CLEVELAND — The Pittsburgh Steelers won the proverbial battle Sunday in regards to preventing Myles Garrett from setting the NFL single-season sacks record against them.
They, of course, lost the war in falling 13-6 to the Cleveland Browns.
“(Containing Garrett) was definitely the main focus,” left tackle Dylan Cook said of the offensive line’s game plan. “We didn’t win the game, though, so we’ve got to be better.”
With Steelers star T.J. Watt on hand for a game for the first time since suffering a partially collapsed lung 21⁄2 weeks ago, the Steelers defended — for now, at least — the record he shares with Hall of Famer Michael Strahan for most sacks in a season (221⁄2).
Garrett finished Sunday’s game credited with just one tackle and a QB hit of Aaron Rodgers. As a result, if Garrett breaks the record it now will have taken him 17 games (Watt did it in 15 and Strahan 16), and it won’t come against the Steelers.
“Obviously, that was in the back of our mind,” said Spencer Anderson, who started at left guard, “but at the end of the day, we were focused on winning. The flow of the game occurred if, whenever he was rushing, he was treated just like he would if he would have had two sacks on the year or something. It didn’t matter, we just stuck to our game plan. He didn’t have a sack, but he did get the win and that’s what’s important.”
Since they entered the league as first-round picks in the 2018 draft class, Garrett is Watt’s longtime personal rival and a player he will forever be measured against as the top edge defenders of this era. The Steelers and Browns, obviously, are longtime division rivals.
Garrett has 13 sacks in 17 career games (including playoffs) against the Steelers but was held without a sack for the eighth time, including both meetings this season.
“We didn’t do anything against Myles that we don’t normally do against Myles. The sack record is irrelevant,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “We have to minimize him if we want to engineer victory. We did the same thing last time we played them.
“We didn’t take a different approach because of the gravity of the record. It’s just standard business when you’re playing these guys and him.”
Several Browns players took note of the fact that the Steelers “chipped” Garrett and that Rodgers was making his throws exceptionally quickly after taking snaps.
“Myles is going to have to learn to fly,” Cleveland safety Grant Delpit said, “if he wants to get that sack against that team.”
Still, as Garrett himself noted, getting rid of the ball quickly is the Steelers’ offensive modus operandi.
“Of course they’re going to throw even quicker when I’m lined up on that side, you know?” Garrett said. “They had a chipper there, sometimes two chippers. And through getting out quick, sometimes they’re rolling away, they’re doing a little bit of everything. And I’ve kind of come to expect that.
“I know they didn’t want me to be the one to break it against them.”
While that appeared to be the case when looking at the gameplan, the Steelers insist that preserving the record in Watt’s honor — or, at least, making Garrett wait to do it until next Sunday’s season finale in Cincinnati — was just an ancillary aspect of constructing their gameplan.
“We didn’t really talk about (protecting the record for Watt),” guard Andrus Peat said. “It’s just a division rival, and you don’t want to see him get that (for that reason).”
Cook was making his third career start and was the Steelers’ fourth left tackle this season. It was something of a personal win for him to keep Garrett off the stat sheet.
Garrett almost exclusively rushes the quarterback from the right side of the defense and against the left tackle. Sunday, it seemed he was lining up further outside than usual.
Putting the Watt aspect aside, Steelers linemen quietly acknowledged they did not want to be forever shown on NFL Films footage as the man Garrett beat en route to the record.
“In the back of our minds, yeah, for sure,” Cook said. “But we just wanted to win the game at the end of the day.”