Watson Turns Elite Potential Into Game-Changing Production
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Most of the 78,000-plus fans filling Lambeau Field on Sunday roared when Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson hauled in a 58-yard touchdown pass that he celebrated with a backflip.
One voice in the crowd might have been louder than the others.
“Definitely going to talk to my fiancé first. I know she was in the stands,” Watson said after his three-touchdown performance loomed large in a 31-28 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. “She was probably screaming, and I know she’s probably waiting for me right now. I just checked my phone. I got texts from my mom, dad, brother, sister, everybody. So, I’m obviously excited to share this moment with all of them.
Watson scored on touchdowns of 58, 39 and 7 yards. His family, including mom and brother Tre, who plays in the CFL, celebrated them all.
It was a breakout moment 10 weeks in the making. On the first offensive snap of the season, the Week 1 game at Minnesota, Watson dropped what would have been a 75-yard touchdown.
“I forgot about that play already. I don’t even know what play you’re talking about,” Watson said.
It was like one of those nightmares that you just can’t shake.
Through practically no fault of his own, his rookie season was in danger of becoming a lost cause. He got a late start to training camp following offseason knee surgery. He suffered a hamstring injury after scoring his first career touchdown in Week 2 against Chicago and missed the Week 3 game at Tampa Bay. A couple weeks later, he aggravated the injury in the Week 5 loss to the Giants and missed two more games. He came back for the primetime game at Buffalo as a featured part of the game plan but suffered a concussion on the opening series. He quickly got through the concussion protocol but was taken out for precautionary reasons after taking a big hit in the third quarter last week at Detroit.
So, he came into a must-win game against Dallas having played merely 121 snaps and having caught 10 passes for 88 yards.
And then he dropped back-to-back passes on Green Bay’s opening drive.
The Packers stuck with him, a combination of his exquisite potential and the reality of the season-long situation on offense.
“We had a lot of plays designed for him, so I don’t think there was any other option,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
Watson was the No. 1 option on a huge third-and-1 midway through the second quarter. Trailing 7-0, the Packers went with a run-heavy look. The Cowboys played accordingly, with Watson singled up against veteran corner Anthony Brown. Watson immediately got past Brown, made a contested catch, ran through Brown’s tackle and scored a 58-yard touchdown.
“‘12’ and Matt both said early, ‘We’re going to come back to you,” Watson said of Rodgers and Matt LaFleur. “Obviously, that hit me at home. I know that those are plays I can make, those are plays that I make every day at practice and something I know I’m capable of. So, just having that to fall back on, knowing that we’re still in it, we’re still good, they’ve still got faith in me means the world.”
It changed a lot more than the game.
“I think that catch probably on the atomic level shifted a lot of different things for him, exorcising some energetic demons,” Rodgers said.
With an elite combination of size and speed, Watson has the game-breaking skill-set the Packers have so badly needed. Sammy Watkins had a 55-yard catch to help clinch the Week 2 victory vs. the Bears. The team then went six consecutive games with zero passing plays of longer than 40 yards until Allen Lazard’s 47-yarder last week at Detroit.
“We need him to stay healthy because when he is, he’s a different type of guy,” Rodgers said. “We saw the first couple of play-actions, 28 [Malik Hooker] was playing low at safety and we called a couple of runs that didn’t do a whole lot. Matt was on the sidelines saying we may run some play-action on the next third-and-short we get. And I came off the fake and was thinking ‘9’ all the way. I noticed he inside released, which was an ad-lib by him, but it was a good decision, restacked, made a great over the shoulder catch and away we go.”
Watson caught four passes. Three went for touchdowns, all of which came with the Packers trailing, as joined James Lofton (1978), Max McGee (1954) and Billy Howton (1952) as the only rookie receivers in Packers history with three touchdowns in a game, according to Stathead.
Those were the highlights. Not to be overlooked was a 3-yarder to convert a third-and-2 on the drive that he punctuated with a 7-yard touchdown. Rodgers threw a lot of good balls; this was not one of them. He called it Watson’s “best catch of the night.”
The Packers traded two second-round picks – including the one acquired in the Davante Adams trade – to the Vikings to move up to No. 34 overall in the second round of this year’s draft. Given the draft capital used, the urgency to replace Adams and Green Bay’s superb history with their second-round receivers, there was a lot of pressure – at least externally – for Watson to be an immediate playmaker. All those injuries – offseason knee surgery, hamstring, concussion – conspired to delay what the Packers can only hope was the inevitable barrage of big plays.
“I’m just trying to show who I am, trying to be who I am and be able to contribute,” Watson said. “I think it was huge for me to just in terms of obviously continuing to gain confidence in myself and obviously put that confidence out to everyone to have the confidence in me. But, I mean, we’ve got a lot more games to go and I’ve got to keep in the incline.”
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