Deshaun Watson continues to struggle as Browns fall to Bengals

There’s a billboard along Interstate 71, the highway that connects Cleveland and Cincinnati, that reads HELL IS REAL. Whether that’s true or not is a theological discussion beyond the scope of this particular article, but this much is gospel truth: Hell is a penalty-filled, low-scoring slog that so often is the Battle of Ohio.

The Bengals defeated the Browns 23-10 on Sunday in a game both teams would just as soon prefer to forget before the sun goes down. Joe Burrow did enough to lead Cincinnati to a win, but if he were still in a Heisman race, nothing from this game would go on his hype reel. He did have one sweet little touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase that Chase didn’t even see until he turned around and it was three yards away:

The real quarterback story of the afternoon, though, was on the other side of the ball, where Deshaun Watson was making just his second start since his long suspension related to multiple allegations of sexual assault. Last week against Houston, Watson failed to guide the Browns to a single offensive touchdown, and that streak continued deep into the third quarter of Sunday’s game.

Watson looked sharp between the 20s, but struggled in crucial situations. The Browns converted just four-of-15 third-down attempts, and failed to score on a do-or-die first-and-goal late in the fourth quarter. On that sequence, standing at the 6-yard line with less than six minutes remaining in the game, Watson threw three straight incompletions to all directions of the field — right, center, left — and that effectively ended Cleveland’s hopes for a sixth straight victory over Cincinnati.

The Browns now sit at 5-8. Their postseason hopes are all but dead, but this year wasn’t about the postseason anyway. With Watson out the first 11 games of the year, 2022 was about setting the stage for the future, such as it may be. Watson displayed some flashes of the ability that made him one of the league’s best quarterbacks early in his career, like when he flexed his way out of a certain sack and hit Donovan Peoples-Jones for a 16-yard gain and a critical first down with one ankle wrapped up late in the fourth quarter.

But then he showed his rust, as when on the very next play he threw an interception that hit Cincinnati safety Jessie Bates in the numbers. Watson finished with 26 completions on 42 attempts for 276 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

The Bengals (9-4), meanwhile, will add this to the win column and move on to prepare for next Sunday’s marquee QB matchup against the Buccaneers. Burrow finished with 239 yards on 18-of-33 passing attempts, two touchdowns and an interception, and Joe Mixon added another 96 yards on the ground.

The game also featured a bit of drama right from the jump, as Cincinnati receiver Tee Higgins was yanked with an undisclosed injury after playing just one snap. Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor said Higgins was injured during warmups. The severity and extent of the injury remains unknown.

For Cleveland, there's still time for Watson to recover his old form and salvage a hope for the future, if not 2022. Still, there are troubling signs — not billboard-sized yet, but signs all the same.

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Contact Jay Busbee at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee.