In Sunday's Texans win over the Chargers, on the Texans' first possession of the game, Deshaun Watson dropped back to pass, setting up a screen pass to Duke Johnson. Unfortunately, the Chargers diagnosed the play flawlessly, like they were in the Texans' huddle before the snap, and Watson tried to spike the ball at Johnson's feet and live to fight another play.

What started as a lost down, though, turned into a disaster as Watson's spike attempt went backwards (thus, making it a lateral) and bounced into the arms of Chargers defensive back Desmond King. Three plays later, the Chargers were up 7-0. In the aftermath of that turnover, it was hard enough to envision the Texans coming back to win that game, and much, much harder to envision Watson rebounding to become the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for last weekend.

However, that's exactly what happened, on both fronts. The Texans defeated the Chargers by a score of 27-20, and on Wednesday morning, we found out that Watson, for the second time in his career (the first was Week 4 of his rookie season in 2017), was named the AFC's top offensive player for the week. This is on the heels of Whitney Mercilus taking home the AFC's defensive honors in Week 2.

For the game, Watson completed 25 of 34 pass attempts for 351 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 135.8 passer rating. My radio cohost Seth Payne called it his "favorite performance of Watson's career," because not only was it a win, not only was he statistically very good, but Watson also showed further development in the finer points of quarterbacking, like diagnosing blitzes and reading coverages.

Sunday was Watson's most prolific game in terms of passing yards (351) since Week 5 of the 2018 season, when he threw for 375 yards against the Dallas Cowboys. It was his eighth career game with 300 or more passing yards, tied for the fourth-most 300-yard passing games (eight) within a player’s first 26 career games in NFL history.

Per Texans PR, here is where Watson stands in league history in some fairly substantial career categories and statistical benchmarks:

Watson became the fastest player in NFL history to record 6,500 career passing yards and 500 rushing yards while also becoming the fastest player in NFL history to record 50 passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns (26 games). He is just the third player in NFL history to record at least 6,500 passing yards and 50 passing touchdowns in a player’s first 26 career games and became the fourth-fastest player in NFL history to record 50 passing touchdowns. Watson now owns 51 passing touchdowns, which is the fourth-most in NFL history through 26 games, and 6,642 passing yards, which is the sixth-most in NFL history through 26 games.

This marks the 45th time a Houston Texan has been named Player of the Week in franchise history. Here is the list of previous winners:

Player                          Award               Week        Season
Deshaun Watson        Offensive              3              2019
Whitney Mercilus        Defensive             2              2019
Ka’imi Fairbairn       Special Teams        15             2018
J.J. Watt                     Defensive            12             2018
Jadeveon Clowney    Defensive              4             2018
Johnathan Joseph     Defensive              6             2017
Deshaun Watson       Offensive               4             2017
Shane Lechler        Special Teams          8             2016
Will Fuller V            Special Teams          4             2016
Whitney Mercilus        Defensive             1             2016
J.J. Watt                     Defensive             17            2015
J.J. Watt                     Defensive             11            2015
DeAndre Hopkins       Offensive               6            2015
Randy Bullock        Special Teams         16            2014
Ryan Fitzpatrick         Offensive             13            2014
J.J. Watt                     Defensive             11           2014
J.J. Watt                     Defensive               4           2014
J.J. Watt                     Defensive             15           2012
Matt Schaub               Offensive             11            2012
J.J. Watt                     Defensive              3            2012
Arian Foster               Offensive               7            2011
Arian Foster               Offensive               4            2011
Glover Quin               Defensive             12           2010
Matt Schaub              Offensive               6            2010
Andre Johnson          Offensive               2            2010
Arian Foster               Offensive               1            2010
Brian Cushing            Defensive              8            2009
Brian Cushing            Defensive              6            2009
Jacoby Jones         Special Teams          4            2009
Matt Schaub              Offensive               2            2009
Matt Schaub              Offensive              14           2008
Steve Slaton              Offensive              13           2008
Jacoby Jones         Special Teams           8           2008
Jacoby Jones         Special Teams           6           2008
André Davis           Special Teams          14          2007
Kris Brown             Special Teams            5          2007
Mario Williams           Defensive               1           2007
Kris Brown             Special Teams          16           2006
DeMeco Ryans          Defensive             13           2006
Andre Johnson          Offensive                4           2006
Jerome Mathis       Special Teams           8           2005
Kris Brown             Special Teams           3           2004
Chad Stanley         Special Teams           9           2003
Avion Black           Special Teams          15           2002
Aaron Glenn              Defensive             14           2002

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