After an offseason spent preparing himself to be the starting quarterback for the Texans, Tom Savage’s time with the first team ended after one half of the season opener.
Savage was sacked six times and lost two fumbles while going 7-of-13 for 62 yards in those two quarters, which earned him a spot on the bench to watch Deshaun Watson take the league by storm over the last seven weeks. Watson’s assault came to an end on Thursday when he tore his ACL in practice, an injury that left Savage both “heartbroken” and back in the driver’s seat on offense in Houston.
Savage isn’t making promises he can’t keep about how the offense will look against the Colts this weekend and in the weeks to follow.
“You can’t replace Deshaun Watson,” Savage said, via Jeff Darlington of ESPN. “The kid has been playing absolutely lights out. My job is to just help out. ... I’m just going to state the obvious: There’s things he can do that I can’t do.”
That much was clear before that season-opening loss was finished. The question for the Texans is whether they can shift gears offensively and keep winning or if the losses of J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus on defense changed the equation for them to the point where they need someone like Watson to get the results they want.