The trick play that the Houston Texans ran on Sunday night against the New England Patriots almost never came into fruition. Before running the play, Deshaun Watson almost checked out of the play that involved DeAndre Hopkins pitching the ball to him.
“Honestly it wasn’t the perfect look,” Watson told reporters after the 28-22 win. “We wanted man coverage where the safety was one backer here. They went kind of like a two-high look. It was funky at first. I wanted to check out of it.”
Despite not seeing the defense he wanted, Watson snapped the ball, and the play ran its course. The play began with Watson taking the ball and handing it off to Duke Johnson in the backfield.
Then, Johnson tossed the ball to Hopkins, and the wide receiver made his way towards the end zone. But once a defender closed in on him, he quickly pitched the ball to Watson, and the quarterback navigated his way for six points.
Above all, Houston won the game and improved their record to 8-4 and are atop the AFC South. At the same time, the Texans dropped the Patriots to the No. 2 seed in the AFC in the process.
After the game, Bill O'Brien said that Watson and Hopkins actually brought him a diagram of the play on a piece of notebook paper during the week of practice. Ultimately, O'Brien showed his confidence in Watson to run the play against Bill Belichick's daunting defense.
With how the play ended up working, O'Brien might begin asking Watson and Hopkins to start submitting more plays in the coming weeks.
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