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NFL

QB Watson erupts for 5 TDs in Texans' win

HOUSTON — Less than a week after Deshaun Watson had to take a 12-hour bus ride to Jacksonville to ensure he could play in the game due to lung and rib injuries, the Houston Texans quarterback threw for five touchdowns in the team’s 42-23 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night.

It took until the eighth game of the 2018 season, but the Texans’ offense looked like the version the team was hoping for entering the year, and Houston finally got a glimpse of the quarterback who lit up the NFL last season before he tore his ACL in early November.

On Thursday, Watson completed 16 of his 20 passes for 239 yards and a season-high five touchdown passes. Those five touchdown passes tied his career high, which he set last season against the Kansas City Chiefs. The second-year quarterback did not throw an interception for the second straight week.

“We were executing, sticking to the details, playing free,” Watson said. “We got our swagger back today. We just wanted to have fun and try and light up the scoreboard in prime time, and that’s what we did.”

Watson has been playing hurt after injuring his lung and ribs in the Texans’ Week 5 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. He was listed with a chest injury on the injury report all week but was a full participant in practice.

The quarterback said he “felt great” on Thursday night and that he had plenty of time to rest between games.

“The biggest thing was more mental,” Watson said. “And then getting a lot of rest and treatment and rehab. And then having three days off — it’s going to be fun. A lot of fun.”

Watson is the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era with multiple games with five touchdown passes within his first two seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Texans had 427 net yards and scored on all four of their red zone opportunities.

Texans QB Deshaun Watson is the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era with multiple games with five touchdown passes within his first two seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. AP Photo/Michael Wyke

For the first time this season, the Texans were able to lean on big offensive plays from their offensive stars. Watson’s third touchdown pass was a 73-yard completion to wide receiver Will Fuller, who beat his defender across the middle and down the right sideline before trotting in the final five yards into the end zone. The pass was the longest touchdown of both Watson’s and Fuller’s careers. The pair have now connected for 11 touchdowns in 11 games played together.

“I said earlier in the offseason, I think we’ve got the best offense in the NFL,” wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins said. “What we put up tonight against a pretty good defense, what we’ve shown in these past five games that we’ve won, we’re up there with the best of the best.”

Watson also threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Hopkins, who caught six passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Hopkins had 8.6 yards of separation on his 49-yard score, and 0.5 yards of separation on his next touchdown. Those were the most wide-open, and tightest-window touchdown passes, respectively of Watson’s career.

“I don’t even know how explosive we can be. I know it’s top-notch, and we just have to keep working,” Watson said.

Thursday’s victory puts the Texans at 5-3 at the midway point of the season and ensures an outright lead in the AFC South entering Week 9. Houston now has won five games in a row after its 0-3 start to the season. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Texans were one of 233 teams to start 0-3 in the Super Bowl era. They are just the fifth team to go to 5-3 immediately after going winless in their first three games.

Texans coach Bill O’Brien praised his young quarterback for helping turn Houston’s season around.

“I think the type of guy he is, if you’re around him every day, I think he’s the type of guy that gives everybody hope,” O’Brien said. “He’s a great guy in the locker room, works very hard, young player, young player that’s getting better and better. Very level-headed guy, not an overly emotional guy.

“I think he’s exactly what you’re looking for in a starting quarterback.”

Soccer

Messi-less Barcelona see off Inter to virtually assure knockout berth

No Lionel Messi, no problem for Barcelona.

As the injured Argentine watched from the stands with his fractured right arm in a sling, Rafinha and Jordi Alba struck either side of half-time as the hosts ran out 2-0 winners over Inter at Camp Nou.

Though the Blaugrana were not at their scintillating best without their talisman, they still produced enough to move to within two points of sealing their spot in the Champions League round of 16 with three group games still to play.

LLUIS GENE / AFP / Getty

Barcelona, perhaps surprisingly, boast a higher Champions League win percentage without Messi than they do with him in the XI, and they looked unflustered in the absence of their biggest star.

Luis Suarez, as he did after Messi’s withdrawal against Sevilla, stepped up to shoulder the burden of leading La Blaugrana from the front.

The Uruguayan created the opening goal, showing tremendous vision to float a delightful ball into the box from deep for Rafinha, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Inter, to volley home a composed finish.

Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic kept his side within one goal and in with a fighting chance as time wore on, but after Philippe Coutinho had hit the bar, Ernesto Valverde’s side made sure to continue their 100 percent record in Europe this season with seven minutes remaining.

Tremendous interplay between Ivan Rakitic – who was excellent in partnership with Arthur in central midfield – Arturo Vidal, and Alba saw the latter surge up the flank from left-back and finish neatly to double the advantage and leave Barca eight points ahead of third place with three matches to play in Group B.

It was an accomplished way to lay down the final preparations for Sunday’s El Clasico bout with Real Madrid, and proved there is joy to be had even in Messi’s absence.

NFL

Seahawks get help: Wright, Dickson likely back
7:27 PM ET

  • Brady HendersonESPN

RENTON, Wash. — Seattle Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright and tight end Ed Dickson are expected to make their season debuts Sunday against the Lions in Detroit.

Coach Pete Carroll was noncommittal on Wright’s availability earlier in the week, but on Wednesday he said he’s anticipating that both Wright and Dickson will play Sunday as long as they don’t suffer any setbacks in the meantime.

K.J. Wright has been out since late August after a setback following arthroscopic knee surgery. Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

The Seahawks could have a pair of defensive ends back this week as well. Rasheem Green is practicing after missing the last three games with an ankle injury. Carroll said Dion Jordan, who has dealt with knee and hip injuries and was inactive for two of the past three games, is “the best he’s been in a while.”

That’s why Carroll answered in the affirmative when asked if the Seahawks, who are coming off their bye, are as healthy as they’ve been all season.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” Carroll said.

Wright has been sidelined because of what Carroll called a setback in his recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery in late August, which was initially expected to keep him out only a few weeks.

The Seahawks have cycled through replacements at Wright’s weakside spot, first starting rookie Shaquem Griffin in the opener. They then signed Mychal Kendricks, who played there for the next three games until he was suspended indefinitely in connection with his pleading guilty to insider trading charges. Austin Calitro has also seen time there, and more recently, Seattle has moved Barkevious Mingo over from the strong side.

Wright is now back in the spot he manned for most of his first seven seasons in Seattle.

“He brings a lot to the team,” middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “Another guy who’s kind of been through so much, been through the ups and downs of this team, this organization, has so much experience, extremely, extremely smart football player, very instinctive. We’ve been playing together for seven years, so we have communication that can’t be replicated, and he makes plays. He’s going to make adjustments and things of that nature, so I’m extremely excited to have him back. I think the last time we saw him he was making big hits and all that stuff, so that’s what I’m expecting from him.”

The Seahawks signed Dickson to be their starting tight end after letting Jimmy Graham leave in free agency, but he has been on the non-football injury list since the start of training camp because of a quad injury. Seattle has since lost rookie Will Dissly to a season-ending knee injury, and Nick Vannett has been dealing with a balky back, so Dickson’s return provides a needed reinforcement at tight end.

Carroll said that while he hasn’t seen much of Dickson in practice because he’s been out for so long, the four seasons the tight end spent with the Carolina Panthers gives the Seahawks an idea of how he can help them.

“He was involved with all kinds of stuff, and he’s been placed all over the field, he’s been in the backfield, he’s been out of the backfield,” Carroll said. “All of that really gives us confidence that there’s stuff that we can do with him that we’re looking forward to. But really he has not practiced with us very much, so we’re kind of opening up the Christmas present here. It’s kind of fun to get him going.”

Soccer

When will Tottenham not feel like a team in transition?

It wasn’t so long ago that, in a time of need, Mauricio Pochettino would turn to Vincent Janssen.

In the pair of meetings with AS Monaco in the 2016-17 Champions League group stage, Janssen was introduced from the bench to try and overturn a 2-1 deficit. Both times, Tottenham Hotspur bumped at the principality club’s defense like a frustrated housefly trying to breach a closed bathroom window. Both times, the scoreline stayed the same.

Janssen scored just two goals from open play that season, but, through a lack of alternatives, Pochettino was forced to persevere with the diffident Dutchman.

In spite of spiraling construction costs for replacing White Hart Lane, Pochettino has since somehow managed to assemble a bulkier and more varied roster. Wednesday’s damaging 2-2 Champions League draw at PSV Eindhoven, however, suggests the tweaking is not over for the Argentinian. There are clear improvements in his squad, but there appears to be an inescapable state of transition in north London.

Rather than Janssen being afraid of playing anything other than the safe option, Tottenham now possess Lucas Moura, who in the ninth minute produced a sublime pirouette on the white paint of the left flank before scoring Spurs’ first goal a half an hour later. He was an under-the-radar buy in January – only Toni Kroos and Dani Alves created more chances in the 2016-17 Champions League season – and he began this term with three goals in his opening three Premier League games.

JOHN THYS / AFP / Getty

Kieran Trippier, whose gradual inheritance of a regular starting berth ensured Kyle Walker’s £50-million sale wasn’t particularly missed, eclipsed everyone else on the park with eight key passes, one of which set up Lucas’ goal. Erik Lamela, arguably the first player to properly comprehend Pochettino’s philosophy when he was appointed, showed he is fit and on form in a cameo off the bench after elongated spells in the treatment room.

The way Pochettino has been able to accommodate the sales prescribed by chairman Daniel Levy and injuries to a previously thin squad add further bullet points to the talented boss’ lengthy curriculum vitae, but the increasing want for something tangible in north London – namely silverware – means errors like the ones committed by Hugo Lloris and Toby Alderweireld in Eindhoven merit greater scrutiny.

Lloris mindlessly upended Hirving Lozano for a deserved red card and, eight minutes later, watched PSV’s late leveler from the dressing room. This isn’t a one-off. He rushed out of his goal at Wembley earlier this month, giving Philippe Coutinho an easy opportunity to put Barcelona ahead. Lloris was also culpable for a blunder at Chelsea at the start of April, and had an awful error in the World Cup final against Croatia largely forgotten because France were already en route to glory.

Soccrates Images / Getty Images Sport / Getty

At 31, what appears to be a downturn in quality from Lloris is ahead of schedule. There may be external factors to his struggles (he was discovered by police covered in his own vomit when operating a vehicle in central London last month) but his form, or lack thereof, cannot be tolerated by a team with Tottenham’s aspirations. The wider concern for Spurs is that Michel Vorm and Paulo Gazzaniga don’t present reasonable replacements for a team vying in the upper echelons of English football.

Then there’s Alderweireld. His dawdling after 30 minutes set in motion a result that may eventually condemn Spurs to a best-case scenario of Europa League football after Christmas. Lozano had been giving Ben Davies a tough assignment earlier in the match, so for Alderweireld to switch off with the scuttling attacker on his shoulder was going to be costly, despite the Belgian’s best efforts to make amends.

Hanging onto Alderweireld is going to cost Tottenham a lot of money, and it’s surprising his exit wasn’t brokered amid an already difficult relationship with Pochettino due to dwindling minutes. An unhappy defender who was apparently subject to a £50-million offer from Manchester United in the last transfer window can now leave for nothing next summer when his contract winds down.

Changes are afoot, and Pochettino will have less money to conduct them.

Manchester City romped to the title last season but still signed Riyad Mahrez and unsuccessfully scoured the summer market for a deep-lying midfielder. But, unlike Tottenham’s constant tides of change, that was renewal and a means to remain hungry for success. Spurs, meanwhile, are locked in a transition, and just as the squad had been fleshed out to the point that Janssen was made redundant, the older, usually reliable parts seem to be breaking off.

When will the old “they’re improving” excuses abate? Will Pochettino stick around long enough to see the spine of Davinson Sanchez, Harry Winks, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, and Harry Kane truly reach fruition?

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Soccer