Hamstring hobbles Dustin Hopkins' happy Houston homecoming

HOUSTON — Dustin Hopkins had a smile on his face. He was even wearing his cowboy boots.

"Yeah, come back home," Hopkins said after the Browns' 36-22 win at the Houston Texans. "You got to rep the boots."

Everything started out for it to be a terrific homecoming for the Browns kicker Sunday in Houston. He had made his first two PATs, the second giving Cleveland a 14-0 lead with 12:04 remaining in the second quarter.

Then, the happy homecoming turned sour. First, his kickoff was short of the end zone, which allowed Houston's Dameon Pierce to return the kick.

During Pierce's return, which went for a 98-yard touchdown, Hopkins tried to do the right thing and dove to make a tackle on Pierce. While doing so, he sustained a hamstring injury from which he didn't return during the game.

"It's hard to turn effort off sometimes," Hopkins said. "I guess I just wasn't, if I'm in the game, I'm going to try my best, whatever play I'm doing and, shoot, hopefully I can instill that in my son. But in this instance, maybe I should have shut it down 5 yards earlier or something when I knew he had the angle on me. … Obviously wish it could have been out there and played a lot longer with my guys, but they held it down, got the job done."

The Browns (10-5) did their best to get the job done in the short term. They successfully converted 2 of 3 2-point conversion tries, while punter Corey Bojorquez and, even, second-year safety D'Anthony Bell handled the remaining kickoffs.

The long-term situation, though, remains to be seen. Hopkins indicated he would be getting tests done on the hamstring.

The Browns, though, have no real time to wait until their next game. They play host to the New York Jets on "Thursday Night Football" with a shot to clinch a playoff berth.

“Yeah, it's tough," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. "You don't love to not have a dependable guy like Dustin. We'll see how it shakes out in the next 24 hours. I feel badly for him.”

Hopkins arguably has been as good a kicker as any in the league this season. He was leading the NFL with 33 made field goals, out of 36 attempts, entering the weekend.

That includes a team-record eight kicks from 50 yards or beyond. That's where his departure was felt the most, with the Browns having to go for it on fourth down in Texans territory, including a half-ending interception by quarterback Joe Flacco from the Houston 18.

"I think that's a first, yeah, which was interesting," Flacco said of losing a kicker midgame. "I'm sure the game might have been a little bit different. I mean, today it actually worked in our advantage I think because we ended up scoring a couple times on long drives.”

The more substantial question concerns Bojorquez, who wasn't asked to punt after the Browns' fifth possession, which ended with just under 10:30 remaining in the second quarter. He handled the initial three kickoffs after Hopkins left, but Bell was called upon to do the final one with 12:31 remaining in the game.

Stefanski gave no indication of a major issue with Bojorquez. Neither did the punter himself, who said he hadn't actually kicked a PAT or field goal since he was a junior in high school.

"I don't know exactly what their plan was," Bojorquez said. "I told them if they needed me to do something, I'd give it a shot. Didn't know how it was going to turn out."

It was a hamstring injury that hampered Hopkins last season while with the Los Angeles Chargers. He initially sustained the injury in an overtime win at the Denver Broncos in Week 6, and the injury essentially ended his season once the Chargers settled on Cameron Dicker as his replacement.

Hopkins acknowledged the similarities in injuries. However, there's something he feels he can gain from the previous one.

"They were both hamstringing pulls," Hopkins said. "So, yeah, there's some similarities in the feeling, but because of the nature of how long I kicked after and it being on opposite legs — one's a kick leg, one's not — don't know. I don't know how that's going to correlate time-wise."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Hamstring hobbles Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins' Houston homecoming