Loop feels confident about the future, even though the Ravens have only four AFC North games left against rivals Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals. Loop said that he felt his season had started on Sunday.

From the moment I arrived, the message was, “The first eighteen weeks of the year, you will be fine.” Loop said that the second half of the year, when teams play in places like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other unpredictable weather conditions, is where they need to prepare.

When we arrived in Australia, April and May, we were trying to hit a ball which would survive the weather. It was great fun to go out and do it.

Loop said that making five kicks at a time in the blustery Cleveland did not prove to him anything he didn’t know. It only confirmed what he already knew. He kicked under tough conditions during cold high school playoffs in Texas as well as in the Big 12 region.

His confidence was also boosted by a couple of weeks of windy practice in Owings mills. Randy Brown, Loop’s senior special teams coach and Ravens’ head of special teams, went out against winds between 25-30 mph one day last week.

“I annoyed him a bit this week.” Brown admitted that they had thrown a lot into the sidewinds. It was a lot experimenting and frustration from him at times. We had fun with it, and he gained a lot of knowledge.