Browns coach Kevin Stefanski pleased with QB Deshaun Watson in 'some very, very tough situations'

No performance is viewed in a vacuum. Well, no performance should be viewed in a vacuum, but more often than not it's going to happen.

In a vacuum, the numbers Deshaun Watson put up in his fourth start with the Cleveland Browns — Saturday's 17-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints — were so-so at best. He completed just 13 of 31 passes for 135 yards with an interception for a career-low 47.1 passer rating.

To view them in a vacuum, though, would take away a whole lot of context around those numbers. The biggest thing being the weather conditions that made every drop-back an adventure, between the wind altering trajectories and the cold making the ball feel like a brick.

“I think that you definitely consider how he played in the elements in some very, very tough situations," coach Kevin Stefanski said on a Monday Zoom call. "That last drive to be on the field for that long and to make some really, really unbelievable throws in that moment. I know we didn’t come down with the ball."

Stefanski was referring to the Browns' final possession, as they tried to rally from a 17-10 deficit. The Browns marched from their own 20 to the New Orleans 15 in 14 plays.

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However, the final four plays ultimately defined the game. The Browns had three incompletions, followed by a fourth-down sack with 19 seconds remaining that sealed their fate.

Two of those plays ended in potential touchdowns passes by Watson dropped. Donovan Peoples-Jones couldn't hang onto one near the back left corner of the end zone on second down, then David Njoku dropped a ball just shy of the goal line on third down.

After the game, Njoku made a point to apologize to Watson personally, then reiterated his apology while speaking to the media.

"Again, our guys hold themselves to very high standards," Stefanski said. "I applaud Dave. After the game, said he should make that play. That is what he believes, and we know how tough it was, but for those guys to battle in that situation and to have the plays that they had late in the game I think speaks to how hard they were working.”

Saturday's game was the second consecutive in which weather was something to be dealt with for Watson.

The cold weather of Cleveland was a factor the Browns had to overcome in the trade derby they were in with the likes of the Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers to acquire Watson last spring. And Cleveland's weather, no doubt, is one of the reasons why the Browns gave Watson a fully guaranteed five-year, $230-million contract when they acquired him from Houston in March.

The week before against Baltimore, the weather was more nuisance than major factor. It was 32 degrees with a wind chill of 23 at kickoff, although snow did swirl around the stadium in the fourth quarter.

The weather was the story against New Orleans. It was the coldest regular-season Browns home game, and second-coldest only to the famous "Red Right 88" wild card playoff game in January 1981, with a kickoff temperature of 6 degrees and a wind chill of minus-16.

“It is tough, especially the wind," Watson said after the game. "Like we said, we can’t control it. Then different air pockets throughout the stadium, you really don’t know where it is going to go. For both teams, if you look at the game, every time we went towards the opposite (east) end of where we entered the stadium, no one really threw the ball because of that wind. You were pretty much going against the wind.

"Then when you are going the opposite direction like we were the last drive, you were going with the wind. It is tough because when you can go with the wind, you can’t really throw and leave it up in the air because it goes with it; the opposite, it is going against us."

The impact the weather had on Watson's throws was evident on several. Two of the most notable ones were going toward opposite directions, which showed how the wind was impacting things.

On the last play of the first quarter, going toward the east end of the stadium and into the wind, Watson threw a short pass to Njoku that almost seemed to go sideways for a moment before being caught and turned into a 6-yard gain. The next play, to open the second quarter, Watson ran for a 12-yard TD.

On the third play of the fourth quarter, going toward the west end of the stadium and with the wind to his back, Watson threw a deep shot to Amari Cooper that sailed too long thanks to the wind. That was the same direction the Browns were going on their final drive, on which Watson was 5-of-10 passing for 49 yards, including a couple of nice shots to Cooper and David Bell to put them at the Saints 15.

“There were at times when the wind was very, very severe, and then late in that drive in that two-minute drive at the end there, made some really impressive throws as the wind had died down a bit," Stefanski said two days after the game. "To deal with those conditions for the first time, obviously that cold was something that he hasn’t experienced and a lot of our guys haven’t experienced that type of cold in a football game.”

The conditions were ripe, in some minds, to maybe open up a bit more of another aspect of Watson's game. The quarterback arrived in Cleveland as another in an ever-growing line of quarterbacks who are threats to make plays with their legs just as much as they are with their arms.

Watson had shown flashes of that over his first three starts for the Browns. However, he only ran the ball three times for 24 yards against New Orleans.

Stefanski said the Saints made defensive adjustments to minimize the threat Watson created in the running game.

“There were a couple of opportunities," Stefanski said. "To their credit, they adjusted, as well, and were taking the safety out of the middle of the field and just playing him down for the quarterback run game and really selling out for it. There are always opportunities that we are always looking at in that regard, yes.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kevin Stefanski pleased with Deshaun Watson's game in brutal weather