Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff Writer 7y

Rule change three months too late to save Justin Tucker's perfect season

It must have been a frustrating day for Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.

The one proposal he supported got rejected at the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday. Another one got passed three months too late to save a perfect season.

NFL owners formally banned players from leaping over the line of scrimmage to block kicks, which is how Tucker's only miss of the 2016 season occurred. On Dec. 12, Tucker's 34-yard field goal attempt was swatted down by a perfectly timed jump by New England's Shea McClellin.

This ruined Tucker's chance to become only the fourth qualified kicker in NFL history to make all of his field goals and extra points in a season. The others were Gary Anderson (1998), Jeff Wilkins (2000) and Mike Vanderjagt (2003).

Tucker still had one of the best seasons ever by a kicker. He booted an NFL-best 38 field goals, tied a league record with 10 field goals from 50 yards or longer and led the NFL with a 97.4 percent success rate (going 38 of 39).

The unanimous first-team All-Pro selection gave an understandable reaction on Twitter to the rule change:

To make matters worse for Tucker, the owners turned down a proposal to move the line of scrimmage to the 20-yard line for any touchback where the kick sails through the uprights.

Tucker had publicly endorsed this last week, and Harbaugh backed it Tuesday before owners shot it down.

"It adds excitement to the play," Harbaugh said. "We've taken a lot of kickoff returns out of the game. We have a touchdown, an extra point, a commercial, a touchback and a commercial. That's not good. Anything we can do to make it a little more interesting."

Harbaugh once again suggested taking kickoffs going through the uprights a step further.

"I propose we make it a point," Harbaugh said. "Now, people are going to say, 'Well, that's just because of Justin Tucker.' Yes. It's also because everybody will be watching that kickoff."

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