The Browns Are 5-2 and Winning Ugly the Right Way — Deshaun Watson’s Fourth-Quarter Heroics Are the Reason

Cleveland just beat the Titans 27-24 on the road. That makes the Browns 5-2, tied for first in the AFC North, and winners of five of their last six. Nobody had this on the board in August. The offense is not pretty. The scoring average sits near the bottom of the league. None of that matters when the defense is holding teams down and Deshaun Watson keeps delivering in the fourth quarter.

Watson has now led five game-winning drives in the fourth quarter this season. Against Tennessee he threw for 308 yards, ran one in himself, and hit Harold Fannin for 36 yards late to set up Andre Szmyt’s 32-yard field goal as time expired. That is the same pattern we saw against the Steelers, the Panthers, the Buccaneers, and the Ravens. Early in games he can look limited. When the clock gets short and the game is on the line, he finds a way. The numbers back it up: his QBR jumps dramatically in the fourth quarter compared to the first three. Cleveland is not winning because Watson is dominating for 60 minutes. They are winning because he is still dangerous when it counts and the rest of the roster is not beating itself.

The supporting cast is doing its part. Quinshon Judkins has been a consistent runner. Rookie KC Concepcion had his best game yet with eight catches for 129 yards against the Titans. The defense has been the real stabilizer — top-five in points allowed early in the year and capable of forcing turnovers when the offense stalls. New head coach Todd Monken has the offense functional enough that Watson does not have to invent every drive. That is an improvement from the last few years.

This is still a limited team. They lost to the Jets. The offense ranks near the bottom in points per game. Watson is not turning back into the 2020 Houston version every week, and the contract situation remains open-ended. None of that erases the record. Five wins in seven games, multiple fourth-quarter comebacks, and a share of first place in the North is real. The Browns are good enough right now because they defend, they run the ball when they need to, and Watson has repeatedly shown he can still make the throws and the runs that end games.

Next up is Pittsburgh. If Cleveland keeps finding ways to close, the AFC North conversation stays open. The tape is not always pretty. The results have been. That is what matters through seven weeks.