Deshaun Watson reflects on missed chances, frigid conditions in loss
CLEVELAND − Deshaun Watson could say he just got the quintessential Browns’ December experience on Saturday afternoon.
There was the frigid weather, even for Cleveland, with the 6-degree kickoff temperature making it the second-coldest Browns home game of the season. There was the flimsy-bordering-on-non-existent playoff hopes, and equal hopes for a winning season.
Mostly, there was just the disappointing end, this time a 17-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints that officially eliminated the Browns − and Watson − from the playoffs.
“It is tough,” Watson said afterward going 15-of-31 for 135 yards with an interception. “It is very tough. You just have to, like I said, finish these two weeks strong and then look back and review the season and what we could have did better and try to improve. Come back next season and try to do what we need to do.”
Watson’s continued growth with the Browns will no doubt be one of, if not the, storylines of the next two weeks. However, the quarterback nearly made his fourth start since coming back from an 11-game suspension one to remember by the way he started − and nearly finished − the game.
The quarterback’s much-discussed running ability allowed the Browns to break into the scoring column first. On the first play of the second quarter, Watson took the shotgun snap and took off on a designed keeper to the left.
Watson kept it all the way to the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown run, his first with the Browns. That play wasn’t a first-time thing for the Browns, though.
“I am not sure if they ran it before,” Watson said. “I think they ran it before, at least what I saw on film. I think it was like two years ago when I think Baker (Mayfield) did it against Pittsburgh to clinch to go to the playoffs or something like that.”
Watson’s touchdown run looked like it was going to be part of the Browns’ once again keeping their playoff hopes alive. It looked even more like it when they took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
However, with 5:16 remaining in the game, Watson found himself needing to drive the Browns 80 yards to end zone to try and tie the game. That’s because the Saints had scored 17 unanswered to take a 17-10 lead, the final seven points set up when his pass off the hands of David Bell was intercepted by New Orleans safety Daniel Sorensen.
That was one of two times a Watson pass off the hands of his receiver was costly to the Browns. They ended up with three points instead of seven in the second quarter when Amari Cooper slipped in the back of the end zone just as the ball was arriving, hitting off his hands and falling incomplete.
“He slipped,” Watson said. “It did. Again, the opportunity was there. We just didn’t capitalize on it.”
The impact of the weather was noticeable on several of the passes Watson threw. He had one throw to tight end David Njoku to set up his touchdown run that seemed to almost flutter sideways.
There was a pass later in the second half which the wind caught hold of and pushed it 10 yards beyond an open Cooper.
“Sometimes, depending on which way we were going on the field, you have to try to catch the wind,” Watson said. Deeper balls that you throw, you have to put a little bit more velocity on it. You can’t really lead it up. I think it was the fourth down throw, I tried to throw it to (Donovan Peoples-Jones) and it kind of sailed over his head. A couple of deep throws, another one to Coop, he split the safety and the corner, and that one caught the wind and it kind of sailed on us. You have to factor those. You can’t really control that. You just try to make sure you take advantage of those opportunities.”
Watson, though, helped drive the Browns with a chance late in the game. On their final drive, he completed five of his first seven passes, the last of those an 18-yard strike to Bell, to move them to the Saints 15 with 43 seconds remaining.
On first down, his pass to Cooper went incomplete. The next two throws, though, appeared to have a legitimate chance to result in touchdowns.
The first one was a second-down pass to Donovan Peoples-Jones in the back left corner of the end zone. However, much like he did two weeks ago on a similar fourth-down pass against Cincinnati, Peoples-Jones was unable to bring the ball in for the catch.
The next play, on third-and-10 from the New Orleans 15 with 30 seconds left, Watson threw a pass to tight end David Njoku just shy of the goal line. Njoku, who had made a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch nearly a month ago to send the Browns’ game against Tampa Bay into overtime, dropped the ball.