Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

October 11, 2018 at 3:02 am.

QB Watson dealing with chest injury

There have been plenty of rumors flying around regarding the health of Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson after some big hits he took against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Watson has been dealing with a rib issue for nearly a month and there was speculation that he suffered a serious injury against the Cowboys, which was not the case.

Watson had his weekly press conference with media and when asked if he was going to play this Sunday against the Buffalo Bills he answered with confidence, saying, “For sure.”

He continued, “Another day in the office recovering from the game, getting ready for Buffalo.”

Watson acknowledged he was sore from the game but nothing out of the ordinary from other games he has played in. Head coach Bill O’Brien pointed to the injury report where Watson was listed as limited despite a report coming out on Monday the quarterback was day-to-day with a chest injury.

It was a rough start for Watson only completing 50 percent of his passes in Week 1 but since that time he has been throwing with much improved accuracy. In the last four weeks, Watson has not completed less than 60 percent of his pass attempts and three of those games were over 68.8 percent.

The Texans have been a big-play machine with Watson at the helm. He has completed 14 passes that have covered 25 or more yards creating chunk plays. This past week, Watson showed a part of his game that showed him a patient passer not forcing the issue.

“Just have a lot of guys that are playing deep. They respect our deep threat,” Watson said of the offense. “They respect Will Fuller, they respect Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) and they always – if it’s one-high, two-high, but some type of form – they always have at least one guy deep that’s playing deep, playing over the top and that’s the thing.”

Watson was able to get tight end Ryan Griffin and running back Alfred Blue involved in the passing game with the Cowboys taking away the deeper routes. Griffin’s six receptions and Blue’s eight receptions were season highs for their respective position groups. That is a testament to Watson who is growing as a quarterback and being patient in the pocket.

“They want to make us earn those yards and be able to move down the field in 12 or 13 plays throughout,” Watson explained. “That should be in every defensive game plan. Never give up the big play, never let the ball go over your head. We respect that and we just try to find open holes in it.”

In eight games with the wide receiver duo of DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller V, Watson has completed 65.6 percent of his passes. Watson has thrown for 2,991 yards and 23 touchdowns to only nine interceptions with a passer rating of 107.8.

O’Brien credits Watson’s success with the two receivers due to success on early downs during drives.

“It’s good,” O’Brien said of Watson’s success. “Especially when we get good gains on first down. That’s the key, is getting into a rhythm. How do you get into the rhythm? Well, you get into the rhythm with a positive play on first down.”

In 12 games with Hopkins, Watson has thrown 10 touchdowns to the veteran wide receiver, while Fuller has caught 10 touchdowns in eight games with Watson.

SERIES HISTORY: 9th regular-season meeting. Series tied, 4-4. Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is 1-1 in matchups with the Bills and in the last meeting the Bills took care of the Texans with a 30-21 win in December of 2015. Plenty has changed for both teams since their last meeting with Tyrod Taylor leading the Bills passing attack with three touchdowns while Brian Hoyer tried to keep the Texans in the game with 293 through the air with three touchdowns of his own. Jadeveon Clowney had a sack in that game, which was only the second of his career. DeAndre Hopkins had five receptions for 88 yards and touchdown in the loss for the Texans.