Deshaun Watson has now led the Browns on five fourth-quarter winning drives this season, and after the latest one, a 27-24 win in Tennessee on Sunday, the quarterback talked less about himself than about the locker room he has been trying to build.
Head coach Todd Monken handed Watson a game ball, then joked in front of the team about whether the celebration would be at the quarterback’s house again. Watson used the moment to thank the whole roster. “We’re one big family,” he told his teammates.
party at Deshaun's???? 🥳@ticketmaster | #DawgPound pic.twitter.com/NjKi1upIzP
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 25, 2026
The line was not a throwaway. After the Browns beat Baltimore 13-10 a week earlier, Watson had opened his home to teammates for a night of cards, ping-pong, pool games and food served from trucks in the driveway. Monken later said that he liked the idea because players who grow close are less willing to let each other down.
Built for the last two minutes
Watson said tight finishes are simply part of the job. He told reporters that he has played long enough to expect most games to be decided late, and that the only answer is to stay locked in on the details when it gets there.
Sunday tested that twice. With 4:34 left he finished a 71-yard drive himself, running in from 9 yards for a 24-17 lead. Tony Pollard tied it with 58 seconds to go, and Watson needed only three passes to answer. The big one was a short throw that Harold Fannin Jr. turned into a 36-yard gain, and Andre Szmyt won it from 32 yards on the final snap.
He finished 25 of 36 for 308 yards, his first game over 300 passing yards since joining Cleveland, with one interception that Monken pinned on a rookie receiver rather than on his quarterback. Rookie KC Concepcion caught eight of those passes for 129 yards, and Quinshon Judkins added two rushing scores and 96 yards on the ground, part of a 491-yard day for the offense.
Where his season stands
Counting Sunday, Watson has completed 136 of 210 passes for 1,482 yards, with seven touchdown passes and three interceptions this season. At 5-2, Cleveland shares first place in the AFC North with Pittsburgh. The drive-by-drive detail is in the Game Center, and the full account of the game is in our Browns-Titans recap.
What comes next
That sets up a meeting of the two division leaders: the Browns play in Pittsburgh at 1:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 1. The Titans, now 1-6, play at the Cincinnati Bengals the same afternoon.
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