Deshaun Watson’s Week 11 performance was not up to par with high expectations. In the Houston Texans’ 41-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the shot-caller suffered his worst loss in his three-year career, his abilities as a passer on Sunday reflected that.
Watson went 18 of 29 passing for 169 yards, a fumble and an interception in the blowout loss. His 63.7 passer rating in the contest was the worst of his season, and third-worst for career starts.
By all means, Watson did not have a good game on Sunday.
However, Sunday was two days ago. Watson has been through worse than a lousy football game at the highest level. He, like the entirety of the Texans locker room, is moving on to focus on the Indianapolis Colts on “Thursday Night Football.”
“If you know anything about Deshaun Watson, like, in the whole scheme of things, relative to how he sees life and how he attacks things, that was one day that is over and we’ll clean some things up and he’ll be focused on Indianapolis,” said coach Bill O’Brien on Monday. “He’s overcome a hell of a lot more than that, so he’ll be ready to go.”
A bad game is a bad game. Nobody enjoys them. What defines a person, and subsequently, a quarterback, is how they overcome failure and disappointment. It’s part of life. Watson, throughout his 24 years, has become an icon for his ability to overcome adversity, on or off the field.
In the NFL, Watson has historically done a good job bouncing back from poor performances. He has a 4-1 record after games in which he recorded a 75 or below passer rating, with his lone loss coming in a 20-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans in Week 2 of 2018, where he recorded a 107.6 passer rating.
On Thursday, Watson will have the opportunity to blank the bad game from his mind four days after it happened. He also gets the chance to beat the rival Colts and extend his post-75 passer rating record to 5-1.