Nick Coit’s Patriots Preview: Week 5 at Washington Redskins

Heading into their Week 5 matchup with the Washington Redskins, the biggest development with the team this week has to do with the kicker position.

Stephen Gostkowski, who is the Patriots' all-time leading scorer, has been put on Injured Reserve and faces season-ending hip surgery. The Patriots held tryouts this week in Foxboro, blocking the view of the field from the eyes of the press. After taking a look at a number of kickers, they settled on veteran kicker Mike Nugent. Coit told us that Nugent's new teammates yesterday were all using the same word to describe the veteran kicker: "professional."

Does Gostkowski's health issues explain his rocky season?

"When you're getting hip surgery that ends your season, that tells me he was trying to work his way through it, and maybe this is something that's been lingering for a little while," Coit said. "He may have been trying to kick through it, but then it got to the point where he missed four extra points in four games."

Coit did think, however, that some Patriots fans are being unfair when it comes to criticizing Gostkowski.

"For a long, long time, he's been a solid kicker for the Patriots," he said. "Nugent will do the job well, but Pats fans might find out after he misses a kick of two that we were spoiled to have Gostkowski nailing down the position."

How will the Redskins match up against the Patriots on Sunday? Coit tells us that Redskins head coach Jay Gruden hasn't picked his starting quarterback yet.

"That's says everything you need to know about where this Redskins team is right now," he said.

Nick doesn't think the Patriots will have any trouble on Sunday.

"They'll cruise," he said. "I mean, I'm usually cautious when it comes to predicting Patriots blowouts, but this is one of those that I just don't see how they don't blow the doors off here."

Nick Coit says the Patriots win in Washington on Sunday, 35-3.