Rob Issa, FISM News
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Jaylen Watson was an unknown junior in college working along with his mother at a Wendy’s restaurant a couple of years ago while looking for a place to play football, far from a household name.
That all changed last night when everyone saw him make the game-changing play on Thursday Night Football.
Watson intercepted Justin Herbert’s pass at the 1-yard line and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown, helping the Kansas City Chiefs rally from a 10-point deficit to beat the Los Angeles Chargers 27-24 in the first regular-season game to stream exclusively on Amazon Prime.
Patrick Mahomes threw for 235 yards and two touchdown passes in a battle between two of the best teams in the AFC. Herbert passed for 334 yards and three touchdowns but left the field walking gingerly unable to lift his left arm after sustaining a crushing blow to his ribs.
Watson was the talk of the night after etching his name in record books.
Making his first career start, the rookie cornerback’s pick-6 was the longest go-ahead fourth-quarter touchdown scored by a rookie in NFL history.
“I’m just a very resilient person,” Watson said. “I’ve always been working for what I had. I was never given anything and I think that gave me an edge on the football field as well. So I just try to carry the edge, show some hunger, show some anger on the football field and let it out on the opponents.”
Watson played college football at Ventura College before transferring to Washington State. He was selected by the Chiefs in the seventh round of the NFL draft with the 243rd overall pick earlier this year and learned Monday he would start against Los Angeles.
“In this game of football, injuries happen so everyone works hard,” Watson said of the opportunity to fill in. “That’s why it’s so important to have a deep roster. And this year, fortunately, we have great draft picks. I’ve just been working hard and if the time came when someone went down, I was going to be ready and prepared. And that’s what happened.”
With the score tied at 17-17, the Chargers were driving for the go-ahead score when Watson stepped in front of Herbert’s pass intended for Gerald Everett and went the distance.
“We knew that those switch routes in the high red, me and Justin [Reid], we worked together,” Watson said. “The ball just ended up in my chest and I took it home. It was a surreal feeling. [I’m] just so grateful and blessed to be in this position. I didn’t even know what to do when I got in the end zone. That’s why everyone [saw] me just standing there. But, it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
The six-time reigning AFC West champion Chiefs are off to a 2-0 start while the Chargers fell to 1-1.
The big concern for Los Angeles moving forward is Herbert’s health. Coach Brandon Staley insisted his franchise QB is fine.
“He’s OK. It was a tough game,” Staley said. “You’re not going to see a quarterback at any level of football play tougher, do more for their team and will their team to give them a chance, than him. There’s nobody that can do what he can do – nobody. He showed a lot of guts, he showed a lot of what he shows every day – that we’re never out of the fight. He brought us back and gave us a chance.”
Herbert has an extra few days to rest and heal before the Chargers host Jacksonville on Sunday, Sept. 25.
“That’s just the mindset and the toughness that he has to be going through whatever he was going through and to stay in there and make plays, that’s the quarterback that leads us,” wide receiver Mike Williams said of Herbert.
The game was the first in the $13 billion, 11-year deal between the NFL and Amazon Prime to exclusively stream Thursday night games.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell watched the game from a suite with Jeff Bezos, the executive chairman of Amazon.