QB Deshaun Watson (10.18.26)
Is this getting old at all?
“No, not at all. I love winning, man. Especially the way we won. Perseverance. Through the ups and downs. Offense, defense, special teams sticking together. It’s amazing, especially being so young with this team. The will, the grit that we’re building as a unit. It can be very special. If we can keep learning from these and winning at the same time. We haven’t even played our best football. It’s definitely fun.”
How close do you guys feel that you are to playing your best football?
“We’re close. There’s spots, there’s flashes. We just got to be consistent overall. And that’s starting with me, starting with (HC Todd) Monk (Monken), getting the guys in, making sure we’re all on the same page. Knowing what we want to call versus what they’re doing, being able to adjust on the fly. Again, we’re right there but there is still a lot to learn, still a lot to do and one of these weeks, it’s going to click and then we’re really going to get the ball rolling.”
Can you just talk about overcoming a cold start with it not really going your way, you came through again in the fourth quarter like you have been doing this season. How does it feel to pull that off again for the fourth time this season?
“Yeah, we just got to keep working. It’s the NFL, so days are going to be tough. It’s going to be hard especially when we have a lot of new pieces. We had new running backs that just got here, trying to put in new schemes, and then going against a team that is very dominant, very veteran-wise. They play a lot of football so they did a good job of just mixing up what they are doing. They didn’t really call the same stuff. They were rotating, Jesse Minter did a good job of calling, not repeating calls. You got to keep fighting. A lot of games from now until those two minutes and I’ve learned over the years, so when you put me in that spot, I’m prepared and ready for those moments. I love it and I enjoy it. Hopefully, we don’t have to do it more often and we can kind of put the game away. While we have it, I am ready for it. ”
When you guys are in a position like that you guys have done that over and over, do you feel a confidence building, like ‘hey its ok we have done this before and been here before, we know what to do when we are in these situations’?
“Most definitely, it is all in the confidence. This is what we practice for, we practiced it all offseason and we practice it every week. Once we get into that huddle, I take charge and look at every single one of those guys in the eyes and let them know like ‘hey, opportunities are gonna come let’s finish it, let’s go win, let’s be the legends and all the work we put in is here for us.’ Yeah it is just a confidence thing, a still peaceful moment that I am in and they feed off the energy that I bring. I just tell the guys again, I told Jerry (Jeudy), ‘hey man be ready on that in cut’, and he was ready for it and made a big play.”
I was going to ask you to relive that 3rd-and-3 play with him.
“It was one of the plays where we had an opportunity earlier in the game. I can’t remember what quarter it was, I think I threw it to TE Harold (Fannin Jr.) and he was telling me about the in cuts. So, I always kept that in the back of my mind. That was him being a vet talking to me. And it was a late check for me. I thought they were doing one thing, and then they disguised it. And I just wanted an in cut to the field. And I checked it and wanted to confirm the coverage down the middle. 14 (Baltimore Ravens DB Kyle Hamilton) ran with the middle route, and then WR Jerry (Jeudy) did a good job getting his depth and I put it on time, he caught it and got the extra yards, and put us in position to win. So it was a full task. Everyone was on the same page, and that’s what we talked about and adjusted on the sideline.”
You mentioned the Ravens did a lot of things to disguise what they were doing, did you pick up on anything in the second half that allowed you guys to get in a rhythm?
“Really just for me, just to try to get the ball out. Don’t try to read what they’re disguising and rotating and rolling different coverages. They play a lot of quarters and they can palm it, they can cloud it, they can match it, they can zone it off. It’s a lot of different things that they kinda rotated. A couple zeros and pressure looks that we didn’t see. Saw for the first time, all the different looks that they’ve been doing for the past couple weeks. We had to adjust to those. Especially when they brought up pressure and the back picked up the pressure, but the zero linebacker, we call them green dog comes lates and no one is accounting for him. Different things like that we had to adjust to. Maybe get the ball a little faster and find my checkdowns. The defense helped us out, they put us in good field position. We just tried to adjust and ball kind of bounced our way and we took advantage of it.”
How does it feel to be 4-2 and first place in the AFC North, especially when you haven’t played your best offensively?
“It feels good, like I mentioned before, you want to work out the kinks early in the season, especially September, October football, working that out, so by the time we get to November, December that’s when you really got to lock in and you can’t make those mistakes, you have to be as consistent as possible, we’re still working out, first time playing teams, we are gonna get another opportunity to play them, and other divisional teams, and that’s when we got to be at our best, this is good to, again, watch the tape but also get the victory, like you mentioned and it feels good to be able to do that and learn on top of that.”
What can you say about the two new backs you had with you this week?
“I think, really just kind of the work that they put in this week. The knowledge they kinda picked up. I think the work with Duce (Staley) and the staff, putting in overtime, staying late, getting there early and they didn’t have a lot of checks when I was out there on the field. There were a couple things…there were a couple motions and stuff like that, they were asking questions on, but the majority of the time they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and they knew exactly what they needed to do, running the ball and protection wise, and also routes. It was good to kinda feel that. It kinda made the game, especially in the second half, easier for me to be able to find them. So, I started trusting that and they did a good job of doing what they needed to do.”
You’ve talked about wanting to be one of the chosen ones to get that win in the fourth quarter, this is the fourth time this season. How does it feel to be able to be that this season and treat this home crowd to euphoria?
“It’s amazing. I’ve been wanting to be that person since I was in high school, college, going back to my national championship last drive, to even my Houston days, and now. I’ve always been like you give me an opportunity and a two-minute drive, I want to be that guy who’s going to make something happen and finish the game, and bring so much joy to the fans. These are games that the fan base is going to always remember. I know they want better play. We want better play also. So we got to continue to provide that for them early on in the games. But, regardless, getting those victories, especially against a divisional rival like this, especially in our home stadium, it’s very big and huge. We have to continue to stack up these and bring more victories. We want to put up more points and more explosive plays, so they can have more things to cheer about throughout the game.”
What’s it like being a part of this sports moment for you personally? 4-2, atop the North, and now across the street the ALCS is being played, so back-to-back. How cool is that for you as a sports fan in general? What is it like as a player being a part of a moment like this that’s kinda historic.
“You try to just be in the moment honestly. You try to just enjoy it. I was watching the game last night. Wish they could’ve pulled it out. Just to be in this environment, this excitement, you don’t really get these opportunities to be able to be here. It’s a blessing and it’s a moment that you don’t want to forget. You wanna try to cherish it and feel it and dive deep as much as you possibly can into that great excitement, that energy in the city. We want to be able to build on that. We’re pulling for the Guardians. We’re gonna continue to pull for them. Hopefully they can pull it out and get the World Series here. We wanna continue to win games also for us on the football field. The Cavs are gonna start up soon and get the ball rolling too on the court. It’s a great time to be in Cleveland most definitely.”
Todd was praising you guys for how you’re wired to stick with it in some of these games and to make runs in the fourth quarter. How can you tell the way a team is wired?
“Just the energy throughout the game, no one was getting discouraged and everyone was kinda picking each other up. There’s moments where guys wanted to make plays, guys missing plays, stuff like that but you can tell right after that we are on to the next drive. You can see that with this young group, and with these veterans that we have around here. Through all three phases, defense, offense and special teams, no one is bashing each other. Defense is making plays, constantly making plays and stopping the team and offensively we haven’t picked up our pace yet but they’re still encouraging us. When we’re coming on the field, ‘let’s go, let’s go, y’all got it, y’all got it’. That is very motivating, and once we get to the fourth quarter you can feel the energy within the stadium, within the sideline. Hey we are about to win this game, and that is very positive to have. I’ve been around where you internally want to play in those games, but you don’t, you can kinda feel that energy that we might not. But I think every week we have the opportunity, even last week in the elements that we were in, we felt like we were going to have a chance to win, but it didn’t turn that way, but this week it did and it was awesome.”
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