by Deshaun Watson began his fifth season with the Cleveland Browns today in a pre-season game at Chicago. The Bears may have won the game handily, but Cleveland has some positives to take out of this game due to the fact that their first teamers looked sharp early on under Watson.
Watson looked incredibly sharp after a first drive in which it was three straight runs, the Browns came out gunning on the second drive and Watson lit it up with his arm and feet. Facing a first and 25 to start things, he wasn’t shaken making several passes under pressure while hitting wideouts in stride. It led to an absolute boom of a kick from Andrew Szmyt who nailed one from 50 yards out to put the Browns ahead 3-0.
His third drive saw the Browns convert a fourth and inches from their own 29-yard line. Not sure we see a move that bold in the regular season, but Watson snuck this one in to move the chains. The huge play on this drive was a Watson to Dylan Sampson dump off pass that the speedy second year back took 43 yards. Later in the drive KC Concepion followed up a 11 yard third down catch with a 14-yard Jet Sweep touchdown, increasing the Browns lead to 10-0.
One negative was a fumble on fourth and two under pressure as he will need to learn to keep control of the ball, even on fourth down a fumble could lead to a scoop and score. Watson did get a chance to lead a two minute drive to end the half and it went nowhere fast as the second-string linemen simply couldn’t protect him.
All in all it was a strong first half for Watson as he finished 11 of 15 for 126 yards with a touchdown and fumble. Again, it is important to note he shined with the first team which should get everyone very excited!
Elsewise, Shedeur Sanders looked a little rough with the backups, settling for a 6 of 11 performance for 79 yards with an interception and recovered fumble off of a botched snap. To his credit, he didn’t have a single starter with him. Next week he will get a chance to get the start versus Buffalo on Saturday August 22nd
