Win streak matches TD passes as Watson laps Osweiler at QB
A year of Brock Osweiler was worth it for all this.
Deshaun Watson flying across NRG Stadium’s turf, arms spread wide as adoring cheers and screams surrounded the Texans’ young franchise quarterback.
Watson heroically lifted up at midfield, hoisted by a proud lineman at the same time that DeAndre Hopkins smoothly sprinted into a waiting end zone.
Five passing touchdowns, including two that totaled 122 thrilling yards and changed the game both times.
Five consecutive victories
for Bill O’Brien’s team, turning a horrible 0-3 beginning into a 5-3 record and playoff pace at the season’s halfway point. Hop on the bus, y’all. “The type of guy (Watson) is, if you’re around him every day, he’s the type of guy that gives everybody hope,” O’Brien said.
The beat-up Miami Dolphins didn’t fall 42-23 to the increasingly bangedup Texans on “Thursday Night Football” solely because of Osweiler. But the Texans’ former $72 million man also couldn’t come close to keeping up with Watson’s relentless attack — often brilliant, incredibly efficient — on national prime-time TV.
“We can be very, very explosive,” Watson. “That’s what we showed (Thursday).”
The final numbers for the QB who replaced Osweiler: 16-of-20 for 239 yards and a sparkling 156 rating.
The Week 8 reality: The Texans will win the AFC South and return to the postseason if they keep playing like this. And with Watson regaining his air-it-out 2017 form, a team some insisted was out of life after Week 3 could be dangerous in January.
“We have a lot of guys who have been through a lot of adversity,” said J.J. Watt, who recorded his eighth sack of the season. “They know what it’s like to be down and out. They know what it’s like to fight back.”
Shades of last year
There was no way these Texans were losing to Osweiler.
Not with O’Brien coaching, scheming and screaming on the other side. Not with Watson calmly running circles around Miami.
Remember DW4 throwing and throwing and throwing last season at New England, against Kansas City and at Seattle? The arm that simply blew you away, the touch that wowed and the inner drive that instantly made you a believer?
We saw that Watson again Thursday night — less than a week after he was forced to ride a bus, just to play a game in Jacksonville, Fla.
“He’s a great guy in the locker room, works very hard. A young player that’s getting better and better,” O’Brien said. “A very levelheaded guy, not a very overly emotional guy. He’s exactly what you’re looking for in a starting quarterback.”
The Texans followed up their strongest win of the year — 20-7 over the Jaguars — with an even more impressive victory.
Watson recorded more TDs than incompletions. His 34 touchdown passes through 15 career games is tied for second most in NFL history.
Of course, it all began with classic Texans-era Osweiler.
Several sharp throws that propelled Miami downfield. The Dolphins totaling 188 first-half yards, winning the time-of-possession battle and putting up 10 points.
But there also was an interception aimed directly at Texans rookie safety Justin Reid, a near-pick that bounced out of a defender’s hands and a “throwing” fumble that led to a thrilling Texans touchdown.
That last call was overturned. The only people inside NRG Stadium who drew more boos than Osweiler (21-of-37, 241 yards, 65.3 rating) were the NFL’s Joe West-like refs.
Still, Osweiler set the Texans up with seven points and with Watson going 7-of-10 for 74 yards and a touchdown, it was 14-10 home team at the break.
A roller-coaster ride
It was typical 2018 Texans, though.
Moments of promise and teases of four-quarter excitement. Watson hitting Will Fuller for 34 yards, with the speedy wide receiver toasting a Dolphins defender in a single move. The Texans playing off their Lamar Miller-driven run game, as Watson connected with rookie tight end Jordan Thomas for a 13-yard TD.
But also conservatism at the wrong time, five early penalties for 37 yards and a mounting list of injuries that depleted an already thin secondary and offensive line.
Again, the promise: Miller burning 58 yards down the right sideline against his former team, just as the third quarter was beginning.
More back-and-forth frustration: The drive stalling at Miami’s 2-yard line, setting up fourthand-2.
Watson was the key, allowing O’Brien’s offense to break through.
The 23-year-old QB ran and ran, keeping an extended play alive. Finally, Thomas appeared for the second time.
Perfect throw. Brilliant play.
O’Brien lifted his arms toward NRG’s roof. Watson extended his outward in a flying motion, gliding from Miami’s 5 to the Texans’ midfield logo.
“You knew the offense was going to find it at some point,” Watt said. “You knew at some point they’d figure it out. There’s too much talent over there not to.”
Piling up the TDs
Osweiler had gifted the Texans an early score and almost hand-delivered another. Watson had turned his team’s third red-zone opportunity into TD No. 3, pushing his team to a 21-10 third-quarter lead.
A perfectly timed and executed trick play — Osweiler to Danny Amendola to Kenyan Drake — allowed the Dolphins to pull within 21-17 with 4:55 left in the third quarter.
But 73- and 49-yard Watson TDs awaited. Then a fifth.
The Texans were winning again.
Watson owned the screen on national TV.
There was no way O’Brien’s team was losing to Osweiler in 2018.