4 crucial matchups to watch during Panthers at Cardinals in Week 10

Stephon Gilmore – Carolina Panthers CB vs.  DeAndre Hopkins

That trade for Stephon Gilmore is turning out pretty well now, isn’t it?

Two picks in two games are better than anyone could have dreamed for a player coming off an injury as serious as a torn quad. And with each interception, the bill gets a little bit higher to keep the veteran cornerback around in an already crowded room.

Gilmore has been nothing short of a revelation and the prospect of putting him alongside Donte Jackson and rookie Jaycee Horn is a mouth-watering idea. That’s without mentioning the kind of knowledge someone like C.J. Henderson will be getting on the sideline.

But that streak of near-perfect play will have a hard test to pass come Sunday in the human highlight reel that is DeAndre Hopkins.

While the superstar receiver has not had any particularly eye-catching numbers this year, that’s not really the whole story of any player and especially not a No. 1 receiver.

Just for the fact of being the guy that everyone knows, Hopkins gets tougher coverage and more attention making it harder to have an impact on the game in a stat way. But he is still a five-time Pro Bowl player for a reason.

The thing about Hopkins is this, he is basically everything the Carolina Panthers hoped that Kelvin Benjamin could be. A big-bodied player that has just enough speed to be valuable but with a catch radius that defies belief.

But he isn’t just a 50-50 ball guy either, the polish on Hopkins routes and his production in the screen game are also things that put an extra wrinkle in his game. Gilmore is going to need to dig deep into his bag of tricks to contain that type of player for a full contest.

The type of concentration that may see that interception streak end at two games.

The ball is going to go Hopkins way, that’s just how it works. Limiting how much damage those targets do will go a long way to deciding which way this game goes.