Love DeShaun and he is a true winner already. But damn, after having one million qb’s who ONLY throw checkdowns, we have a qb who refuses to do so!
my exact feelings. btw, does anyone have video of deshaun and blue carrying hopkins? they were apparently laughing as they did it, not funny. found this: leave no man behind.
Well surely he'd do a bit better, but no O line is going to make up for him not properly reading the blitz or him holding on to the ball too long. While it's completely fair to put some of the blame on the O line and some on BOB as well, Watson has been struggling lately when it comes to the mental part of the game. He's missing wide open receivers, he's not properly reading defenses, he's holding on to the ball too long and running into sacks.....but that's to be expected from a QB as inexperienced as he is. I expect he'll continue to develop as a player and those mistakes should begin to disappear next season.
Seriously need to stop making every excuse for the kid, I know some of you want to anoint him and not see his flaws for different reasons, but reality is too much expectations will hurt his progression. He’s talented, and is continuing to grow but if he doesn’t work on some of his weaknesses he won’t reach his full potential.
Put phillip rivers under center here and he'd look like 2016 Rivers and not 2018 Rivers. People are missing it completely. You have to understand why watson is holding on to the ball before it can be corrected. I Don't agree with b.o.b on many of the things he does, but I do believe him when he says, "It's the route running, It's the pass blocking and it's deshaun holding on to it a bit longer" Defenses have seen that as a unit the Texans haven't completely adjusted so the Texans are seeing more of it. It's that simple. B.O.B's job to make it a bit easier, he is 23. Russell was holding on to the ball so much they went out and traded for Brown last season. Enjoy the growth and progression of a holy phenom as time goes by. It's part of the fun. Watson will be fine if he is alive. I also agree with Tj and get inside the mind of a twisted gun slinger
No, that's not really true. If Phillip Rivers were under center here, he'd be calling a lot of audibles and hitting his open guys when the pressure comes. The offense has a ton of weapons and a guy like Phillip Rivers would have a field day with that many talented TE's and receivers. Watson is still a work in progress when it comes to the mental side of the game, he leaves a TON of yards on the field by missing the open guy and by taking sacks instead of picking up easy yards. When has Philip Rivers ever had the level of talent at WR, TE, and RB that the Texans currently have?
Not missing anything, he’s holding onto the ball because that’s what he’s done his whole career. He can make plays and wants to make plays when there aren’t any there. I’m not saying the Oline play is good or consistent but that doesn’t excuse Deshaun’s poor decisions either. I think some people just want to have a young, exciting, mobile QB so bad that they’re blinded. Bottom line is the kid can be great, but he’s not there yet. With a little seasoning to gain consistency he has a chance to be Aaron Rodgers type level.
Not directed at you, but these kind of oddly specific stats and achievements from the various leagues and their PR departments are always kind of comical. Like 6500 yards rushing with under 22 interceptions, better than 55% completion rate in the players first 26.5 games after a rookie season coming off a serious injury (for more than half a season) no one has ever done it in the NFL!
You can have as many weapons as you want but if your line is getting obliterated from 3 gaps, you'll start seeing things that aren't there. Rivers was accused of holding on to the ball. Feels like it was just yesterday, 2012, and 2016. He's on the decline. Taking to many sacks. Needs to get the ball out and that's @ age 32+ Watson is clearly anticipating where that pass rush is coming from that gets him in trouble at times. . My point being seasons change like that. Enjoy the growth of a young qb
The vast majority of the time the line gets "obliterated" is when the defense sends blitzes that aren't picked up due to the blocking scheme not being adjusted by the QB who saw it coming. On those plays, the QB should adjust the blocking scheme and call a hot route so they can get the ball out quickly. Watson simply doesn't do that often enough. When you have the weapons the Texans do, there's simply no excuse taking those sacks. I do think that Watson will grow as a QB and eventually start to do the things he should do more often, but that doesn't mean his youth and inexperience aren't hurting the team now.
I went back and watched all of his sacks. 4 of them were on either missed assignments(aka a blitzer ran right by an interior lineman) or a 4 man rush got home on a max protection. When you only have two guys running routes(max protect) that are longer, it takes some serious time to throw. BoB found something on the throw to Carter(ball came out on an empty set). He then put Watson in empty sets, and the ball magically came out quicker. Two of the sacks were on Watson where he clearly should have thrown the ball away or trusted the pocket. Either way, Since last year, he has dropped his INT% in half, increased his Y/A and rose his completion percentage from 63% to 68%. The OL is much worse than last years, and he is improving in the areas that Elite QB's excel in. For the life of me, I will not understand why this offense does not run HB screens. Watch some tape from the KC Chiefs. They run a ton of them, and it causes teams to lay off the blitz.
When you say "missed assignments" you are assuming that picking up the blitz was their assignment.....it's what SHOULD have been their assignment, but more often than not, the reason that happens is because a different blocking scheme was called, meaning they were given a different assignment. Now, I fully agree with you that BOB does Watson no favors by calling so many long developing plays, but even on those plays, Watson can still audible if he sees a blitz coming and set one of the receivers or his RB to be a hot read. There's no doubt that BOB is one of the worst offensive play callers in the game, but there's still things Watson can do to make plays and avoid sacks if he sees the blitz coming.....he just doesn't see it coming far too often. As to the O line, you couldn't be more wrong saying that it is worse than last years, it's actually a LOT better than last year's O line. It may seem like I'm burying Watson here, but that's not my intention, I'm just saying that right now he's part of the problem due to his inexperience. I fully expect him to grow as a QB and start to figure things out.
What weapons do the Texans really have? Obviously a blue chipper in Hopkins, but there really isn't a guy on the roster whose healthy right now that gains good separation. Hop and DT aren't burners and are typically guys that take a while to get out of their routes. This offense, and Watson for that matter would look much better with a healthy Big Foot(fuller) and Big Foot Jr(Coutee). I wouldn't be surprised if the Texans take a WR in the third round or target a Cole Beasley/Golden Tate/John Brown type of receiver on the cheap. They need a Fuller/Coutee replacement as its been shown they are not reliable to stay on the field.
