It was fair to expect that it would take Deshaun Watson some time to regain his form after spending almost two years on the sidelines. It has been an up-and-down season for him on the field, but in the standings, it has been almost all good news for the Cleveland Browns.
Watson has been able to overcome some uneven performances, leading comeback victories for Cleveland’s first four wins. But in their fifth, a 27-24 victory against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, he was at the top of his game from start to finish.
Insider Jason Lloyd said Watson finally did one thing that had been missing, with a full performance for the first time in his revival season.
“That was Deshaun’s first complete game of the season. We’ve seen a lot of games where he’s had an awful first half, a terrific second half. We saw a great first half and a terrible second half. We hadn’t seen him put four quarters together. He put four quarters of really good football together yesterday,” Lloyd said.
It's time to start taking the 5-2 #Browns SERIOUSLY! 👀🏈
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Jason says Cleveland's record is significant, Deshaun Watson finally put together a complete game, and the Browns have officially… pic.twitter.com/fgeweT5IKI
— Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show (@ultCLEsports) October 26, 2026
Watson still needed to engineer a fourth-quarter scoring drive for the Browns to escape with a victory against the one-win Titans. After Tennessee tied the game with less than a minute to go, he put Cleveland into field goal range, thanks to a 36-yard catch-and-run by tight end Harold Fannin Jr. Then, Andre Szmyt finished the job with a 32-yard field goal on the final play.
But Watson needed to perform much earlier than that, as the Browns trailed 14-0 midway through the first quarter. Relying heavily on rookie wide receiver KC Concepcion, who had a historic first half, Cleveland was able to take a 17-14 lead at halftime.
The game marked the first time Watson reached 300 passing yards in his time with the Browns, a span of 26 games over five seasons. It looked like he was on his way to doing so with 181 yards in the first half of Cleveland’s Week 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he stalled in the second half before leading a late field-goal drive for that 27-24 win.
The nature of Watson’s season can be seen in his passer rating by quarter. It is 56.0 in the first, 101.1 in the second, 94.5 in the third, and 100.7 in the fourth.
It was encouraging that he could get the job done when it mattered most, and it might be even more so going forward if he can perform at that level for an entire game.
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