Chargers Kicker Toughs Through Injury to Kick Game-Winning Field Goal vs. Broncos

It was a game that seemed destined to end in a tie—that is, until Chargers kicker Dustin Hopkins came to the rescue on one healthy leg.

Like virtual Greg Jennings before him, Hopkins put the team on his back despite playing the entire game with a hamstring injury, drilling four field goals—including the game-winner in overtime—as Los Angeles scored a 19-16 win over the Broncos.

Hopkins also drilled his lone extra point attempt, providing nearly all the scoring for a Chargers offense that only mustered 297 total yards on 12 drives. It was just the fifth time in Hopkins’s 109-game career that he’s made at least four field goals, and is tied for his fourth-highest single-game scoring output.

The Chargers did not hold a lead until Hopkins’s final kick on the game’s final play, instead chasing Denver for the entire night. The Broncos took a 10–0 lead into the second quarter, but Los Angeles notched the game’s only touchdown on a six-yard rush from Austin Ekeler with just over nine minutes to play in the first half. Each team managed a field goal in the final minute before halftime to make it 13–10 Broncos at the break.

That sluggish first half looked like a track meet compared to the doldrums of the second. The teams combined for 10 possessions and managed three field goals, four punts, two turnovers on downs and an interception. That led to an overtime that bordered on performance art: Each team went three-and-out twice, with Los Angeles managing to get into field goal range only after the Broncos muffed a punt on their own 28-yard line.

In total, the two offenses ran 15 plays in overtime and gained a combined 16 yards. Mercifully, Hopkins was there on one leg to put this one to bed.

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