LAS VEGAS — Dawand Jones walked up to Deshaun Watson and Jameis Winston after Sunday’s 20-16 loss to the Raiders and shook their hands, saying a few words to each of them following a heated exchange during the game that was captured by the CBS cameras.
It happened after a fateful play with 1:34 left in the half, when defensive end Tyree Wilson beat Jones around the right edge and wrecked Watson’s throw to down the deep right side to an open Amari Cooper.
The play looked like a sure TD, but Watson sailed it over Cooper’s head while under seige. Upon release, he was drilled by Wilson, one of the 11 times he was hit during the game, even though the Raiders were without premier defensive end Maxx Crosby.
Afterwards, he chastised Jones on the field, snapping at him for letting Wilson go.
On the sidelines, Jameis Winston also had words with Jones, and teammates appeared to step in front of him to create a wall.
“If we want to be the best, we’ve got to be the best,” Winston told cleveland.com after the game. “I was encouraging him. I was just encouraging him. Telling him to hold himself to that standard. He can be the best tackle in the NFL. If you’re going to talk about it, you’ve got to be about it. Everything I do is from an encouraging standpoint. It might’ve been animated, but it’s just lifting my guys up.”
Winston also boosted up center Nick Harris, pressed into service for an injured Ethan Pocic (ankle) after a couple of his mistakes.
“I’m encouraging guys all the time,” Winston said. “It’s just not one person. it’s all the way down the line, offense, defense, special teams.”
As usual, he had words with Watson after that play, and at other points during the game to help keep him up.
“That’s my main focus is to encourage,” Winston said.
After the heated words, Jones sat on the bench looking upset with himself. Watson came over and encouraged him, making up for the on-field rant.
“Yeah, it was just trying to be great,” Watson said. “That’s it. We’ve all just got to get on the same page so we can execute and try to win and be explosive. So that was it.”
Like everyone else involved in the play, Jones acknowledged it was a TD if he does his job there. The score was tied at 10, and the Browns’ offense never scored another point.
“Yeah, we all knew (it was a TD),” Watson said. “So like I said, we’ve just got to execute and we’ve all got to be on the same page to make those big plays.”
Jones, coming off an aggravation of his MCL repair, held himself accountable for the miscue.
“It happens,” he said. “Just part of the game. I just told him I made a mistake. I just came to him man-to-man, was like, ‘it’s my bad. I’ll fix it.’ Things happen in the love of the game.”
Did it bother him that Watson barked at him like that?
“No, not at all. I’m more mad at myself, so I think that’s what all the commotion was,” he said. “So that’s the main thing.”
He explained “I was supposed to push out. Just didn’t see the count. I didn’t, just got to lock in a little bit better on the play count.”
He acknowledged it would’ve likely been a touchdown for a 17-10 lead just before the half.
“Yeah, for sure was a touchdown,” he said. “When I looked up, I seen (Cooper) wide open on the sideline and that’s about it. I mean, there’s not much that I can really do.”
He explained that Watson spoke into existence what he believes about Jones, who underwent surgery in December.
“He just told me I was the best tackle in the league,” he said. “You’ve got to show it every down, including situations like that. And right there I didn’t show it and I can definitely be better and that was my main thing coming out of the half just show that I was one of the best tackles in the league. Of course, you mess up, you can come out and just dwell on it and I moved past it and I feel like I played well in the second half.”
Jones, who also might be missing his old offensive line coach Bill Callahan some, refused to use his sore knee as an excuse.
“That was nothing to do with the pressure or the mistake at hand,” he said. “That’s just a mental error and we can’t have that. We get six points, seven points right there (if) we get that play. I blame myself on it. I can’t do nothing but dwell on it and I got to move on and move past it.”
He believes the protection was better than last week, when the Watson was sacked a career-high eight times and hit 17 in the loss to the Giants.
“For sure,” he said. “Last week, like I said, it was my fault. I gave up two pressures, two sacks, and it definitely got better this week. I think that was the main thing I drilled was just protection, knowing that guys was just trying to jump the field and just give me the turn and I just try to put in the game, get some reps with some of the guys, the scout team guys, and really just carry over to this weekend. It worked out really well.”
Stefanski acknowledged that Jones is grinding through his injuries and return from the long layoff.
“He’s playing through things like all the guys are right now,” he said. “But he’s giving us some good effort. We’ll look at the tape obviously where there are plays he can be better.”
Jones also felt for Harris, who drew the holding call that wiped out Amari Cooper’s 82-yard TD catch and had a bad snap.
“That’s all the way tough,” he said. “Same with me coming in from last year, just never know when that number’s going to be called. players make mistakes just like me early in the game and we can only do one thing and learn from it and move on.”
Joel Bitonio brushed off the heated exchange.
“It’s the National Football League,” he said. “(Stuff) happens. That’s football. Dawand knew what happened and we calmed it down, we fixed it. But stuff happens. People get beat and that’s part of it. You got to play the next play.”
