Houston Texans: Studs and duds from the week one loss to the Patriots
By T.A. Mock
Deshaun Watson struggles to shake off a thick layer of rust
Before we get into this, hear this. Deshaun Watson is the Houston Texans franchise quarterback. He has seemingly unlimited second chances on this team and should have them. This game does not prove that last year was a fluke. He had a rough game but, he is still the future of this organization and the NFL.
That being said, Deshaun Watson had a lot of rust on him in this game. He looked like he hadn’t played meaningful football since November. He looked like a rookie who is still working to get to the speed of the NFL. He looked like a guy that still needed to be figuring stuff out.
The protection for him wasn’t great, to be sure but, that shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. Watson was very slow in reading the defense and took entirely too long to get the ball out. He had tunnel vision as well and wasn’t working through his progressions as rapidly as he needed to be.
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In all honesty, we, fans and media alike, might’ve been expecting too much of Watson in his return to the playing field. At the same time, maybe a few more reps in the preseason could’ve helped shake off some of the rust because he did begin to progress as the game came to a close.
He ended the game completing 17 of his 35 passes, good for a 49% completion rate, for 176 yards. He also completed one touchdown pass and threw one pretty bad interception. The good news, Watson can only improve here and he began to make checks in the second half that helped pilot some points towards the end of the game.