It took awhile, but Deshaun Watson and Amari Cooper hooked up for three completions, 105 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. (Cleveland Browns)
Deshaun Watson rediscovers Amari Cooper and, presto, Browns offense finally clicks
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
LANDOVER, MD
Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that Browns opponents are capable of doing crazy things, too.
Sure, Kevin Stefanski took three points off the board in a tight game on the road in the first half to run a play on fourth-and-3. Fourth-and-3! You knew it would fail, and it did.
But the Browns’ coach was outdone by his counterpart, respected Washington coach Ron Rivera, a good man like Stefanski, who has been the adult in the room in an organization headed by a dysfunctional owner.
Rivera not only started the scarred Carson Wentz ahead of populist quarterback Taylor Heinicke. He took his team down in flames by refusing to yank the bumbling, stumbling Wentz with faint NFC playoff hopes alive.
In a game the Commanders had to win, Wentz tossed three interceptions to bury his team while an alarmingly ineffective Deshaun Watson turned into, well, Deshaun Watson in the second half. Watson shook of a putrid first half and threw touchdown passes in the first three possessions of the second half as the Browns won going away, 24-10.
Thus, the Browns held off the stigma of losing 10 or more games for another week. They are 7-9 with a final game at Pittsburgh, aka the graveyard of Browns seasons.
The Commanders, 7-8-1, entered the day as the NFC No. 7 playoff seed but were eliminated when the Packers defeated the Vikings.
Rivera added to his rough day by expressing surprise in the post-game interview that his club could be eliminated by day’s end.
On a 60-degree day that was seen as a hopeful breakthrough performance for Watson, the $230 million quarterback struggled through the first half. The Browns produced 81 yards and 3 points in the first half. Even Wentz managed to lead his team to the end zone on an indefatigable 21-play march at the end of the half for a 7-3 Washington lead.
But something had to happen in the locker room to open Watson’s eyes to the fact that Amari Cooper is a receiver who deserves to be the key receiving target.
Cooper was targeted one time in the first half, and it was a non-catchable ball. But in the second half, Watson was 3-for-3 targeting Cooper, including a 46-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown on the first possession and a 33-yard touchdown that closed the scoring. In between those plays, Cooper caught a pass for 26 yards on third-and-9 that extended a drive and led to a Watson-to-Donovan Peoples-Jones TD connection of 13 yards.
Stefanski said there was no specific discussion at halftime to get the ball to Cooper. (There should have been.)
“It was ‘go score some points,’” the coach said of the halftime conversation. “And obviously Amari is a big part of that. Whenever you get to halftime and you’re not playing as well as you want to, you do think about [your best] players. But the conversation wasn’t ‘We have to get the ball to Amari.’ He’s a great player for us. When you call those plays you’re thinking about him, and he came through with three really big ones.”
Cooper saved Watson from a severe setback in his fifth start since reinstatement from NFL suspension. In the first half, Watson was 3 of 8 for 23 yards and stepped into four sacks. He also failed on a feeble keeper on the fourth-and-3 gamble by Stefanski.
Watson’s half culminated in a ridiculous play on which he circled in the backfield to avoid sacks on multiple occasions, lost his bearings and ended up checking the ball down to right tackle Jack Conklin, who was minding his own business near the right sideline. Embarrassing.
But in the second half, Watson regained his mojo, completed 6 of 10 passes for 146 yards and the three touchdowns, to finish the game with a robust passer rating of 122.5.
“He was great at halftime,” Stefanski said of Watson’s demeanor. “He knew.”
The Browns produced 220 yards of offense in the second half and three touchdowns – equalling Watson’s production of the last three games combined.
A big part of the offense was running back Nick Chubb, of course, who averaged 7.4 yards a rush on 104 yards on 14 attempts. Chubb's successive runs of 9, 7 and 6 yards jumpstarted the Browns' second TD drive in the third quarter.
“I would prefer 60 minutes of it,” Stefanski said of the turnaround. “Listen, you go up against a good defense at their place, you know it’s going to be a bit of a slog. You just have to keep swinging.”
Watson said of the second-half explosion, “That was definitely the potential of what the future can hold. Everything was just clicking.”
Lost in Watson’s resurgence, perhaps, was the rebound performance of embattled coordinator Joe Woods’ defense. After a sleepwalking effort on Christmas Eve against the Saints, the Browns refused to play down to the level of Wentz.
Denzel Ward had a good leaping interception in front of former Ohio State teammate Terry McLaurin, and safety Grant Delpit followed an interception last week with two against Wentz, including a diving one at the back of the Browns’ end zone that sealed the game.
By then, the Washington faithful in FedEx Field had exhausted itself with chants calling for Heinicke and disgustedly exited the premises.
The Browns’ win sets up a finish in Pittsburgh that possibly could ease the pain of another playoff-less season.
If the Steelers win in Baltimore Sunday night, they would still be alive for the AFC No. 7 playoff seed and would need a win against the Browns plus some help to get in.
Other than beating the Steelers in an 2020 AFC wild card game, the Browns have not been in position to spoil a Pittsburgh season for decades.
“We’d love to do that,” said defensive end Myles Garrett, who had 1.5 of the three sacks of Wentz. “If we can’t make it, we’re definitely going to make sure those guys can’t. We live for times like this.”
