Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson was fined for two separate facemask penalties and a separate play not flagged in Monday night’s Week Two loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to the NFL, Watson was twice fined for his facemask stiff-arms against Steelers’ defenders. The third fine was for a “violent gesture” in a celebration.
He was noted fined for making contact with an official at another part of the game. He was not ejected nor was he penalized for that particular play.
In total, Watson was fined $35,513 for his infractions against the Steelers. In addition to Watson, Cleveland Browns RB Jerome Ford and TE David Njoku for fined for separate incidents in the loss to Pittsburgh.
Here is the NFL’s official fine log for Cleveland.
Here is the gesture he made with TE David Njoku. Both were fined.
Surprinsgly, Watson wasn’t penalized or fined for this shove of an official. Though the NFL takes a hard-line stance against any contact on referees, Watson was not suspended by the league. The lack of any penalty, even a fine, is surprising.
Here were the facemask penalties on Watson, who later blamed the Steelers for it.
“As far as the facemask and things like that, I’m stiff-arming just like everyone else,” he told reporters after the game. “And once they grab my arm as I’m running, they keep pushing, [so the] only way I can really let go is to swing across. And once they do that, my hand is stuck in their helmet or in their face mask, so I gotta do a better job of just hitting ’em with the palm, I guess, and just releasing as much as I can so we don’t get those penalties,”
Watson again had his struggles, finishing the game 22-of-40 for 235 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was unable to lead a game-winning drive against Pittsburgh and was strip-sacked by OLB Alex Highsmith that resulted in T.J. Watt scooping and scoring for the go-ahead fourth quarter score. Watson was sacked six times.
With the loss, Cleveland fell to 1-1 on the year. They’ll take on the Tennessee Titans tomorrow afternoon.
