Deshaun Watson — Week 2: Eight of Nine on the Winning Drive
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Watson completed 24 of 30 throws for 238 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, took two sacks, and ran five times for 24 yards outside of two kneel-downs. He went 8 of 9 for 58 yards on a 12-play, 68-yard drive that converted four third downs and ended in a 17-yard touchdown to Blake Whiteheart with 3:57 left. No throw traveled more than 16 yards in the air, in a 23–19 win over the Buccaneers.
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19 to 16, Buccaneers, three 57 left, third and two at the Tampa Bay 17. Deshaun Watson threw short left to Blake Whiteheart, 17 yards, touchdown. +3.1 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 19.0 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain on any run or pass by either team. Cleveland went from about 52 percent to about 71. The drive was 12 plays, 68 yards and six minutes seven seconds, and it faced four third downs and converted all four: Watson's six-yard scramble on third and four, nine to Denzel Boston on third and three, six to Harold Fannin on third and one, and the touchdown. Watson was eight of nine for 58 yards on it.
The line: 24 completions on 30 throws, 238 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, two sacks for 15 yards. 32 pass plays, counting the sacks, worth +10.4 expected points. Before halftime it was seven of nine for 55 yards on 11 pass plays, −1.1; after it, 17 of 21 for a hundred 83, +11.5. Both sacks came in the second quarter, one of them on third and 11 at the Tampa Bay 13 ahead of a field goal. The other touchdown was the 55-yarder to Boston with a minute 33 left in the third, a throw that went 13 yards in the air. That was the shape of the whole day: a hundred eight air yards on 30 throws, and no throw longer than 16 in the air. On third down, eight pass plays, seven throws, five completions, three conversions.
He ran five times for 24 yards apart from two kneel-downs, two designed runs for 10 three scrambles for 14, +1.5 expected points. Two of the five converted third downs, eight yards around right end on third and three and the six-yard scramble on the last drive. The ball went to nine different receivers, seven targets to Boston, six each to KC Concepcion and Fannin, five to Quinshon Judkins.
Back in June the preview made no call on Watson. It called him a bet on a return rather than a résumé, after two Achilles surgeries and a full season missed, and named the two things that would settle it: a healthy tendon and a named starting job. Week 1 gave him the job and a bad afternoon, an interception on his third throw, five sacks, and 27 pass plays worth −9.8 expected points in a 34 to 10 loss. Sunday was +10.4 on 32, with no turnover. He took every Cleveland pass play for the second straight week. One game of each kind is where this stands, and the third will say more than either. Cleveland is home to the Panthers on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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