Deshaun Watson came into Saturday having not won a playoff game in his young NFL career. Last season against the Colts, the Texans’ star quarterback had just 235 passing yards, one touchdown, and one interception in a 21-7 loss in the Wild Card Round. This year against the Bills looked like it was headed the same way.
Deshaun Watson has always been a late-game magician, as the Bills found out the hard way
Watson has been leading his team from behind since his college days.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
The offense struggled to get anything productive going early on. Houston trailed 16-0 and Watson was held to just 49 passing yards in the first half.
Then Watson stepped up big to secure his first playoff win — in the NFL, that is. It was the kind of heroic performance that Watson has built his reputation on since he was in college.
Watson led the Texans to 19 straight points in 12 minutes of game time, but he saved his best moment for last.
Late in the third quarter with his team still trailing two scores, the Texans desperately needed to get something going on offense to stay in this game. That’s when Watson orchestrated a nine-play, 75-yard scoring drive to make it a 16-8 game with 1:33 left in the quarter.
Look at this power as he ran the ball into the end zone:
He wasn’t going to be stopped until he crossed the goal line and got the Texans on the board.
And then ran it in again around the right end for the two-point conversion:
He scored twice despite being met, and having to fight through contact from, multiple defenders.
A Bills fumble gave the Texans the ball back at the 50, and Watson led another scoring drive to set up a 41-yard field goal to make it 16-11 with 10:55 to go.
His next possession gave the Texans a 19-16 lead with 4:37 remaining. Watson completed passes on both the touchdown and two-point conversion:
The Bills tied the game up to send it to overtime, where Watson’s Houdini act turned a would-be sack on second down into a huge gain:
This was easily the play of the game, and it set up a field goal to send Houston to the 22-19 win.
If you watched any of Watson while he played college football at Clemson, what he did on Saturday night shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
In college, Watson was a winner. He was a three-year starter at Clemson, and guided his Tigers to back-to-back national championship appearances in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. He was a Heisman finalist in both years, too.
In the 2016 title game, Clemson lost 45-40, but Watson was by far the best player on the field.
During the loss, he threw for 405 yards against Alabama, the third-most a Nick Saban Crimson Tide defense had ever allowed. He became the first quarterback in Division I history to top 4,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing, and he also broke Vince Young’s single-game record in a national championship game after he accounted for 478 yards of total offense.
He got revenge against the Tide a year later. With his team down 24-14 in the third quarter, Watson led three scoring drives in the fourth quarter to pull off a thrilling 35-31 victory.
His game-winning touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow came with just one second left on the clock:
Watson was electric in this whole game, throwing for 420 yards and three touchdowns to win Offensive MVP honors. He finished his Clemson career with a 32-3 record as a starter, the best winning percentage for a quarterback in the Tigers’ program history.
After declaring for the 2017 NFL Draft, he was selected 12th overall by the Texans. While his rookie season was cut short due to an ACL tear, he got the Texans into the playoffs in his second season and then again in his third.
Saturday’s game is just one highlight of what promises to be a brilliant career for Watson.
He’s been a blast to watch throughout his career, and that continues to be the case this season. One of his most impressive plays from 2019 was when he threw a touchdown pass after he literally got kicked in the face:
This season, Watson also made headlines because of how eloquently he broke down defenses for reporters during press conferences.
The NFL is entering an era where young, mobile quarterbacks like Watson, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Kyler Murray are dominating NFL defenses. Watson had already been doing that in the regular season, and now he’s starting to do it in the postseason too.
“I told the guys before the game I put a card in their locker that said ‘Let’s be great today,’” Watson said after the comeback win. “Somebody had to be great, why not me?”
Watson has always been great — and he’ll have a chance to add to his legacy next week in the Divisional Round. The Texans will have a rematch against a team Watson has already helped beat once this season: the Kansas City Chiefs.
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