Watson says to pin the blame for loss on him
Watson looked rusty and indecisive Sunday in a loss at New England.
FOXBOROUGH, MASS. — Speaking in a subdued tone late Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson had a demeanor that didn’t match his bright red-andblue jacket.
Watson had good reason to be in a bad mood.
Expectations surrounding the second-year quarterback were — and are — extremely high after his record-setting performance as a rookie.
However, Watson didn’t display
his usual dynamic form and clearly looked rusty during a 27-20 loss Sunday to the New England Patriots.
Watson held the football too long and wasn’t decisive enough. He didn’t have his usual accuracy. And he committed a pair of turnovers.
Watson got off to an extremely rough start that included a botched exchange with running back Lamar Miller on the Texans’ first offensive play, with the resulting fumble leading to a Patriots touchdown.
In his first regular-season game since tearing his anterior cruciate ligament last season, Watson completed 17 of 34 passes for 176 yards and one touchdown with one interception, one fumble and a substandard 62.9 passer rating.
“I think it was terrible on my part,” Watson said. “I feel like you can put the ‘L’ on me, because I’ll be way better than what I showed. My energy was low and just overthinking little things.”
During the first half espe- cially, Watson struggled to deal with the Patriots’ pass rush and coverage schemes. He completed five of 13 passes for 61 yards before halftime for a 21.6 passer rating.
Watson improved some as the game went on and started to move the foot- ball, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Patriots quar- terback Tom Brady. Watson’s lone touchdown pass to wide receiver Bruce Elling- ton came with 2:08 to play.
“I’m the leader of the team, the leader of this offense,” Watson said. “So as I go, the offense goes. It was just kind of not enough energy, not enough pace on our part, and I just take the blame.
“I take all the heat for that and just continue to move forward and just get ready for next week, put this behind us and learn from it.”
Watson attributed the handoff issue with Miller to a “miscommunication.”
That mistake led directly to a Patriots touchdown as Brady connected with tight end Rob Gronkowski on a 21-yard pass for the score.
“Adversity just hit on the first play,” Watson said. “We just had to overcome it. We had the opportunities to do that.”
When starting right tackle Seantrel Henderson broke his left ankle, the Texans were forced to insert rookie Martinas Rankin at left tackle and shift Julie’n Davenport to right tackle from the left side. Rankin allowed one sack.
“Look, I think he fought,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said of Watson. “I think he was getting hit.”
Watson was sacked three times and hit 12 times overall.
He pointed the finger at himself, not his blockers.
“I was just holding the ball too long,” Watson said. “That was on me, not the offensive line. You can’t block forever, so I have to get the ball out quick and continue to try to get the ball into the skill players’ hands and let them make plays.”
Watson emerged unscathed as far as injuries.
He appeared to have an issue on the final play of the game but said it was only a cramp. Watson went to the training room to get an IV afterward.
“I thought we did some good things,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of defending Watson. “We certainly played him better than we did last year, not that that would take much. No one guy can stop Watson, so it’s got to be team defense.”
The Patriots did a solid job of cutting down passing lanes and not allowing Watson to scramble to create as many impactful plays as he normally does. He rushed for 40 yards on eight carries.
“We did well on keeping Watson contained,” said Patriots cornerback Eric Rowe, a Klein Collins grad- uate. “Last year, he had a lot of scramble yards. This year, we put a huge emphasis on the defensive line keeping him contained in the pocket and for us defensive backs to plaster the receivers, because we know he likes to scramble and the receiver will run everywhere.”
Although it obviously wasn’t his day, Watson didn’t get flustered and maintained a positive attitude.
“Good poise. He’s a good quarterback,” Davenport said. “He’s our leader, and we follow him.”
The Texans averaged a league-high 34.7 points per game during Watson’s six starts as a rookie. This game didn’t resemble how Watson electrified crowds as a rookie. Still, it was just that: one game.
“We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board,” Watson said. “It’s a long year. It’s one for us to grow on.”