3 Good and 3 Bad: Deshaun Watson uneven as the Cleveland Browns kiss the playoffs goodbye
By Chad Porto
Deshaun Watson was unable to lead the Cleveland Browns to a comeback against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Cleveland Browns’ offense is an absolute disaster. The running game is non-existent, Amari Cooper can’t seem to find any touches, and Donovan Peoples-Jones is still the same player he was when he was drafted; super talented, but super inconsistent. The embattled Deshaun Watson didn’t help matters on Sunday either, though he didn’t always hurt the team either.
Watson played very conservatively in the first half and the Browns barely moved on offense but as he started to get a feeling for the Bengals’ defense, he started to move around the pocket and stretched his legs. The problem is the Browns’ offensive line is clearly not acclimated to blocking for a running quarterback.
The Browns (and Bengals) were drowning in penalties through the first two quarters with a lot of them coming on the Browns’ offensive line. That didn’t help matters at all, but even when they didn’t commit holding calls, the Browns still couldn’t get any gaps open for Nick Chubb to run through, leaving most of the game on Watson’s shoulders.
Waston didn’t have a bad game but he didn’t have a good game either. He took a lot of risky throws that normally would be frowned upon, like throwing to David Njoku who was mere feet from Watson on his side, with the Bengals’ defense swarming both of them. Those types of plays will cause problems if you keep making them.
While he did throw a pick and a touchdown, it’d be fair to say that the Browns quarterback did play much better than in Houston, but he still didn’t play well enough or even close to well enough for a man whose going to be making $40 million per season.
If the offense is not as good under Watson, as it was under Jacoby Brissett, people need to ask why. More specifically, with the Browns all but out of the playoff race, one has the right to know if the onus was getting Watson reps or if it was to get to the playoffs? Clearly, Kevin Stefanski and company knew they wouldn’t be as good, or had to believe that was possible, and yet they didn’t do anything to change that.
Which is fine, just don’t tell fans you’re trying to get to the playoffs.