Outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips wasn’t the one who was called for the fourth-quarter penalty that had a profound effect on the Carolina Panthers’ 21-18 loss to Cleveland.
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But he was visibly upset about it.
What did you see on that play?
“Same thing you guys saw,” Phillips deadpanned.
You were involved on that play. Your hand appeared to make contact with Deshaun Watson’s helmet.
“Did they call the penalty on me?” Phillips said. He knew the answer. “So I don’t really know what there is about it.”
The play Phillips was asked about several times in the postgame locker room Sunday in the bowels of Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland — with the wound of the Panthers’ loss to the Browns just minutes fresh — arrived at the end of the game. If you watched the contest Sunday, you know it, and you probably have an opinion on it.
Deshaun Watson takes a shot to the head pic.twitter.com/mJ5XKrLmmf
With just over two minutes left in the game, with the Panthers up 18-13 and the Browns near midfield, Watson rolled to his right. The Browns QB had made so many plays with his feet to that point and was a threat to take the open field. He had two defenders in his face, though — Phillips and linebacker Bobby Okereke — so he fired to the back-corner of the end zone.
Watson’s pass was ultimately deflected and intercepted. The game was sealed … until it wasn’t. The officiating crew instead threw a flag on Okereke, who leaped up in the air to obstruct Watson’s pass and then landed with his shoulder on Watson’s helmet. Roughing the passer. A game-sealing interception turned into a game-changing 15-yard penalty and a new life for Cleveland. Watson lingered on the ground for minutes after the play — he had to be helped off the field, in fact, and backup Shedeur Sanders even took one snap and completed one pass.
The play ultimately enabled the game-winning score — a 14-yard touchdown pass from Watson to tight end Harold Fannin. No points were added for the remaining two minutes of the game. Browns win.
So yes, Phillips wasn’t the one called for the penalty. And yes, he indicated that a replay would be helpful. But he had his opinions on it, just as so many other Panthers who defended their teammate on Sunday but also acknowledged the play’s implications.
“I don’t know how hard he got hit,” Phillips said. “I mean, I wouldn’t put it past him, flopping, or whatever the case was. It’s a veteran move, like you said. But yeah, I don’t really know.”
He added: “I mean, it’s brutal. I imagine anybody watching feels the same way. It’s tough, this game is hard, and you can’t make mistakes in critical moments. But everybody was just trying to play their best, play hard, make plays for the team. Just gotta have awareness.”
It’s true that Sunday’s loss cannot just be pinned to a single, untimely penalty. The Panthers (1-2) were outgained on the ground (132 yards vs. 98) and were outplayed on third-down (5-of-15 vs. 4-of-15) and fourth-down (2-of-3 vs. 0-of-3).
They also were forced to play a lot of non-starters Sunday. Star linebacker Devin Lloyd was out with a calf injury. The team’s leading receiver was Brycen Tremayne — Xavier Legette didn’t play at all with a knee injury and Jalen Coker missed a bulk of the second half with a quad injury. Safety Nick Scott was out for the game with a rib issue. Both starting corners Jaycee Horn (quad) and Mike Jackson (groin) both started but didn’t finish the game.
But, minutes after the game, that play was the only thing on the players’ minds.
Okereke himself, who was the one called for the unnecessary roughness penalty, was disappointed but resolute postgame.
“I was focusing on making sure my momentum wasn’t carrying through to hit him in the head or neck area, but I just got to be smarter in that situation and not leave it up to the refs,” said Okereke, who contributed four tackles Sunday.
The veteran linebacker said that he will need to see the replay and watch the film, but he’ll need to make a concerted effort in those situations to “go lower on them just so I don’t give the ref the opportunity to make that call.”
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“I mean, it’s a bang-bang play,” Okereke said. “You’re moving fast, obviously. Quarterback’s moving out of the pocket. I just got to be smarter.”
When asked by Browns media about the penalty, Watson responded, “Oh yeah.” He added that he felt like “a lot of things should have been a penalty” on Sunday; “I don’t know what was going on.” He also told reporters that he had to return to the sideline because he lost his breath.
“I guess they thought it was my head,” Watson said. “I just lost my breath. I was trying to get up, and I asked the guys if there was a flag. I was just trying to catch my breath, honestly.”
Head coach Dave Canales explained his view of the call, too.
“I saw him get hit in the head by somebody’s hands,” Canales said. “I don’t know who that was. But we can’t do that. We have to go lower on the quarterback when the ball’s in the air. You have to make that decision right at the end to either put your hands on the quarterback or not, and we made the wrong decision in that case.”
The Panthers, like every NFL team, have weekly meetings in which the coaches debrief the players on some of the tendencies of certain NFL referee crews. And guard and team leader Robert Hunt told reporters afterward that this officiating crew in particular is quick to call unnecsssary roughness. On Sunday, they called three roughing-the-passer penalties — two to the benefit of Bryce Young, and one to the benefit of Watson.
“We knew that they would call it in the game,” Hunt said. “We have these meetings, and it was mentioned that this crew will call those.”
Though he wasn’t on the field for it, Hunt saw the Watson hit in real-time from the sideline.
“I didn’t think that (was a penalty),” Hunt said. “But also … that’s their job to call it, and they called it. And it didn’t work out in our favor.”
Defensive lineman Derrick Brown could empathize with Okereke. The former Pro Bowler was called for two penalties in Week 1 he’d later describe as “boneheaded” — including one crucial roughing the passer call on Caleb Williams. In the postgame locker room, he answered to what he saw of the play, too.
“I mean, you find him in full speed,” Brown said. “Sometimes it happens. It is what it is. I mean, there’s no special way to stop it. And I think it’s always a 50-50 thing.”
That’s how you might consider Sunday in general: 50-50. Though the Browns appeared to dominate the first part of the afternoon, taking a 10-0 lead, the Panthers surged back and evened almost every statistical category. Time of possession showed how close the game was: 30:07 to 29:53, Browns.
But on the play that would change everything, the Panthers ended up on the bad end of it.
“We were playing pretty well. We were covering. We were matching, and the play ended up with an interception,” Canales said. “So we extended the drive for them, and if you give a guy like Deshaun Watson a little bit of extra time and a few more opportunities, he’s going to get creative and find something.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2026 at 8:03 PM with the headline “Did Deshaun Watson ‘flop’? Carolina Panthers weigh in on game-changing penalty.”
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