When quarterbacks have nightmares, J.J. Watt figures to be the new starring demon.

Just ask Ryan Tannehill. Or anyone who watches highlights of the Houston Texans' season opener.

Tannehill may be the QB who immediately qualifies for a post traumatic stress disorder disability after what Watt did to him on Sunday afternoon at Reliant Stadium. But you can be sure that Watt's work is going to reverberate around the league.

After all, you just don't see this type of thing every Sunday.

"J.J. was unbelievable," Texans owner Bob McNair said in a Houston locker room that was content but hardly overjoyed with a 30-10 Week One thumping of the Miami Dolphins. "He just has a great knack for the timing (of the passing game). And man, he has such a wingspan."

There are pterodactyls that wish they had Watt's wingspan.

He deflected four Tannehill passes, directly setting up two Texans interceptions. In the first half. That is Watt's reintroduction to the NFL after his dominant rookie postseason (one that included that unforgettable, game-changing tip and interception return touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals).

Oh, and he added a sack in that first 30 minutes of football for good measure.

Watt may be done bringing pizzas to people's doors. But he's not close to done delivering. It's no stretch to wonder if J.J. Watt is now the most feared defensive player in pro football.

The 6-foot-6 defensive end basically took over an NFL game and turned it on its ear. Before Watt started his spree the Super Bowl-scheming Texans were locked in a 3-3 game with a Miami Dolphins team led by a rookie head coach (Joe Philbin) starting a rookie quarterback. By the time he finished it, the Texans led 17-3, on their way to a 24-3 halftime lead and that 20-point win.

"I could see that messing with a young quarterback's mind a little," Texans linebacker Brooks Reed said.

You think?

"You can't knock down every pass," Houston linebacker Connor Barwin said. "But J.J. makes you think you can."

He makes you sure you can dominate too. What a difference a Watt makes.

A sense of unease hung over Reliant with little more than four minutes left in the first half. There'd been plenty of boos to accompany the Texans' blunders (dropped passes, botched kickoff returns, inexplicable penalties).

Then Tannehill went back to pass on a seemingly routine third-and-10 — and everything changed. Because Watt got his hands up. He's obsessed with using every bit of his long arms, frequently driving the Texans' own quarterbacks crazy in practices by batting everything down.

"Knocking down passes is such a knack thing," Texans tight end Owen Daniels said. "You can either do it or you can't. And no one can do it like J.J. He's a beast."

The beast will tell you deflecting passes at the line takes plenty of work too. Watt is fixated on getting his hands up in every practice, determined to make the habit second nature. Did we mention Watt played the game with a brace on the dislocated elbow that kept him out of the entire preseason, a brace that you'd think would make him one armed?

Tannehill may have played big-time college football at Texas A&M. But he's never seen a defensive demon quite like this.

Watt bat flicks the ball straight up into the air and linebacker Brian Cushing comes down with the football cradled in his arms. Turnover, great field position for Matt Schaub and the Texans offense.

Six plays later, Arian Foster (26 carries for 79 yards) is bursting into the end zone for a 10-3 Texans lead.

Tannehill and the Dolphins get the ball back . . . and Watt immediately does it all over again. He gets a hand on the rookie's first pass of the next series and this time, cornerback Kareem Jackson plucks the ball out of the air for an easy interception.

This time, the Texans only need three plays for Foster to score. From 3-3 to 17-3 Texans in Watt speed. Tannehill has two straight throws — two straight throws — altered and turned into interceptions by Watt.

When Dolphins tailback Daniel Thomas coughs up the football on the Dolphins very next offensive series thanks to a Glover Quin hit — Miami's third turnover in three offensive plays — the Texans are looking at a beyond spooked team.

Forget that guy from the Saw movies. J.J. Watt is the scariest of all.

Uneasy Beginning

Schaub (20 for 31 for 266 yards and a touchdown) looked sharp on the Texans' first offensive series of the season. Unfortunately, his young receivers did not.

Keshawn Martin — the rookie from Michigan State — dropped one pass in the flat without a single Dolphin within six yards of him. Lestar Jean pulled in one tough catch on a slant to convert a third down, but he couldn't haul in a long pass in the corner of the end zone that could have been a touchdown.

Martin (zero catches) and Jean (that one) were both playing in their first official NFL game.

But even Pro Bowl running back Arian Foster got in on the dropitis, letting two Schaub passes sail through his fingers.

It all left the Texans staring at a 52-yard field goal try — one that Shayne Graham came up well short on.

After Miami took a 3-0 lead on its own shorter field goal, return specialist Trindon Holliday — the story of the Texans' preseason — joined the bobbling, shaky trend. When Holliday dropped a kickoff, scrambling to pick it back up and leaving the Texans buried at their own 5-yard line, Texans coach Gary Kubiak seemed more than a tad frightened.

The Texans called three consecutive, conservative Foster runs and found themselves punting the ball right back to Miami.

A season in which the Texans expect to be Super would open with anything but a super first quarter.

Cornerback Johnathan Joseph did his best to spark the offense, pulling off an insanely athletic interception in which he tipped a Tannehill pass to himself, grabbed the wobbly football out of the air and cut across the field to return it down the left sideline.

The play set Schaub and the offense up with a first and goal on the Miami 7-yard line. Surely the Texans would start rolling now?

Not quite.

Tight end Owen Daniels (four catches for 87 yards) commits a false start. Schaub overthrows Daniels. Schaub gets sacked back at the 20. The Texans hand off to Foster on third-and-goal from the 20 to boos.

That ladies and gentlemen is how you go minus 10 yards in three plays.

The Texans are left settling for a 34-yard Graham field goal and a 3-3 tie.

The Bulls On Parade defense isn't done yet though. Not with Watt using his 36-inch vertical leap to get his freakish long arms into Tannehill's passing lanes. Watt's second straight deflection of a Tannehill pass — yes, he actually deflected three straight Tannehill passes with the first turning into an incompletion — gets stolen out of the air by Cushing.

This time, Houston's offense cashes in. Schaub leads a crucial 54-yard drive that includes a big third-down pass to a wide-open Andre Johnson (eight catches for 119 yards and a touchdown) and ends with Foster bursting into the end zone from 14 yards out.

Texans 10, Dolphins 3.

It takes longer than many expected, but the Texans have their first touchdown of the season with 1:53 remaining in the first half.

No worries though. Watt is only getting started. For the game — and the season.