Browns Defeat Texans in Watson’s Return to Football

Photo courtesy Houston Chronicle

After the 11-week suspension of Deshaun Watson, he has played his first game in a Cleveland Browns uniform. There were some upsides to today’s game, but some serious work still needs to be done.

An early look at the offense

The game started with the Browns on defense and after one play safety John Johnson III came up with a huge interception to get the offense on the field quickly. There wasn’t much of an offensive spark in the game which was to be expected because Watson has not played football in nearly 700 days. However, Watson sparked a little bit of a drive before throwing a Red Zone interception on a bad read. The Texans were able to capitalize on this and score a field goal. The next drive wasn’t any better going three and out, but the Brown’s defense held firm with a massive hit from Grant Delpit to hold the Texans at our one-yard line and prevent a touchdown.

The Browns were backed up and gave up a safety and suddenly we were down by a score of 5-0. This Texans score didn’t last very long though because Donavan Peoples-Jones had a 76-yard punt return touchdown to put Cleveland back on top 7-5.

 

Defensive strength

As this game progressed, we were able to see the Brown’s defense come away with some more massive plays including a forced fumble by Tony Fields and recovery for the touchdown from Denzel Ward, An interception for a touchdown from Fields, and a fumble recovery from Fields as well on a punt. Needless to say, Tony Fields had a remarkable day.

 

TONY FIELDS II PICK-6! #Browns pic.twitter.com/uI78zrYWHL

— Browns fan UK (@brownsfanuk) December 4, 2022

Special teams play

The punt return touchdown, the forced fumble and recovery on a Brown’s punt. Along with the two field goals from Cade York helped the special teams work hand-in-hand with each other today to help Cleveland win this game.

Offensive Bright Sides

Watson showed an aspect of his game that we really haven’t seen in Cleveland. His ability to get out of the pocket and extend plays with his feet, make throws on the run, or even turn it up field and make a big running play was showcased a bit today. These aspects will play well with run-and-pass games also. We did get to see more of Kareem Hunt today than in previous weeks with 9 rushes for 56 yards. Nick Chubb had a good game as well with his 17 rushes for 80 yards.

 

Looking forward

The offensive performance that the team had today will not win us games moving forward with this tough schedule ahead. Next week we take on the Cincinnati Bengals and even though we were expecting Watson to look rusty…his 12/22 for 131-yard stat line with an interception needs to be improved upon by next Sunday if we want to have a chance to make the playoffs.