Washington Football Team studs and duds from Week 10 loss
By Ian Cummings
Stud No. 5 – Dustin Hopkins in clutch time
It’s become commonplace to criticize Dustin Hopkins this season, and in a sense, the criticism is justified. Hopkins has not been as consistent as he was in years past, and because the Washington Football Team has so much trouble scoring points, each Hopkins miss takes on a magnified response.
On the year, Hopkins is 12 for 17, completing just over 70% of his field goals, a figure which is easily a career-low, and his two-for-three outing against the Lions contributed to that. But looking past the numbers, Hopkins deserves some credit for his performance in Week 10.
Hopkins was not one-hundred percent against the Lions; throughout the week, he’d been dealing with a groin injury (Imagine kicking NFL field goals with a groin injury), and there was a belief that backup kicker Kaare Vedvik might replace him this time around. But Hopkins went out, and while he did miss a 43-yard attempt, he also nailed a 41-yarder, at a time when Washington absolutely needed the field goal, in order to tie the game up at 27.
Hopkins wasn’t perfect, and he needs to improve moving forward if he wants to keep his job without opposition in 2021. But he ultimately came through when it mattered in Week 10, and he gave the team a shot to win. Fighting through adversity, on multiple levels, should grant Hopkins some love.