Houston got its first win of the season, after getting beat by Jacksonville last week, by beating Cincinnati Bengals 14-9 on Thursday night. Of course, the game was ridden with penalties, like every Thursday night game for the past year but there were alot of things that stood out for the Texans. Deshaun Watson gets his first NFL win and the defense held the Bengals to only 9 points and gave up 295 yards on defense

The Texans have parted ways with WR Jaelen Strong who had 28 catches for 292 yards and 3 touchdowns over two years with Houston. Meanwhile, the Texans number two receiver Will Fuller returned to the practice field from his broken collarbone injury.

The big headline was Deshaun Watson got his first NFL start and his first NFL win on Thursday and this what head coach Bill O'Brian had to say about the rookie's performance.

Does it help that QB Deshuan Watson played in a lot of really big games in college?
“I think so. I think anybody that’s played in the type of games that he’s had to play in – look, it’s different, obviously. It’s the National Football League. But, he’s played in some National Championship games. He’s played in big games relative to the ACC in college. Just the environment, dealing with the noise, dealing with the big-game environment, I think that’s important. Now, dealing with the Patriots defense relative to a college defense, that’s a whole other thing. So, I’m just talking about noise level and things like that. The thing about Deshaun is he doesn’t get nervous. I asked him before last week’s game, ‘Are you nervous?’ He goes, ‘No, I don’t get nervous.’ And I see that. So, I don’t really concern myself too much with that.”
 
Now that QB Deshaun Watson has gotten that start out of the way and has more time to prepare, what are you going to look for in this game that he wasn’t able to do in the short week?
“I think that’s a good question. He’s been in here already this morning and I think the more reps he gets – the game reps, obviously, but the practice reps, he’ll get the bulk of the first-team reps now. And I think, just based on that alone and his film study and learning from week to week, he’ll get better and better.”

More From 1130 The Tiger