Browns Win Despite Putrid Performance from Deshaun Watson

After nine months of waiting, Deshaun Watson finally took the field for the Cleveland Browns in his regular season debut and played the worst football of his entire career.

The only thing more abominable than Deshaun Watson's debut as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns was the alleged behavior that resulted in the 11-game suspension that contributed to such a poor performance. The Browns won the game, defeating a Houston Texans team that occasionally looked interested in competing 27-14, but Watson's teammates dragged him to the victory, scoring three non-offensive touchdowns.

Watson's stat line, 12 of 22 for 131 yards and an interception looks far better than the would be franchise quarterback played. The operation at times was problematic, the speed of the game overwhelmed him, he displayed tunnel vision and Watson short-hopped a number of throws. Much of this will be chalked up to the layoff as Watson has not played in a game in almost two years.

There were glimpses of not only what Watson can do, but also how head coach Kevin Stefanski wants to adapt the offense to fit Watson compared to what they ran with Jacoby Brissett as quarterback. The Browns mixed in some read looks as well as play-action bootlegs, a preview of things to come.

Watson made a few professional throws, but the longer the game went, the more issues seemed to snow ball, concluding in the Browns signal caller pulling out from under center early with no snap, resulting in a penalty. After that play, the Browns just ran out the ball every play until they could kneel out the clock.

The offense punted the ball six times, lost a fumble, surrendered a safety, threw a red zone interception and had two field goals, one of which resulted from an 8-yard drive off of a turnover in Texans territory. The Browns had one drive over 50 yards and it ended in the interception, which was awful.

The most pleasant surprise on offense was the play of Kareem Hunt, who had his most productive performance in three months. Hunt carried the ball nine times for 56 yards, adding 18 yards on a pair of receptions. The 78 total yards are the most he's had this season since week two against the New York Jets.

The Browns won this game of defense and special teams, which is not something that has been uttered this season. Donovan Peoples-Jones returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown, the first by a Browns player since 2015 when Travis Benjamin did it. The Browns defense scored a pair of touchdowns and set up a field goal, totaling 17 points. 

After successfully pinning the Texans deep in their own territory, they attempted to sneak quarterback Kyle Allen to get some breathing room. Unfortunately, he dove landing on bodies, enabling linebacker Tony Fields II to punch the ball out. Corner Denzel Ward noticed the ball laying on the ground, picked it up and deposited it in the end zone with virtually no one aware of what happened.

Fields, not done, caught a tipped screen pass from Allen that he returned for 16 yards and a touchdown. Chase Winovich, who has missed much of the season with a hamstring injury, was able to knock the ball up and enable Fields to catch the soft fly. Fields would also recover a fumble forced by fellow linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk, which set up the field goal.

Both of these units were certainly due and if there was ever a time to deliver, it was when Watson was defective at the quarterback position. Those players, fortunately, can try to write off Watson's ghastly performance, attributing it to rust and the layoff because they won the game. They are 5-7, which is where they wanted to be coming out of this game, winning back to back games.

However, the Browns now have a week to prepare for their rematch against the Bengals in Cincinnati before hosting the Baltimore Ravens. If the Browns are going to make any kind of run and compete for the postseason, they need to be able to compete and potentially win both of these games.

Given how poorly Watson played, it's difficult to expect drastic changes in a week. Nevertheless, that's exactly what the Browns need from their $230 million man if he's going to provide a lift for this offense and enable them to do anything other than use the remaining five games to shake off the rust.