CLEVELAND — After the kickoff was delayed 37 minutes because of treacherous weather, the Texans lost a game to the Cleveland Browns they could have won if the offense had not blown opportunities.
No matter how hard the wicked wind tore through FirstEnergy Stadium after a torrential downpour, lightning and hail forced the players to return to their locker rooms Sunday, the Texans were still in position to defeat the Browns for their third victory.
Bad weather is no excuse for scoring once in a 10-7 defeat that dropped the Texans to 2-7 and elevated the surprising Browns to 6-3.
“Every loss is frustrating,” quarterback Deshaun Watson said after spending a miserable afternoon reduced to throwing mostly short passes. “We had opportunities, and we didn’t capitalize.”
The Browns are accustomed to hazardous weather at their stadium on the Lake Erie shore. The ground-and-pound Browns ran 41 times for 231 yards, including 100-yard performances by Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.
The Texans ran 22 times for 90 yards — 54 by Duke Johnson and 36 by Watson. But they couldn’t get 2 yards when they needed it the most, and it cost them a victory.
The Browns led 3-0 after the first series. The Texans could have tied the score or taken the lead on their second possession. They went from their 29 to a first down at the Cleveland 8. What happened next spoiled a chance to win.
Johnson’s 1-yard run and Watson’s 5-yard pass to Jordan Akins made it third-and-goal at the 2. On third down, Randall Cobb dropped a pass at the 1. He might have been able to score.
On fourth down, Romeo Crennel decided to go for the touchdown. Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly called a quarterback draw and not a Watson rollout on which he could have run or passed. Defensive end Myles Garrett dropped him for a 2-yard loss.
A field goal in that situation would have looked good at the end of the game. A touchdown would have looked even better.
“On the fourth-and-2, I was trying to get a touchdown,” Crennel said. “I felt like if we could get a touchdown in that situation with the weather being what it was that it would help our team quite a bit.”
Watson never had a chance on the quarterback draw. Not surprising considering how difficult it’s been all season for any Texan to run between the tackles (even though Duke Johnson had runs Sunday of 18 and 23 yards).
“They just did a good job of stuffing us,” Watson said. “I was trying to find an alley, and Myles made a good play of redirecting, and they stopped us. We got the look, and they did a good job of not getting out of their gaps. (I) tried to find the hole, and Myles made a play.”
Amazingly, neither team committed a turnover despite the conditions. Watson finished 20-of-30 for 163 yards and one touchdown on a 16-yard pass to tight end Pharaoh Brown midway through the fourth quarter. Baker Mayfield was 12-of-20 for 132 yards.
Mayfield has experience playing in a nasty conditions. Watson doesn’t.
“It’s tough, especially if you don’t get to experience it on a consistent basis,” Watson said. “It (was) definitely a factor in the game, but I don’t want to make excuses on that (being) the reason we didn’t capitalize. That’s not the reason. We just didn’t make enough plays fast enough to give us a chance to win.”
The Texans’ strength is Watson throwing down the field to receivers Will Fuller and Brandin Cooks. Fuller had five catches for 38 yards, Cooks six for 39.
“You have to be able to guide the ball different ways and (in) different areas of the field,” Watson said. “A couple of times, the ball was right there, but the wind took it (a) certain way.
“It was tough on both sides. That’s why they did a lot of bootlegs, draws and different screens, but (it was) the same with us. We had to pick our spots and try to throw it down the field because that’s what we want to do, but it’s kind of hard with heavy wind. We just didn’t connect.”
After the failed quarterback draw, the defense stopped the Browns on their next series and forced a punt. The Texans started that drive at the Cleveland 49. Another excellent opportunity to make it 3-3 or 7-3, but they blew that one, too.
They had a first down at the Browns’ 27 after Johnson’s 2-yard run and went backward because of two penalties and a sack. Ka’imi Fairbairn lined up for what would have been a 48-yard field goal into the wind, but Crennel called for a pooch kick. Fairbairn executed it perfectly, leaving the Browns at their 4.
The Browns got out of trouble, and the Texans didn’t get the ball back until there were 25 seconds left in the first half.
Down 3-0, the Texans got the ball to start the third quarter with the wind at their back. After Johnson ran for 23 yards to start the drive, Watson couldn’t connect with Fuller two times down the right side, and they had to punt.
“We really wanted to take chances,” Watson said about throwing deeper routes to Fuller. “The wind took it when you float it up there. We were trying to see what the wind was going to do and see if we had opportunities, but it didn’t work our way.”
On their next possession, the Texans had a first down at the Cleveland 35 and fourth down at the 27. With the wind at his back, Fairbairn had plenty of distance from 46 yards, but his kick was wide left.
When the Texans finally scored on Watson’s touchdown pass to Brown that finished a 90-yard drive, they needed the defense to stop the Browns’ running game, but that was hopeless.
Instead, the Texans suffered their fourth one-score defeat.
“We’re all disappointed we didn’t win the game and we didn’t play better in the second half,” Crennel said. “We felt like it was a winnable game at halftime, and we didn’t play as well in the second half. We felt like we could come back in the second half, get points on the board and be able to pull it out, but it didn’t work that way.”
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