Injuries to his ribs, sternum and lungs that forced hm to take a bus to and from last Sunday’s game in Jacksonville didn’t stop Deshaun Watson from ripping through the defense of the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night.
Watson completed 16-of-20 passes for 239 yards and tied a career-high with five touchdowns as the Texans notched their fifth-straight win in a 42-23 victory over Miami.
Watson also tossed five touchdowns against the Kansas City Chiefs in his fifth career start last year.
A mistaken ruling for roughing the snapper on a 42-yard field goal gave the Dolphins a new set of a downs and set up a 12-yard Kenyan Drake touchdown run that gave Miami an early 7-0 lead.
Houston immediately responded with a nine-play, 75-yard drive capped with a 2-yard touchdown run by Lamar Miller to even the game at 7-7. After a Justin Reid interception of Brock Osweiler, Watson tossed his first touchdown on a 13-yard pass to Jordan Thomas that gave the Texans a 14-7 lead.
Jason Sanders converted his first of three field goals on the night for Miami from 37 yards to close the gap to 14-10. The Dolphins were lucky that’s all the deficit was heading into the halftime break.
Josh Keyes hit Osweiler‘s arm as the Dolphins quarterback was trying to bring the ball back down and tuck it. The ball went backward and Natrell Jamerson returned it for what was ruled a 19-yard touchdown on the field with 24 seconds remaining. However, the fumble was negated upon replay review and the deficit remained 14-10 at half instead of 21-10.
Ultimately, the lost points didn’t matter as the Texans poured it on in the second half.
Danny Amendola hit Kenyan Drake for a 28-yard touchdown on a double pass to close the gap to 21-17 in the third quarter, but the Texans managed to respond immediately. Watson and Will Fuller connected on a 73-yard touchdown to push the Houston lead to 28-17.
Fuller caught five passes for 124 yards before leaving the game in the fourth quarter due to a knee injury.
The Dolphins only managed field goals from there as the Texans kept finding the end zone. Sanders converted a 41-yard field goal and Watson answered with a 49-yard touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins. Sanders converted a 46-yard field goal and Watson answered with a 2-yard touchdown to Hopkins as the Texans lead grew to 42-23 with 7:34 left to play.
Osweiler threw for 241 yards and an interception for the Dolphins. Devante Parker caught six of Osweiler’s 21 completions for 134 yards on the night.
