The Washington Football Team knew it was taking a risk when releasing a lifetime 84 percent field goal kicker in exchange for someone unproven who had yet to kick in the NFL.
Dustin Hopkins is now in Los Angeles, signing with the Chargers less than a week after being released by Washington, which is now left with whatever Chris Blewitt can produce with his limited kicking experience. And Washington has paid dearly for that decision early.
Blewitt has had two of his first three NFL field goal attempts blocked, his first blocked kick coming on a 42-yard attempt in the second quarter of last week's loss to Green Bay (Blewitt buried a kick from 45 yards later in the game).
It wasn't long before Blewitt lived up to his namesake again on Sunday against Denver. Attempting a 45-yard attempt early in the second quarter, Blewitt stepped into the kick and unleashed a kick that instantly seemed low and was inevitably caught by the arm of an outreaching defender.
And the jokes quickly came pouring in.
Blewitt did make good on his mistake minutes later, making a 52-yarder with five and a half minutes to play in the second quarter to tie the game, 3-3. As far as in-game adjustments go, there appeared to be far more lift on this kick, which easily cleared the enclosing linemen.
Denver scored a touchdown to take a 10-3 lead a short time later.
UPDATE: Blewitt blew it again, kicking yet another low ball on a 47-yard field goal attempt that was blocked with nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
That now makes three of his five field goal attempts that have been blocked, with him kicking at a 2-for-5 success rate (40%) in the NFL.