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Richard Sherman has seen a lot in his seven NFL seasons, and he’s usually pretty candid about whatever he sees, on or off the field. So when Sherman says Deshaun Watson’s performance in Sunday’s thriller in Seattle was the “best game any quarterback has ever played against” the Seahawks and the Legion of Boom, that means something.
Sherman relayed those comments to Peter King who asked what he said to the Houston Texans rookie sensation after the game.
‘You played the best game any quarterback has ever played against us, and we’ve played all the legends. I respect how you hung in there and kept battling and battling.’”
Watson’s performance in a 41-38 loss, a game that seesawed from big play to AMAZING play and back to big play, was everything on Sunday, and it’s already in the history books. He’s the first player with 400-plus passing yards, four touchdowns, and 50-plus rushing yards in a single game. And he would’ve come away with a win too, if it hadn’t been for his head coach, Bill O’Brien, making some terrible decisions when the game was on the line in the final minutes of play.
The stats only tell part of the story. Watson was unshakable. Sherman praised his ability to fearlessly make plays even with Seattle’s defense bearing down on him “butt naked, scott-free.”
Russell Wilson was ready to hand his counterpart the Rookie of the Year award after that performance. And with a record 19 touchdowns through his first seven games, Watson has done everything he can possibly do to have the hardware locked down with half a season left to play.
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The stats should be there next week too when the Texans host the hapless Colts.
If any of this looks or sounds familiar to you, it should. As Sherman also pointed out, Watson and the Texans’ effort felt a lot like the Seahawks when they’re rolling — "We know how other teams feel now."
If the rest of the team can borrow Seattle’s look too, the Texans have the potential to be a lot of fun to watch and a threat to roll over the rest of the league for years to come.
Watson’s play was especially important this weekend and a reminder in the face of team owner Bob McNair’s dumb “inmates” comment that professional football can still be a helluva lot of fun in spite of terrible people like McNair.