Didn't need offense

The Browns scored three touchdowns Sunday in their 27-14 victory over the Houston Texans in Deshaun Watson's return to the National Football League wars after a 700-day absence and he watched each and every one of them from the bench.

That's because the maligned Cleveland defense and special teams, units that have absorbed mounds of well-deserved grief from their fans throughout this maddeningly frustrating season, showed up to play a football game.

It's a good thing they didn't need Watson's help for this one because if they had, they very well might have lost to the now 1-10-1 Texans, whose winless streak at home reached six games. Not that the Texans played that well. It's that Watson looked like someone who hadn't played a competitive football game in 700 days.

The only points credited to the offense were a pair of fourth-quarter field goals from 43 and 42 yards off the leg of rookie kicker Cade York after the defense scored two touchdowns in the second half and wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones accounted for the Browns' only first-half points with a 76-yard punt return.

He broke four tackles before stumbling slightly at his 40, regained his balance as broke free down the fright sideline and simply outraced the coverage to give the Browns the 7-5 halftime lead.

It was the first such score for the franchise since Travis Benjamin ripped off a 78-yarder against the Tennessee Titans in game two of the 2015 season. He also caught touchdown passes of 60 and 50 yards from Johnny Manziel in the 28-14 victory. That's 122 games ago. The Browns finished 3-13 that season.

Reserve linebacker Tony Fields II was a major player in both defensive touchdowns. He poked the ball loose from Houston quarterback Kyle Allen as he attempted a simple sneak from his one in the third quarter. The ball squirted out, Browns cornerback Denzel Ward scooped it up and had the easy score.

On the first play after York's 43-yarder, defensive end Chase Winovich batted an Allen pass into the air. Fields grabbed it at the 16 and romped easily into the end zone. He capped his terrific afternoon  by recovering a fumbled punt return later that set up York's 42-yarder

A season-high three takeaways for a team that had accumulated only eight previously this season and had gone three games without one helped this struggling, underachieving  team to their first two-game winning streak this season.

Coordinators Joe Woods for the defense and Mike Priefer for the special teams had to be the happiest guys on the bench. The only question now is whether this makes up for the misery these units have caused this season and can save their jobs? If I were them, I'd update the résumés. 

If the defense and special teams had played that well, or even close to the level they were expected to at the beginning of the season, the Browns would be a playoff contender right now. And Jacoby Brissett's 11-game journey in Watson's absence would have been significantly more bountiful than 4-7

As it turned out, all the Browns  needed from Watson was a mistake-free afternoon. That goal blew up late in the opening quarter when rookie Texans safety Jalen Pitre stepped in front of Cleveland wide receiver Amari Copper in the end zone to blunt the Browns' deepest penetration of the afternoon.

In the early going, Watson was forced to begin a pair of drives at his one. The first, created after a terrific goal-line stand that saw safety Grant Delpit blow up a fourth-down pass to fullback Troy Hairston, resulted in a safety when Nick Chubb failed to get out of his end zone, giving the Texans a 5-0 lead.

The Cleveland defense was aggressive all day. The tackling was sharp for the most part, often swarming to the ball. They never got Allen to the ground, but forced him to throw before he wanted go. The closer the Texans got to the Cleveland goal line, the stiffer the defense got. The Texas converted only one of 12 third-down attempts.

Watson was the main focal point coming into the game because of his problems off the field. Turns out he was relative bit player on this day. For the record, he completed 12 of 22 passes for 131 yards and ran seven times for 21 yards, three of them on RPO keepers. He absorbed the only sack of the game.

The main worry heading into the game was the amount of rust Watson had accumulated since he last took a snap. Turns out he not only had plenty of rust, his rust had accumulated even more rust. Several throws were low and fell well short of their target. 

His timing was often just a bit off, That is expected to improve the more he plays. His biggest reward for  the day, though, was the W next to his name on the scoresheet because he knows who the real winners were.