Houston Texans: Deshaun Watson as a game manager could save season

The Houston Texans have evolved the role of Deshaun Watson, at least temporarily. Will this new mantra save the team’s season? Take a look to find out more.

The Houston Texans were able to pull off a unthinkable 20-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars today and the strategy that they used can prove fruitful moving forward through the season.

With Deshaun Watson‘s health (injuries to ribs/lung) being such a concern that he had to take a chartered bus to Jacksonville, the Houston Texans needed to figure out a way for him to be effective, yet take less risk when the pocket collapses.

So what did we see this past game? Lots of Lamar Miller. In fact, he surpassed the century-mark in rushing for the first time since Dec. 11, 2016 with 100 yards even rushing off 22 carries. The Houston Texans had tremendous success running the football on the Jags and it proved to be what put the ahead in the game so early.

His carries were slightly above the 14.6 that he averages per game up until today’s match up but I’m all for this if Miller can handle the extra workload until Watson heals.

What did we see out of Watson today? He played smart football, getting rid of the ball quickly and if the pocket collapsed, he’d quickly move to throw it away.

Typically, he’d hold onto to the football longer than usual and would either take a sack, start a rush and get tackled brutally or even worse, throw an interception.

Watson played four quarters of interception-free football and this new strategy can work as things move forward.

Now mind you, I’m not endorsing this change of offensive game plan on a regular basis because

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Watson is so dynamic of a player, he shouldn’t be restricted to just managing a game. But all in all, that’s what a quarterback does and Watson had not been doing the greatest of jobs as of late.

He got trapped into the thought that he always had to make the big play, no matter what the risk was to his body and it’s good to know that he’s willing to delegate those duties to a position that’s designed to take the hits — that, of course, would be the running back.

Watson only had five carries for 15 yards today, well below his season average of 40+ yards with his legs for the game. If this new mantra can save ribs/lungs from taking a beating, then this is the way the Houston Texans should move forward until he’s made a full recovery.

That’s not likely going to happen until after the season because rib injuries take time to heal. Remember when Miller was suffering from a similar in 2016? The team made it through — even with a playoff berth — despite the immense amount of pain that he had with each game he took a snap with the injury.

That storm was weathered and I expect for Watson to the same as long as he continues to be careful with decisions involving sacrificing his body to help this team win. It’s as simple as that.

Until then — let us enjoy the Texans solely holding first place in the AFC South, hopefully for a long time.

We’ll see.

Three options to solve the conundrum at left tackle. dark. Next

Watson completed 12-of-24 of his passes for 139 yards — 5.8 yards per attempt — with one touchdown and a 81.8 quarterback rating.

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