Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt did not record a sack in his team’s 27-20 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday at NRG Stadium. However, he still managed to make quite an impact.
Facing Patriots quarterback Cam Newton, Watt collected four pass breakups, which represented for a new career high for the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year. It also gave the Texans (3-7) just their third victory in 10 contests so far in the NFL’s 2020 football season.
To put in statistical perspective how impressive Watt’s afternoon was, he entered Sunday with three pass breakups over the first nine games by the Texans this season. In 2019, Watt had three in eight games, and he registered four over an entire 16-game season in 2018.
Watt then went to Twitter after the game and posted a GIF of former Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo swatting cereal boxes away from a shopping cart. (It’s from an older GEICO commercial.)
Watt was drafted by Houston in 2011, and he’s become somewhat of a regular attendee at Rockets’ games during the long football offseasons.
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) November 22, 2020
Mutombo ranks second in NBA history with 3,289 career blocks, trailing only Hakeem Olajuwon (also of the Rockets, of course). Besides his paint presence, Mutombo also became well known for his distinctive “finger wag” to opponents and the crowd after many of those blocks.
Mutombo played in Houston for the final five seasons of his Hall of Fame career, from the 2004-05 season through the 2009 playoffs. The Rockets made the playoffs in four of those five seasons, including the 2009 squad that became the first Houston team to win a playoff series in 12 years.
