Watson rallies Texans past Darnold, Jets
EAST RUTHERFORD >> Even with all the talk before the game being about the end zones at MetLife Stadium, it may come as a surprise that the Jets were able to find them given their usually anemic offense.
But, in the end, Deshaun Watson outdueled Sam Darnold in a surprisingly good battle of young quarterbacks to lead the Texans to a 29-22 win in front of an announced crowd of 77,982 on Saturday afternoon.
Perhaps half of that amount actually filled the seats for the nationally-televised contest, but those who stayed home missed a gem; Watson led his team down the field for a seven- play, 75-yard drive with 2:15 remaining left in regulation, capped off by a spectacular touchdown catch by DeAndre Hopkins to win it for Houston.
“It’s frustrating to lose the ballgame,” said Jets head coach Todd Bowles. “We could have finished it a bunch of different ways, offense or defense, but we didn’t finish it…we don’t have moral victories here.”
As expected, it was the Texans who walked away with the “real” victory, one that improves them to 10-4 on the season, but they had to earn it. Inarguably a more skilled team, it was their top players making plays that allowed them to get the job done; Watson was able to exploit the matchup with Hopkins and Jets cornerback Morris Claiborne to the tune of ten catches, 170 yards and two touchdowns.
“It just unfolded that way,” Watson said. “In the NFL, especially in empty (backfield set), it’s all about matchups, it all depends on what they’re in. They were in a lot of “Cover 1” man coverage and that’s what they wanted to do, they wanted to match Claiborne with ‘D-Hop,’ and ‘D-Hop’ won the matchup.”
Early on, even with the momentum that comes from a quality road win against Buffalo last week, it seemed this would be another blowout loss for the Jets. On their first possession, they lost a yard each on two running plays, and then Darnold was sacked by J.J. Watt; the Texans used a Ka’imi Fairbairn
First quarter Hou — NYJ — Second quarter Hou — Hou —
FG Fairbairn 32, 12:51.
Hopkins 45 pass from Watson (Fairbairn kick), 8:14.
FG Fairbairn 53, 4:35. R.Anderson 5 pass from Darnold (kick failed), :30.
Hou — NYJ — Third quarter NYJ —
A.Roberts 13 pass from Darnold (kick failed), 8:39.
Fourth quarter Hou — NYJ — Hou —
FG Fairbairn 49, 12:33.
McGuire 2 run (Myers kick), 5:00. Hopkins 14 pass from Watson (Fairbairn kick), 2:15.
FG Fairbairn 40, :54.
77,982.
Hou — A—
FG Fairbairn 41, 9:23. FG Myers 26, 2:01. First downs Total net yards Rushes yds Passing Punt returns Kickoff returns Int ret Comp-att-int Sacked yds lost Punts Fumbles lost Penalties yds Time of poss.
Rushing —
Houston, Watson 4-26, Miller 3-8, Carter 1-7, Blue 9-6. New York, McGuire 18-42, Darnold 6-35, Cannon 7-13.
Houston, Watson 22-28-0-294. New York, Darnold 24-38-0-253.
Houston, Hopkins 10-170, D.Thomas 6-59, Carter 2-55, Blue 2-9, J.Thomas 1-2, Griffin 1-(minus 1). New York, R.Anderson 7-96, Herndon 3-53, McGuire 3-29, Cannon 3-24, A.Roberts 3-16, Kearse 2-9, Tomlinson 1-11, Leggett 1-8, Matthews 1-7.
Passing — Receiving — Missed field goals — Hou
15 286 17-47 239 3-17 1-28 0-0 22-28-0 6-55 3-45.7 0-0 5-43 24:56
None.
NYJ
21 318 31-90 228 2-22 3-71 0-0 24-38-0 3-25 4-49.3 1-1 9-60 35:04 field goal to take an early 3-0 lead on the ensuing drive with 9:23 remaining in the first quarter.
Jason Myers and Fairbairn would trade field goals after that, until it had seemed Watson and Hopkins had blown the game open with a 45yard scoring strike to make it 13-3 with 8:14 left in the second quarter, which came two plays after Watt forced a fumble when tackling Jets running back Eli McGuire. But, after another Fairbairn kick, Darnold found Robby Anderson in the back of the end zone with 30 seconds to go in the half to cut the deficit to 16-9.
After Henry Anderson’s third sack of the game — he’s the first Jet to reach 3+ sacks since Mo Wilkerson in 2015 — got the ball back for the Jets early in the second half, Darnold floated a perfectly placed pass to Andre Roberts in the back left corner of the end zone to seemingly tie the game at 16-16. However, just as he did on the previous score, the usually reliable Myers missed the extra point, becoming the first Jets kicker to do so in nearly 20 years.
From there on, it was a nailbiter. Fairbairn upped the Texans advantage to four points with a clutch 49yard field goal with 12:33 left to play, but Darnold came right back with an impressive 15-play, 73-yard drive that culminated with a McGuire two-yard touchdown run in which he was pushed into the end zone by nearly the entire team to give the Jets a 22-19 lead.
It wouldn’t last.
On the Texans’ penultimate drive of the game, Watson targeted Hopkins four times and connected on three of them to account for 41 of the 75 yards they got on the seven-play possession, including the dramatic game-winning catch by the front left pylon of the end zone that Hopkins somehow managed to pull down despite tight coverage from Claiborne.
Darnold, who finished 24-of-38 with 253 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, had two late chances to pull off a miracle, but the Texans’ defense held strong, sealing the win for Watson, who ended up completing 22 of his 28 passes for 294 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Houston won, yes. But the Jets certainly made them work for it.
“They’re a good team,” Watt said. “They gave us everything we could handle tonight, obviously. Sam (Darnold)’s a good player, they’ve got players all over the field. (Jamal) Adams is a phenomenal player, I enjoy watching him play. I mean, it was a battle. It feels like a hell of a lot closer than a seven-point game.”