Deshaun Watson, Texans borrow trick play from Bears

The Texans borrowed a page out of the Bears’ playbook with a trick play in their win over the Patriots on Sunday night.

Chicago Bears fans watching the New England Patriots and the Houston Texans game on Sunday Night Football may have seen something that looked familiar when the Texans scored their final touchdown of the night.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, with the Texans leading the Patriots 21-9, quarterback Deshaun Watson and the Houston offense entered the redzone. On first-and-goal from the 6-yard line, Watson handed the ball to running back Duke Johnson, who then gave it to receiver DeAndre Hopkins on an end around, then pitched the ball back to Watson as he dove over the pylon for the touchdown.

The score put Houston up 28-9 and essentially sealed the game while fans were going nuts over the fake play they just saw. But Bears fans have seen this done before.

Back in 2017 during quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s first NFL start against the Minnesota Vikings, the Bears ran a nearly identical fake play as a 2-point conversion following Trubisky’s first career touchdown pass. Trubisky handed the ball to running back Jordan Howard, who gave it to tight end Zach Miller, then pitched it back to Trubisky for two points.

Flashing back to the present, Watson wasn’t shy about revealing where he learned the play from following their 28-22 win.

“We were watching a game, and actually, I think it was Chicago that did it,” Watson revealed. “We brought it up, me and A.J. McCarron were looking at it, was watching film one day and was like ‘actually, we probably can run that.’ So we kind of through it out there to (offensive coordinator) Tim Kelly and OB (head coach Bill O’Brien) and Hop (Hopkins) saw it and Hop of course said ‘yeah, let’s do it, let’s do it.’ He was excited so we kept working on it, kept working on it, and we knew it was the perfect time once we got inside the 5 (yard line), it was going to come. It was good.”

This isn’t the first time a team took a specific play from the Bears. The Philadelphia Eagles’ famous “Philly Special” play from Super Bowl 52 that saw tight end Trey Burton throw a touchdown pass to quarterback Nick Foles against the Patriots was originally run by the Bears in 2016. Both plays were orchestrated by former offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains.

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