers changes games. His two touchdowns covered 50 and 64 yards, not the product of volume alone but of explosive plays that flipped the scoreboard. Against a defense and opponent that know Baltimore well, he was the player who kept giving the Ravens a path back into control. His candor has become part of the public profile, too. Reuters reported Friday that Flowers also used the same podcast appearance to criticize the Ravens’ practice load under former head coach John Harbaugh, saying the team’s injuries were tied to how hard it worked during the week.

3. The Domino Effect That Led to the Firing of John Harbaugh and Introduced A New Era in Baltimore

The loss in Pittsburgh did more than end a season. Two days later, the Ravens fired John Harbaugh after 18 seasons, closing one of the league’s longest coaching tenures after Baltimore missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021. Owner Steve Bisciotti framed the move around the franchise’s championship standard despite Harbaugh’s Super Bowl title and 180 regular-season wins. Baltimore replaced Harbaugh with Jesse Minter, the former Chargers defensive coordinator and a former Ravens assistant. Minter’s agreement was for five years, and he is only the fourth head coach in franchise history. The staff changes continued on offense. Baltimore hired Declan Doyle as offensive coordinator at the end of January, bringing in a 29-year-old assistant from Chicago to help shape Jackson’s next season under a new head coach. The roster picture shifted, too. Baltimore now holds the No. 14 pick in the 2026 draft after a voided Maxx Crosby trade and that the club is not treating this spring as a full rebuild, even while working through notable departures that include center Tyler Linderbaum and tight end Isaiah Likely. Jackson remains the quarterback, however, as Baltimore has already opened extension talks with him after the coaching change. Henry is still in place. Flowers, at 25, remains at the center of serious discussion about the offense. Basically, the Ravens see their next step less as a dramatic teardown and more as targeted structural repair around the players they trust most.

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