<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0oEu0O_0wOrkNEJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0oEu0O_0wOrkNEJ00" width="1000" height="667" ></figure>CLEVELAND — Welcome to what should be the beginning of the end of the Deshaun Watson era in Cleveland.It won’t be, because Browns ownership still doesn’t get it.But it should be because Sunday the Browns played harder, with more purpose, intensity and, especially at the end of the game, with more heart than at any time during the sputtering, sporadic, lurching, on-again-off-again, unfocused, discombobulated, please-make-it-be-over Watson era.The result was the Browns’ best win of the season, better even than their only other win this year, whenever that was — all the losses tend to run together.That Watson had no hand in the Browns’ electrifying 29-24 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday is not a coincidence. It is also not an accident. This win did not happen by sheer chance. This stunningly unexpected victory happened because Jameis Winston happened — and not a moment too soon.It was noticeable right from the start of the game, and it was even more noticeable after the game — a victory! Imagine that! — when Winston’s stats spoke for themselves. He completed 27 of 41 passes for 334 yards, three touchdowns and had an excellent passer rating of 115.3.Those are winning numbers for any quarterback. Here are some numbers that are not: Deshaun Watson’s.It will soon be three full years since the Browns traded for Watson, and three full years since he contributed anything significant to the team’s attempt to win enough games to be taken seriously.It is bad enough to be employing an overcompensated, underproducing quarterback, but it is even worse if it’s a chronically frail one, who over the last two-plus years has been a medical patient more than a quarterback. That trade not only set the Browns’ back three years (and counting), but it has been an ongoing source of frustration for Browns players, whose career clocks are ticking.During Cleveland’s eye-opening, jaw-dropping win over the powerhouse Ravens, there seemed to be more to it than just a hint that the Browns’ offensive players in particular seemed rousingly into the game. It wasn’t hard to figure out why: Their quarterback was contributing, in a big way.One would like to further think that Winston’s Kosar-ian performance caught the eye of a desperate ownership that has stopped at nothing in trying to make good roster decisions, but in the Watson decision has made a colossal mistake.It’s fixable, of course, but only if ownership chooses to.Anyone who watched Sunday’s game had to be impressed by the intensity with which the Browns offense played, and it says here that it played that way because it was playing for a quarterback who was putting up winning numbers.In his soon to be three years with Cleveland, Watson has put up nothing. When an organization whiffs on a high-profile roster decision and instead comes away with egg on its face, the hired help notices.Sunday, in beating the Ravens, the Browns’ hired help seemed invigorated by not just the leadership Winston was providing, but by the results. The entire team seemed to play harder and with more purpose under Winston than it ever did in the handful of games Watson has played.Which leads to the question: What’s the point?If Winston can rally the troops with his talent and personality, while Watson can’t, and has done neither, who is wasting whose time?Following Winston’s performance Sunday, which quarterback do you think the rank-and-file plays harder for?Answer: To these eyes, it’s not even close.Sunday’s win over the Ravens was very telling, not just because the Browns won, but because they fully bought in on a backup quarterback who was in the trenches with them, who was producing numbers that win games, and, most important of all, a quarterback WHO WAS PLAYING.Maybe it took ownership a 1-6 start in Year 3 of what has become a wasted, and very expensive trade, to realize its colossal swing-and-a-miss on Watson.The bottom line is that Sunday, in a single afternoon, the Browns played harder and more effectively for Winston than they ever have in the few — VERY few — games Watson has played.That should count for a lot, unless ownership is still having trouble putting together that jigsaw puzzle that is an elite NFL roster.Fortunately for ownership, all is not yet lost, but only if ownership wants to right the ship.It had the chance to do that during the offseason when it could have brought back Joe Flacco, a proven performer and leader of men. But, in true misguided ownership style, it chose not to.Well, here is another chance.It has a chance to add a more palatable (for them) Joe Flacco.He is Jameis Winston, for whom, like Flacco, the team plays hard.Winston earned a starting role Sunday. He won, the players responded to his leadership and he is not Deshaun Watson.Where is the downside?</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Commentary: Jameis Winston’s performance proves there can be life … good life … without Deshaun Watson

CLEVELAND — Welcome to what should be the beginning of the end of the Deshaun Watson era in Cleveland. It won’t be, because Browns ownership still doesn’t get it. But it should be because Sunday the Browns played harder, with more purpose, intensity and, especially at the end of the game, with more heart than at any time during the sputtering, sporadic, lurching, on-again-off-again, unfocused, discombobulated, please-make-it-be-over Watson era.