Watson Leads Browns to Big Win

Peter Keys in a large stadium crowd of football fans — Photo: Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock

Deshaun Watson threw two touchdowns, ran for 45 yards and turned a crowd that once booed him into one chanting his name during the Cleveland Browns’ 21-18 upset win over the Carolina Panthers.

Quick Take

Watson completed 16 of 30 passes for 144 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in the Browns’ home-opener win.
Fans who booed Watson during the preseason instead chanted “Let’s go Watson” in the fourth quarter.
Watson said he barely noticed any boos and instead heard “the yelling, the positivity” from the stands.
The reception marks a sharp reversal from August, when Watson called earlier boos “disrespectful” and “personal.”

Watson Delivers In Home Opener Return

Deshaun Watson led the Browns to a 21-18 win over the Panthers on September 27, completing 16 of 30 passes for 144 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran 11 times for 45 yards and threw a two-point conversion pass, according to the team’s official game log. It marked his first home start since tearing his right Achilles tendon in October 2024.

The win came after a rocky preseason stretch for Watson at Huntington Bank Field. Fans booed him loudly during an August loss to the Buffalo Bills, and Watson called the reaction “disrespectful” and “personal,” saying it had “nothing to do about the performance”. He later admitted his emotions “got the best of me” when he fired back at fans that day.

Boos Turn Into Cheers By Fourth Quarter

During Sunday’s game against the Panthers, the crowd’s mood shifted as the game went on. By the fourth quarter, fans broke into chants of “Let’s go Watson,” according to reporting from Cleveland.com. Watson called the moment “great” and “amazing,” saying he wanted to give fans a reason to cheer instead of boo.

Watson said afterward he barely registered any negative noise from the stands. “I was hearing the crowd, the yelling the positivity,” Watson said. “I didn’t hear any of [the boos], but at the same time, I was just trying” to help the team win. Reporters covering the game echoed that shift, noting they “didn’t catch the boos” even after a scary fourth-quarter injury scare sent Watson briefly to the sideline.

A Mixed Welcome Before The Turn

The crowd reaction was not uniformly positive from the opening snap. Some fans stayed quiet or gave Watson a “mixed reception” as he took the field, with the boos “less prominent” than during the preseason but not fully gone. Other accounts describe “no big reaction” on the first drive before the tone changed later in the game.

That pattern fits a broader trend in sports, where fan reactions to polarizing players often shift within a single game rather than staying fixed. Cheers and boos frequently coexist in the same stadium, tied to specific plays rather than a full change in how fans feel about a player overall.

What The Moment Meant To Watson

Cleveland Browns reporter Tony Grossi called the muted boos “ironic,” noting that when Watson returned to the field after his injury scare, “fans were cheering”. Twitter posts from reporters covering the game described Watson as “teary-eyed” at one point during the win in front of the home crowd, underscoring how personal the moment felt for the quarterback after more than a year away from Cleveland’s stands.

Browns QB Deshaun Watson said he got “teary-eyed” at one point as Browns won in front of home crowd. pic.twitter.com/ED8ESqz3r5

— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) September 27, 2026

Watson’s history with Browns fans has been strained since his return from injury, with earlier boos tied less to performance and more to lingering frustration among some fans. Sunday’s win offered him a different kind of moment, one where his play on the field appeared to change, at least for a night, how the home crowd responded to him.