Lack of confidence? Assessing Deshaun Watson’s poor Week 1 performance | NFL Live

Cowboys vs. Browns reaction who was fresh off signing his deal in Cleveland and he said yeah go out and play you paid me 231 guaranteed Millions I'm good let's go about halfway through the first quarter Cowboys trailing three nothing Prescott to CD lamb making an incredible catch for the first down great sideline awareness there and uh lamb five receptions for 61 yards later in the drive third and five for the Browns 21 Prescott lobin one to the end zone Brandon Cooks took care of that one and Prescott absolutely loves it the Cowboys take a 7 to3 lead under a minute left in the first quarter deshun Watson trying to make something happen and Micah Parson says yeah I'm going to take you down big old sack right there cowboys lead 7 to3 after the first quarter second quarter Zeke Elliot running it in for the touchdown that's his first touchdown back in Dallas and the Cowboys lead 20 to3 at the half just dominating this game over the Browns under two minutes left in the half Watson the pass deflected there picked off by Eric Kendricks we're going to talk about deshun Watson in just moments the Cowboys tacking on a field goal and then N9 minutes left in the game the Browns Trill 30 3 to 10 at this point Watson's pass going off the hands of Elijah Moore intercepted by Trayvon Diggs the Cowboys defense totaled six sacks and two interceptions as uh it really was not a pretty day there for the Browns either way Watson averaged just 3.8 yards per pass attempt the lowest of his career in any game where he attempted 10 or more passes his total qbr of 9.4 is also the worst of his career remember qbr is out of 100 and Watson put up a nine so Dan the numbers are just absolutely awful how bad was How bad was Watson’s performance? the tape yesterday from Deshawn yeah bad it's hard to find an accurate throw and that's not just this past weekend it's also going back over the past couple years it seems like that's a part of his game that's been lost I think number one there's a a hesitancy and a lack of confidence he's got a receiver over the middle of the field coupe's going to win let the ball go now he's wide open but holding on to the football early in the game that's a sack Elijah crossing the middle of the field this is wide open in the NFL it looks like he pulls the string like he's guiding the football here that forces the ball to dive down in an incomplete pass they're going to get a slot Blitz this is Amari Cooper on a slant it's perfect might be 20 25 yards if he throws the ball in his chest he misses it by good yard there's going to be a clip down in the Red Zone the back goes to the flat I would have worked down to the boundary he doesn't he goes up top look where this ball lands met six or seven yards out of bounds it's not even opportunity nor deciding to try and go make a play I think the head coach and play call Kevin stefansky is Elite in his system and I don't think he believes he can run his system with where DeShaun Watson is right now I think there's a crisis in Cleveland because the quarterback is struggling to be accurate with the football okay put a pin in that for just a moment because we do want to show you Robert Salah right now the Jets head coach he's been doing this where he runs the stairs pregame since 2005 when he was with the Houston Texans he's walking right now but he he starts to go a little faster as he warms up and uh Marcus is gonna go join him in just a little bit in his suit that's what swagu told us uh but like xeres off of 300 oh man there he is there he goes there he goes the There He Is We we had to show you that as we're just over three hours to kickoff of Monday Night Football between the Jets and 49ers but mea let's pick it back up Dan you heard what he said the crisis in Cleveland what do you think yeah I put myself in the minds of the play callers Kevin stefansky and I think what can you hang your hat on right because the job number one is to figure out what your quarterback does well and then build an offense off of that we saw him do that with Joe Flaco this game you saw them try different things with Watson let's put him in empty let's put him in the gun let's move the pocket let's try a bunch of different concepts and it just didn't feel like they ever landed on something that he excelled freaking excelled in that he was competent in frankly I could would contrast that with um the Steelers who we didn't really talk about in great length Field's the flawed quarterback but he has qualities that you can build an offense around and you saw that with Arthur Smith oh his Mobility he's still an incredible Scrambler design Run game and some deep shots because he has good arm yeah I don't feel like RC there are things you can point to with deshun Watson at this point in his career that you can build an offense off of what I love is that Mina talked about the effort the effort of Kevin stefansky to play caller to say we're going to try to figure out something you can do well deshun Watson also put in a lot of effort which is what scares me because because maybe he just can't do it anymore DeShaun Watson even though he was under pressure even though Mike Zimmer's defense played extremely well I've seen him at his best play great on a bad football team to miss the sorts of throws that he's missing to not be able to find ways to create second play opportunities for your players that was the reason GM Andrew Barry went out and got him and so now if I'm sitting in that locker room or I'm a head coach I'm remembering what it looked like down the stretch with Joe flacko who was crying out for Inside the Steelers vs. Falcons reaction NFL in the during the preseason last year there is a crisis in Cleveland and the crisis may be you're stuck with a contract with a quarterback who is no longer who you acquired and that's the biggest problem on a team that's Championship caliber let's go to the Steelers and Falcons Russell Wilson out of the game with a calf injury so he doesn't start Justin Fields gets the start Kurt Cousins making his debut in Atlanta for the Falcons late first quarter tied 3-3 cousins pass intended for Drake London but picked off by Deshawn Elliott Deshawn Elliot with a great play here Kurt Cousins just seems out of sorts the entire game let's go to the second quarter the Steelers trying to get points before the half and Fields goes deep to George Pickins for the 41 yd gain do you know the audacity you have to have as Arthur Smith to call this play in the arm strength by Justin Fields hey George picking pretty good too Falcons leading 10 to nine here first and 10 on the pit 32 the snap hits Ross dwell as he goes in motion and TJ watt was just wreaking havoc this it's only right every time time my man made a play they threw a stinking flag about time he gets the turnover fourth quarter under three minutes to go in the game the Falcons down five cousins pass toward Ray Ray McLoud the third is picked off by Dante Jackson the Steelers will go on to win 18 to 10 the Falcons have three turnovers over the day and Mina it was our first chance to see this Falcons offense with Kirk Cousins what what stood out to you you know when the Falcons sign Kirk Cousins I'm thinking of Kirk and Minnesota I'm thinking their offensive play caller Zack Robinson comes from the ram he's going to be under Center we're going to see a lot of play action no pass attempts under Center not a single rep of play action he was entirely in the gun or the pistol and when he was in the gun or the pistol they were extremely predictable as you can see here 100% pass rate out of the gun almost entirely running the football out of pistol which made it a lot easier for the Pittsburgh Steelers front to anticipate what they were doing they were also by the way predict predictable out of their personnel groupings when they were 11 they were passing at 80% of the time so I'm watching this thinking is this because Kurt Cousins is hurt and he just can't move back there and he doesn't want to turn his back to the defense at all and if that's the case is it wise to have him out there Ryan sorry really fast we look like we're at the kids table at Thanksgiving well one I'm at the kids table I'm at the kids table and my eyes watering I'm in I'm in bad shape right now guys I don't know what made I put us I thought it was just the Falcons offense that out but when you look I just wanted to see play action like when you look at what we saw from Kurt Cousins at that offense it made me say to myself oh I see why you drafted Michael pennick eighth overall what did you know because this is not how he's successful it also brought to light that these guys don't create a ton of Separation we watch Kurt Cousins in the play action Kurt Cousins having opportunity for half rolls and he had one of the best route runners in football and Justin Jefferson to throw the football to he's not going to have that in Atlanta so if they can't get under Center if Kurt Cousins can't move the launch point in the back this is going to be very difficult for the enti on the Steelers side of things they weren't able to start Russell Wilson Dan they go with Justin Fields what did his tape tell you in the early goings that he should be their starter and that his connection with George Pickins to be like the ability to throw downfield in an explosive manner matters um I I know that this offense is going to lack some efficiency and Justin's going to have to and if he's going to be their starting quarterback he's him and Arthur Smith are going to have to find ways to be more efficient but I do know this he managed the game he made plays with his legs when he needed to and then he made big throws downfield they're going to have to get him to understand to play a little quicker but I also don't think they should ask him to play in that man or if he's going to be their starting [Applause] quarterback man I love your PIN bro I love it RC that's custom I like how he looped the O in there with the D like you let your daughter draw it I think that is beautiful and that's what it's about this is about family and being together hey I got to make comment though because this is the difference in I was going to say d this is the difference in your fashion versus our seed's fashion like it's about right um Texans vs. Colts reaction all right we're going to see how long we last at this kids table we're going to get kicked out of the Thanksgiving dinner the way we're behaving over here's Colt it's an exciting quarterback matchup with two of the best in the league at quarterback between CJ Stout and the Texans and Anthony rich and the Colts we're going to pick it up in the opening quarter the Texans are Up 3 nothing here and Anthony Richardson missed most of his rookie season due to injury but he returned in Grand style what a throw connecting with Alec Pierce for 60 yards this replay is insane I could watch this throw over and over again he makes the throw while slipping how do you throw at 60 yards you're slipping you're falling down doesn't matter fourth quarter that's where we go now the Texans up by two on Fourth and goal CJ strad finds his newest Target Stefon Diggs the former with the two touchdowns on the day good to see him there in the Colts down by nine in need of a score Richardson says I got it I'm just going to throw people off me I mean physical doesn't even say the half of it right swag all right under two minutes remain Texans up by two Colts need a stop on third down to give the offense a shot and Joe Mixon picking up the first down too Ryan's fired up as his Squad takes the 29-27 victory Marcus the Texans offense was so good last season but it looks like they might have gotten better what did you see out of them Sunday one Joe Mixon pickup was sneaky one of the best moves this off season second this was a 30th rank Rush team in the league last year this year they won't be um I think adding this element with CJ stad and how well he plays on time the things that he can do with his arm but the Run game to me was the most impressive and then at the end of the game when you had to have it you were able to seal the game but Joe Mixon looked explosive they had this Zone scheme working getting them outside of the tackles or right off the back inside foot of the offensive tackles and look this Indianapolis Co defense is good now this is this this was a challenge for you to be able to turn yards up front I thought they did a phenomenal job but oh my God if the Texans can run the football with what they can do in the pass game this year and be consistent with it and the way that they were able to generate pressure on the on the quarterback yesterday defensively we may be talking about a team in the AFC championship did I remember three or four years ago when the Bengals ran a re real offense part of it was the Zone runs scheme with Joe Mixon and Marcus your point yes Lord is spot on that zone scheme and Joe's really good at it when it comes to you got to have patience because you never know when the hole is going to present itself and then you got to be able to cut off one foot you got to press the outside leg of the tackle and then believe that the backside is going to collapse and when the hole presents itself put your foot in the go ground see how he gets in between those two offensive lineman that's a skill set from these backs you saw it out a bunch here's another one out of motion now so often backs cut back and they cut all the way back and almost run themselves into blockers again Joe's patience to wait for it wait and then the scene presents itself and obviously a physical finish at the very end so those are two inside zones again the cut back Lane off the bunch concept and he's really good at the outside Zone at well and I love the fact that they can Houston still run out of the gun lead block blockers out front so often in the outside Zone guys will cut back too early this time he just runs the hump and get outside I agree with Marquez like if they can run the football in their Zone scheme like this one of the best play action passing offenses in football last year I think it'll be almost impossible to stop this year Dan I got the question I have for you I I remember a few years ago we talked about momes and kind of tapering down and wanting them to play and structure a little bit more we saw CJ stra do that a lot but it was different cuz he used his legs quite a bit in this game does this element of this Zone scheme how how much of a difference will it make for him as a quarterback as far as processing and can we see him make another jump from a rookie season unlike anything we saw yeah great question totally can remember last year as remarkable as he was it was a little bit of a facade because it was so much on third down if they can run the football relatively efficiently and then you build that into their early downplay action I think he could be even better than he was last year cuz he won't be so reliant on being a essentially a superhero on third down [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]