PITTSBURGH — This season has been full of struggles for Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins. Wide left has been a trend for Hopkins, and that trend continued Sunday against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers.

Hopkins entered the game with a career-low 69.6% field goal attempt rate. He had missed seven of his 23 attempts, playing three games where he failed to place a kick between the uprights once. Five of his misses were wide left, one was wide right, and one was low and blocked.

In the Browns’ last game, on Monday night against the Denver Broncos, Hopkins missed his first field goal attempt of the night, a 47-yard shot wide left. Later that game, however, Hopkins was able to find redemption, making a 45-yard attempt to gain a lead.

After that redemption, special team coordinator Bubba Ventrone praised Hopkins for being able to correct himself mid-game.

“Yeah, I think he did a good job of just obviously self-correcting what had happened. Looked like he came across his body a little bit on the swing. So, it was good that he got the correction applied and made the rest of the kicks,” Ventrone said on Thursday, heading into the Browns’ matchup with the Steelers.

The belief entering Sunday’s game was that Hopkins had figured out what had been plaguing him through much of the season. Ventrone said that Hopkins had been watching film from the first 12 weeks of this season and comparing it to tape from his year last season, where he set franchise records kicking for the Browns.

Despite the ups and downs this season, Ventrone had confidence that Hopkins’ frustrations were in check and he was on a path to getting back on track.

“I think when you’re [not] getting the results that you want, obviously you’re going to have some type of frustration. I think he’s done a good job of honing it in and trying to apply the correction to the next rep. Thankfully in this past game we had the miss and then he goes back and makes the rest of his kicks,” Ventrone said. “But like I said, I mean, any player at any position is going to be frustrated if you’re not having a good result. So, I would anticipate he’s definitely had some frustration, but he hasn’t shown it. And I think he’s done a pretty good job of bouncing back.”

Unfortunately, that bounce back failed to come to fruition on Sunday.

Inside Acrisure Stadium, struggle reared its ugly head for Hopkins.

On a 38-yard attempt near the end of the first half, Hopkins attempted to make it a three-point game with the Steelers up 13-7. Instead, his kick sailed wide left, and the Browns retained a six-point deficit heading into halftime.

Unlike the game in Denver, Hopkins’ next kick did not come with redemption. On the first drive coming out of the half, the Browns offense stalled at Pittsburgh’s 25-yard line. The Browns turned to Hopkins, hoping he’d be able to correct whatever went wrong on his first attempt. Perhaps it was an over-correction, or something else was off, but Hopkins’ 43-yard attempt this time went wide right.

Hopkins ended the game 0/2 on field goal attempts.

It’s hard to believe how drastic the difference has been for Hopkins this season compared to last, especially after the Browns signed the kicker to a three-year contract extension worth $15.9 million, keeping him in Cleveland through the 2027 season.

Last season, Hopkins became the first kicker in NFL history to convert a 50+ yard field goal in five consecutive games within a single season.

Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins makes NFL history

The Browns have four games remaining on the schedule for Hopkins to truly figure out what has been the issue and hope to correct it for the 2025 season.