Browns defense, special teams oil gears for rusty Deshaun Watson | Jeff Schudel

Dec. 4—Some day before the season ends, Deshaun Watson might carry the Browns. But in his first regular season game in 700 days, the defense and offense carried Watson in a game the Browns had to win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

The NFL on Aug. 18 announced Watson would be suspended 11 games for violating the league's personal conduct policy. A glance at the schedule revealed he would make his return against the Texans, his former team, in Houston, on Dec. 4.

It was almost as if the league knew when it formed the schedule in the spring how long it would end up suspending Watson and that it wanted to punish him further by making him play his first game in nearly two years in the city where 24 massages therapists accused him of sexual misconduct.

As it turned out, the league did Watson and the Browns a favor.

Watson looked more like a $23,000 man than a $230 million man. He completed 12 of 22 passes for 131 yards. He was sacked once and threw an interception. Many of his passes were low and off the mark. He generated one drive that produced points, and that ended in a 43-yard field goal by Cade York on a drive that fizzled after 42 yards.

"I felt every one of those 700 days," Watson told reporters outside the visitor's locker room in NRG Stadium after the game.

But the Browns won, 27-14, because the Texans, 1-10-1, are the worst team in the NFL.

No one could have predicted Denzel Ward would score a touchdown on a fumble return and Tony Fields would score on an interception return. Donovan Peoples-Jones scoring the first touchdown on a 76-yard punt return wasn't as big a surprise because he showed in recent weeks how dangerous he can be as a punt returner.

The notion the Browns could beat the Texans without Watson excelling was predictable because the Houston offense is so pathetic. That will not be the case Dec. 11 when the Browns play the high-octane Bengals in Cincinnati.

"First game back, so you're going to work through it,' Coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters in his postgame interview. "Obviously, you're missing a bunch of time, so you have to get back in it. You have to get this first one out of the way and all those type things, but I know what the kid is capable of."

Watson was booed, though the boos were not deafening. And whether Houston fans booed him because of the sexual harassment allegations or because in January 2021 he vowed he would never play for the Texans again, only those expressing their displeasure could answer. The Houston fans cannot feel fortunate to have Davis Mills and Kyle Allen as their quarterbacks.

The Browns (5-7) have won two straight games for the first time since they won three straight after losing the 2021 season opener. Pending the outcome of late afternoon games, they moved from 13th to 10th in seeding for AFC playoff spots. The four division winners and three wildcard teams make the playoffs.

Even if Watson does start to resemble the Pro Bowl quarterback he was in Houston every year from 2018-20 quickly, the Browns will need their defense to make game-changing plays like it did in Houston, and even with that they will need help to rally for a playoff spot. They are three games behind the first-place (8-4) Ravens in the AFC North. They are two games behind the 7-5 Jets for the final wild-card spot, and if it came down to the Browns and Jets finishing with the same record vying for the last wild-card spot, the Jets would win the tiebreaker because they beat the Browns, 31-30, in the second game of the season.

The Browns led the Jets, 30-17, with 1:55 to play and collapsed. They should have beaten the Chargers, too, but Jacoby Brissett threw an interception at the goal line with 2:44 to play and the Browns down, 30-28. They had another chance to win, but York was wide right from 54 yards on what would have been a game-winning field goal with 16 seconds to play.

Playoff chances would look much brighter if the Browns were 7-5 instead of 5-7, especially if Watson plays like Stefanski expects him to over the final five games.