It wasn’t a good showing for Houston Texans’ quarterback Deshaun Watson and the first team in their Week 3 preseason match-up against the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night at AT&T Stadium.
Watson only saw one drive on the night, as opposed to last season when he played three series in Week 3 of the preseason at the Los Angeles Rams when he was coming off a torn ACL. On the first play of the game, Watson showed a bit of what troubled him last season in holding onto the football for far too long. The protection from the offensive line was actually good, but nothing seemed to open up for Watson down the field.
Rather than throw the pass away and live to play another down, the Clemson product decided to try and scramble but was ultimately chased down and sacked. The sack was overridden by a defensive holding penalty, however, that doesn’t erase what Watson showed. On the second passing play of the game, Watson had very little time to get comfortable as the offensive line broke down and allowed Taco Charlton to get to Watson for a strip-sack.
The line began to break down early, but Watson showed poor pocket awareness and began to scramble far too late. That was the final play Watson would take part in on the night, as Joe Webb took over after that. It was certainly not a performance Texans fans wanted to see with the regular season right around the corner. However, with such a small sample size, and rosters still being adjusted, this shouldn’t be something fans should put too much stock into.
Watson finished the game with zero passing statistics to speak of, other than his sack. The Houston coaching staff may have been wise to let Watson sit as starting running back Lamar Miller was carted off the field on that same series.
