Deshaun Watson Wins His Browns Debut And Now Holds The Best QB Winning Percentage In Franchise History (Minimum 1 Start)
Listen I'm not going to sit here and act like Deshaun Watson lit it up today, because he did not. 12 for 22 with 131 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception was not an impressive debut, but you'd have to imagine he had some rust to shake off after not having played in an NFL game in exactly 700 days. No, the Browns did not win today because of Deshaun Watson. They won because they played the Houston Texans, who dating back to 1869 when the sport was invented, may be the worst team in the history of football. My God that team was terrible. But guess what? We beat them. And if anyone is whining and complaining about the Browns "winning ugly" today, then they haven't been a Cleveland fan for long enough. So while I'm not shouting from the rooftops about Deshaun looking great, I'm also not going to sit here and stay quiet about the fact that we're now undefeated with Deshaun Watson as our starter. 1-0. 100% winning percentage. Never lost.
5-7 on the year has to put the Browns back on the playoff graphic, right? Especially when we're 2-1 in the AFC North, which we still have 3 more games against. The Ravens coming back to beat the Broncos in the final seconds hurt today, but we can still hope the Chiefs handle business against the Bengals in the 4:00 slate. The Browns are not out of the divisional race whatsoever, and the dream of Deshaun rattling off 6 straight wins to take us to the playoffs is certainly still alive. Next up: @ Cincinnati next Sunday. Joe Burrow better pray to the father above that he finds the magic formula to beat the Browns, because 0-4 against Cleveland is a bad look on him. Maybe he should ask the other 30 teams in the league how to do it?
Anyways, the fact of the matter is the rest of the team stepped up around Deshaun and brought us home a victory. I can't comprehend how our Defense and Special Teams went from worst in the NFL to best in league history today, but a Punt Return for TD, Fumble Recovery for TD, and Pick 6 will certainly win you a ball game. Perhaps it was because the Texans are 1-10, but perhaps it's because the team has rallied around the fact that we finally have our franchise QB. Either way, this team found a way to win and I have no negative remarks about that. Back to back wins for the Browns and I see Cleveland Football Twitter is complaining? Someone pinch me.
One word to describe my mood after today is OPTIMISTIC. I fully expect Kevin Stefanski to find ways to make the offense look better. He has plenty of weapons at his disposal, including David Njoku coming back soon. If he was able to make Jacoby Brissett the 7th rated QB in the league, I can't wait to see what he does with a less rusty Deshaun Watson. And if we can get the defense to look even one fourth as good as they did today against the Texans, the Browns will be tough to beat moving forward, both the remainder of this year and for many years to come.
Bottom line is that the Deshaun Watson Era has started off 1-0, and it can't be any better than that. Anyone complaining about a Browns victory is an idiot. Don't make plans on that first weekend of the playoffs just yet, Cleveland.