Deshaun Watson is trying to do way too much. That can be fixed

Deshaun Watson opened eyes across the league in an electric seven-game rookie campaign in 2017. But that meant he was never going to sneak up on anyone in 2018.

The second-year quarterback struggled in his return to the field Sunday, failing to shine behind a cheesecloth offensive line in a 27-20 loss that didn’t feel as close as the final score indicates. Watson’s opening day revolved around the worst start of his budding career; a 17 for 34, 176-yard performance that saw him struggle to fit passes into tight windows and deal with pressure from the Patriots’ four-man front.

Watson was responsible for just one play that sprang for 20-plus yards. The last time these teams met — the second start of career — he was the catalyst behind five such plays.

The issues were apparent from Houston’s first offensive snap. Watson, working out of a read-pass option, popped a handoff into the breadbasket of tailback Lamar Miller, only to draw the ball back a second too late.

That left the pair in a state of limbo and left the ball on the turf, where the Patriots scooped it up; three plays later, they’d take a 7-0 lead. New England held on from there by shutting down Houston’s big gains and learning from last season’s mistakes. In 2017, Watson was responsible for five plays of 20-plus yards. On Sunday, the Pats limited him to one.

That first quarter fumble left Watson playing from behind and searching for big plays to make up for his early mistake. He wouldn’t find them. After 15 minutes of game time, he’d completed one of six passes for three yards.

The Patriots gave him few chances to get comfortable. A pressure-heavy defense battered Houston’s shaky offensive line, flushing Watson from the pocket. New England was ready for DeAndre Hopkins as well, backing its secondary from the line of scrimmage to take away the Texans’ deep ball attack. The strategy left Watson throwing on the run into tight windows, and it paid off.

But that focus at the line of scrimmage and deep into the secondary left a soft middle Watson struggled to exploit. Several plays left one of the second-year quarterback’s checkdown options open for modest gains, only to be ignored as a scrambling passer took aim downfield for higher risk, higher reward options. The gambles rarely worked.

Watson’s mobility allowed him more time to throw (3.42 seconds) than all but one NFL quarterback in Week 1, and his average target was 11.6 yards downfield — third-highest in the league and more than three yards further downfield than his counterpart Brady. But the average distance traveled on his 17 completed passes was just 6.5 yards through the air. Only one quarterback had a bigger differential between the two stats in the opening week, and that was Bills shipwreck Nathan Peterman. In short, Watson’s throws downfield came up empty time after time.

And when Watson did find open receivers, he struggled to hit them in stride — or at all, as happened in a vital third quarter drive. Facing third-and-five from the New England 17, the Houston QB dealt with pressure in the pocket to deliver a rainbow-arcing pass that sailed over reserve tight end Ryan Griffin’s head and fell to the turf. One play later, it was a different spot but the same result; an uncatchable ball in a pressure-filled situation. The Texans turned the ball over on downs, and the outcome of the game was all but sealed.

Brian Flores isn’t technically New England’s defensive coordinator, but he’s the closest thing the team’s got after Matt Patricia left town to become head coach of the Detroit Lions. On Sunday, he devised a defensive strategy that contained Watson’s penchant for big plays while taking advantage of a rebuilt — and still bad — offensive line.

Flores’ 4-2-5 defense bet the Texans wouldn’t have the capacity to exploit the Patriots’ holes in the middle. That put a ton of pressure on a pass rush that was a major question mark in 2017, but that group, led from the trenches, came through. Bookends Trey Flowers and Deatrich Wise Jr. combined for three sacks, giving the club a big enough push up front to limit the need for personnel-sapping blitzes. While Watson did his share of tackle-shedding and extending plays with his scrambling, there was enough support to turn potential highlight-reel runs into modest gains.

Sunday’s performance also answered questions about the team’s secondary. New England came into the 2018 season without former All-Pro Malcolm Butler, who finally got the payday he deserved in Tennessee. Despite some miscues from the hot-and-cold Stephon Gilmore, the Pats’ safeties and cornerbacks provided more than enough downfield coverage to shut the door on one of the league’s most dangerous young quarterbacks.

The Texans needed a big comeback after falling behind early Sunday, and Watson pushed the throttle up to get there. But his zeal for game-changing plays became his weakness against a secondary primed to shut down the deep ball when he tried to Rex Grossman his way back into the game. Houston’s biggest gains of the afternoon came on runs and short- to mid-range passes that took advantage of a linebacker corps that hoped the duo of Dont’a Hightower and Kyle Van Noy could do everything.

They couldn’t — but they covered enough ground to lead the Patriots to a Week 1 victory.

Watson knows he was a big part of his team’s loss Sunday.

“For me personally, I think it was terrible on my part,” Watson said after the game. “I feel like you can put the L on me because I be way much better than what I showed.”

Admitting the problem is the first step toward solving it. Given the progress he made in short order as a rookie, he should be able to correct his course in time for Week 2. Watson tried to do too much in his season opener, forcing the ball downfield when smaller but certain gains were available near the line of scrimmage. That’s an easy issue to fix; the Texans’ quarterback just has to accept that even the game’s most exciting players check down sometimes.