Lying face down on the grass, Deshaun Watson couldn’t watch another pass drift out of bounds. Everything about his return on Sunday seemed off.
Watson looked uncomfortable from the beginning in his first game since he broke a bone in his right shoulder in November. The Cleveland Browns were crushed 33-17 by the Dallas Cowboys in their season opener.
This was not the comeback Watson or the Browns had hoped for. The 28-year-old quarterback is trying to restart his career after making only 12 starts in the last two seasons due to an NFL suspension and shoulder surgery.
Cleveland’s revamped offense struggled.
Watson spent much of the game running away from Dallas defenders because Cleveland’s offensive line, missing both starting tackles, had trouble protecting him. He was sacked six times, and the Cowboys were credited with 17 hits on him.
“Yeah, he got hit way too often,” coach Kevin Stefanski said. “We can’t let that happen to him. He fought like crazy, and listen, the football team fought like crazy to the end. But bottom line is, we have to protect our quarterback better than that.”
Watson also took several hard hits while scrambling when the pocket collapsed. He said his surgically repaired shoulder felt fine, but he mentioned he couldn’t fully assess his physical condition until the adrenaline wore off.
It wasn’t too early for him to address his poor performance, which led to booing from Cleveland fans in the first half and a mass exit in the third quarter.
“We’re not the type of people that make excuses,” Watson said. “So some people can say that can contribute a lot, you know, my injury, guys missing time. But at the end of the day, once you’re on the field, you gotta perform, you gotta execute.
“We didn’t do that, and yeah, it showed.”
Watson didn’t play in the preseason as the Browns wanted to keep him as healthy as possible. The long break affected his timing. Watson missed some easy throws, hesitated on others, and never found a rhythm.
