Deshaun Watson has quietly compiled a 9-6 record in 15 starts since the Browns acquired him prior to the 2022 season. However, he’s reached 200 yards passing in only six games – none this season — and has averaged just 184.5 yards passing per game.
That Mendoza Line is an important threshold for the Browns (1-2) because it would signal Watson heading in the right direction. In fact, 200 yards could’ve won the game for Cleveland last week, if Watson had only completed a fourth-and-1 pass from his own 29-yard line with four minutes remaining in Cleveland’s 21-15 loss to the Giants.
At least that’s what critics say (and Watson has plenty of critics in Cleveland). And to those who charge that Watson has trouble seeing the field, he said Wednesday that an apparently wide-open Jordan Akins on that fateful fourth-and-1 was simply a decoy. Besides, as Mary Kay Cabot from Cleveland.com wrote, the quarterback listens solely to the opinions of head coach Kevin Stefanski and coordinator Ken Dorsey.
“Because other people are not in the film room, so not everyone knows exactly what the read was,” said Watson, who threw for a season-high 196 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions last week. “That was a decoy. So that’s the difference. Everyone can pause the tape and say, ‘Hey, he should have thrown it here, he should have thrown it here.’ Every quarterback deals with that. So if you choose one play and that’s the play out of the whole game that everyone is calling, then so be it. It is what it is.”
Other than that fourth down, Watson actually played a decent game in the loss. He hit Amari Cooper for bookend touchdowns, connecting for a 24-yard score just 11 seconds into the contest and bringing the Browns within one score early in the fourth quarter with another touchdown strike.
But Watson lost a fumble on the next possession, then killed the next drive on that fourth-and-1, taking a Dexter Lawrence sack. Finally, after a missed Giants field goal gave Cleveland prime field position, Watson ended that series with three straight incompletions. Game over.
Certainly, 200 yards is an attainable mark and something the Browns desperately need, especially with injuries along their offensive line and with reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett hobbled with Achilles and thigh injuries. The Browns are at Las Vegas (1-2) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS). It’s the first time Cooper has faced his former team, the Raiders, since they traded him to Dallas in 2018. The Raiders, who have plenty of their own issues this season, took Cooper fourth overall in the first round of the 2015 draft. Last week against the Giants, he led the Browns with season highs in catches (seven), yards (86) and touchdowns (two).