There was a stunning upset in Cleveland on Sunday as the Browns beat the favored Carolina Panthers , but it had nothing to do with the outcome and everything to do with quarterback Deshaun Watson.
The dude turned the hometown crowd’s boos to cheers.
The people who have grown to seriously dislike their starting quarterback, many of them angrily barking at him from the Dawg Pound in all sorts of unfriendly tones, were actually chanting, “Let’s go Watson” before this game was over.
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About the only boos Watson could hear in the second half of this one was when he was sacked during a crucial third down by Carolina edge rusher Princely Umanmielen for a seven-yard loss, but replays on the big screens showed Umanmielen grabbing and twisting Watson’s facemask without a call from an official.
There hasn’t been a turnaround like this since Apple Inc. rose from near bankruptcy in the 1990s.
Watson barely heard anything other than approval from the home crowd.
Well, maybe a smattering of boos earlier.
“I was hearing the crowd, the yelling the positivity,” Watson said afterward. “That’s my main focus. I didn’t hear any of [the boos], but at the same time, I was just trying to give them something to cheer about and we got that W so that’s all that matters.”
Stunning.
Deshaun Watson, No. 4 of the Cleveland Browns, celebrates after a 21-18 win over the Carolina Panthers at Huntington Bank Field on Sept. 27, 2026, in Cleveland, Ohio. (Getty Images)
These words seem foreign to anyone who heard that press conference Watson gave during the preseason when he called the home crowd “disrespectful” for booing him when he injured his Achilles in 2024 and then again in the preseason when he played his first game back at Huntington Bank Field.
He added that it was “personal” between him and the crowd and having nothing to do with his performance.
And, well, it has something to do with performance. Watson’s two passing touchdowns and the comeback win proved that because suddenly the folks who didn’t like him very much previously seemed to approve.
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But, yes, maybe some of the ire Watson felt from fans previously was because of his huge contract, and inability to live up to the money the past four years, and the NFL suspension Watson had to accept in 2022, and the reason for that suspension, which was tied to alleged sexual assaults of two dozen female massage therapists.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) throws a pass during the first quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field on Oct. 20, 2024. (Ken Blaze/Imagn Images)
All of that made Browns fans unwilling to cut their quarterback a break.
But Watson seemed to win some of them back, at least for one afternoon, when his team erased a 12-10 deficit in the fourth quarter.
No, it didn’t take a lot.
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This was, by the way, Watson’s first regular-season home game of this season and first since that 2024 game in which he ruptured his Achilles. So, a big deal.
“From the moment I woke up, just the anticipation, just the anxiousness, just everything, just to get in front of the fans, just to get here, just to get started,” Watson said in describing what drove him.
“I wanted to play perfect so bad, but, you know, that’s the NFL with its ups and downs … The energy, the fans, it was amazing. They kept believing in us. They kept the energy up … And we just continued to feed off that energy of the crowd.”
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