NOT THE SAME TEXANS VIBE
DESHAUN WATSON’S PRESENCE, PLAY MAKE 3-3 RECORD AT OFF WEEK SEEM MUCH BETTER
Three and three. Five-hundred ball. Been there, done that. Fact it, Bill O’Brien’s four Texans teams collectively average exactly that after their first six games. Further, they were 4-2 at this juncture a year ago, so this ho-hum start represents, on the face of it, a backward step, more of the same ol’, same ol’.
But that’s hardly how it feels, does it? Not with the young Deshaun Watson dealing like very few rookie NFL quarterbacks have ever dealt before him — to cite the most conspicuous statistic, his 15 touchdown passes in six games leads the NFL and are unprecedented for a first-year player after six weeks — and the Texans outscoring everybody in the NFL over the past four.
It’s hard, frankly, to wrap one’s arms around being able to type the last half of that sentence.
Memory is a funny thing, though. Following the sixth game last fall, we had every reason to assume Brock Osweiler was embarking upon a long, bright future here, too, having just pulled off an inspiring fourth-quarter comeback at the expense of the knocked-reeling Colts. Erasing a 23-9 deficit with roughly three minutes left in regulation, Osweiler hit bull’s-eyes on 14 of his final 16 passes, gaining 167 yards and resulting in two touchdowns as the Texans triumphed with a Nick Novak field goal in overtime at the end of another bang-bang drive. Had that begun anything approaching a trend, rather than being remembered as a sadly aberrant one-off, out-of-body experience for the gangly $72 million man, the Texans likely would have played against Watson on Sunday at NRG Stadium. He would have come in a Cleveland Brown. When you’re done counting your blessings, we’ll continue.
Set for success
It begs the obvious that with Watson, or rather because of Watson, the Texans are dramatically better positioned to make noise going forward than they were in October 2016. They’re also in a much better place than they were in October 2015, when Brian Hoyer was coming off a 293-yard, three-touchdown, zero-interception opus-like afternoon that ended in a 31-20 victory in Jacksonville. Or in October 2014, when Ryan Fitzpatrick had passed for 212 yards and a touchdown with no picks — a big deal for Fitzy — in a 33-28 prime-time loss to the Colts.
Those were solid performances, too. Definitely. But we’d seen enough of Hoyer and Fitzpatrick, welltraveled 10- and seven-year veterans, respectively, when they wound up under center for the Texans, to understand there wasn’t a lot of upside for either. That was about as good as it was going to get because that was about as good as it had ever been.
With Watson, who earns bonus points for having finished a remarkable college career with a comeback victory over Alabama that gave Clemson the national championship, it’s a cliché but not a reach to say we’re seeing the tip of the iceberg.
“Look, for a guy that’s just coming into the league, to be able to play the way he’s played, with the poise that he’s played with, I’m definitely pleased with that,” O’Brien said. “I just know that there’s a lot of things relative to him and the way he thinks and the way I think that we can all get better at. I’d say there’s always room for improvement. We have a lot to work on. I think the (off week) is coming at a good time. I think he’s been decent, but I think that it can be a lot better.”
Watson doesn’t disagree, admitting he’s a long way from being “full-throttle” in O’Brien’s scheme.
“I’m only a couple months into this offense,” he said. “But each day, each week is a growing process for me. I’m pretty comfortable where I’m at and Coach OB (Bill O’Brien) is doing a good job of making sure that I’m comfortable with it.”
An impact player
While perception isn’t necessarily reality yet, Watson has thoroughly altered our perception of what’s possible for the Texans. There’s no reason not to believe we’re seeing the same things we saw in Earl Campbell early in the 1978 season or in J.J. Watt by the end of the 2011 season. Except, as a quarterback, he figures to be an even bigger difference-maker.
Still, while Watson may already be a virtuoso, he’s not a one-man band. Quarterbacks don’t function in a vacuum. Ultimately, he’ll only be only as good as his receivers, his running game and his protection — never mind the defense and special teams — working in tandem. Compared to O’Brien’s previous Texans teams, the current one is a mixed bag, superior in some ways, inferior in others.
The offensive line is a weak link and will remain so unless the Texans and holdout tackle Duane Brown can somehow come to a meeting of the minds. Nonetheless, because Watson buys his blockers time with his legs and also uses them when necessary for plenty of positive yards, the Texans rank second in the NFL in rushing, averaging 4.4 per carry and 138 per game. Their sack count is atrocious — only two teams have allowed more — but a singlegame franchise record 10 of the 21 occurred in the opening loss to Jacksonville, when Tom Savage went down six times in his two-quarter tenure as the Texans’ starter.
The evolving chemistry between Watson and his two wideouts, DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller, has been beautiful to behold. Fuller’s return from a broken collarbone has been a smashing success, resulting in five touchdowns over a three-game span. And with the cheetah-fast top draft pick from 2016 “taking the top off,” Hopkins looks born again. Improbably, they were two of the six receivers leaguewide through last weekend’s games with at least five scores coming on receptions. No one had more than D-Hop’s six.
Hopkins and tight end C. J. Fiedorowicz needed full seasons last year to tie for the team lead with four apiece. And the latter’s return from a severe week-one concussion, will give Watson yet another, not insignificant weapon to exploit.
Fuller’s emergence as a reliable and explosive deep threat has provided the most thrills. He showed as a rookie he could get open against anybody, but his hands were too frequently brick-like. He dropped as many balls as he caught. That’s changing.
“I’m playing smarter,” Fuller said, “so I can play faster.”
Questions on defense
Defensively, the Texans gave up fewer yards than any NFL team in 2016 despite having Watt for only three weeks at the outset of the season. But that huge loss was offset in part by the emergence of Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus as a Wattesque forces. Now, they must go forth without Watt and Mercilus, both of whom were lost to season-ending injuries early against Kansas City on Oct. 8. The veteran savvy and leadership Brian Cushing brings is gone from the mix until at least December, too, after he got popped with a 10-game suspension for using banned substances.
How survivable those losses are remains to be seen. The “next men up” can’t physically duplicate what Watt and Mercilus were being counted upon to do, so O’Brien’s firstyear defensive coordinator, Mike Vrabel, must scheme his way out of potential trouble. Cleveland offered little to go on as to whether that’s really possible. The Browns went the distance with first-time starter Kevin Hogan, who got more in over his head as the game wore on.
At the other end of the spectrum, however, the Texans didn’t have nearly enough answers for the NFL’s two best offenses, New England and Kansas City, and their onetwo rated quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Alex Smith.
Like every NFL team, the Texans don’t function in a vacuum. If statistics lie sometimes, it’s because not everybody is facing off against the same caliber of competition every week. Going forward, they’re seemingly confronting a collectively softer final 10 games than they did in any of O’Brien’s previous seasons. Just a third of their nine remaining opponents — the 3-2 Seahawks, the 4-2 Rams and the 4-2 Steelers — are off to better than .500 starts. The previously inept Rams, ironically, possess the lone top-10 offense (they’re eighth) and Pittsburgh, currently No. 3, has the only arguably elite defense.
Watson should find private comfort in knowing he gets to face 31st-ranked Indianapolis twice, 28th-ranked San Francisco and the 24th-ranked Rams, who are threatening former Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ long run of dramatically improving teams in the season he takes over. The Rams came in 23rd in 2016.
The Texans’ secondary has already been through the crucible in Brady and Smith. Although Seattle’s everreliable Russell Wilson and the Rams’ emergent Jared Goff are off to strong starts — both have thrown eight touchdown passes versus only three picks and have passer ratings above 90 — the other starting quarterbacks they’ll likely face have collectively thrown for 44 touchdowns with 42 interceptions. Their average rating is under 80. Watson’s, by comparison, is 101.1.
See, plenty of reasons to pronounce 3-3 a half-full glass this time, not a half-empty one. Might be half full of champagne, too, as opposed to tap water. Call it the Deshaun Watson effect.