T.J. Watt donned an AFC North champions shirt and cap, but the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker didn’t linger long in the Acrisure Stadium locker room as his teammates celebrated Sunday night.
He had good reason.
“Cigar smoke everywhere,” he said. “Tried to get out of there as quick as possible.”
Understandable for someone only weeks removed from surgery on a partially collapsed lung. But those postgame precautions seemed to be the only limitations on Watt, who returned from a three-game absence and intercepted a pass in a wild 26-24 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.
The Steelers allowed three passing touchdowns by Lamar Jackson including two in the fourth quarter. But the defense also held running back Derrick Henry to 14 rushing yards after halftime and ultimately escaped with a win when a 44-yard field goal try by Tyler Loop missed as time expired.
For Watt, this was only his third division title since entering the league in 2017, and it came by the slimmest of margins.
“Winning is tough in this league,” Watt said. “It’s so tough. You put so much work into it. Nine seasons. To win it three times lets you know how rare it is and how much you need to appreciate it. But with that comes not getting a win in the playoffs. So, we’re not just here to take part. We want to come in here and we want to win games.”
The fourth-seeded Steelers host the fifth-seeded Houston Texans in a wild-card round game next Monday night.
Watt hadn’t played since a Dec. 7 win in Baltimore, sidelined 23 days after suffering a lung puncture during a dry needling treatment at the Steelers’ facility. In his return, Watt played on 85.4% of the team’s defensive snaps Sunday — a slight increase from his season average of 82.1% — and was on the field for special teams when Loop missed his kick.
In all, Watt played 41 defensive snaps without issue.
“I feel really good,” he said shortly after midnight. “(We’ll) see how I feel the next couple days. They say we’re playing Monday, so we get an extra day. Honestly, I am really pleased with how I felt. Hats off to the training staff, strength staff for getting me ready to go.”
Watt’s highlight was his third-quarter interception of a deflected pass. The Ravens managed only 13 offensive yards combined on two third-quarter possessions, and the turnover led to a Chris Boswell field goal.
The interception was the ninth of Watt’s career. He joined Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Julius Peppers as the only players with more than 100 career sacks and at least nine interceptions.
“Any time he’s on the field, the offense has to worry about him,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “You know he’s going to make plays. It’s just his presence. We feel very confident in him. We know when he’s on the field, we’re complete.”
Watt said he wasn’t apprehensive about taking the field despite the lung injury, which he has called “very scary.”
“That was part of why I felt so comfortable playing tonight,” he said. “If I knew I was going to play, I knew I was going to be able play to the best of my ability as fast as I possibly could. Honestly, my legs just felt really fresh, so that was exciting.”
The Steelers defense didn’t have a great start. The Ravens scored on their opening possession, an eight-play, 85-yard drive that ended with a 38-yard pass from Jackson to Devontez Walker. The drive was sparked by a 47-yard run by Derrick Henry, who finished with 126 yards on 20 carries.
But a week after Henry scored four touchdowns, the Steelers kept him out of the end zone and largely silence him after halftime.
“We really stopped them from there on out, especially coming out of halftime,” Watt said. “We just really wanted to blow up on the run knowing what they wanted to do. All comes down to gap-sound football.”
In the fourth quarter, Baltimore’s biggest plays came through the air. Jackson tossed two touchdown passes to Zay Flowers, both on third-down throws covering 50 and 64 yards. Later, a 26-yard completion on a fourth-down pass to Isaiah Likely put the Ravens in position to attempt a winning field goal.
But Loop’s kick missed right, the final twist in an unpredictable ending.
“It feels like every time we get together, we’re talking about just those legacy-type plays, just huge moments every time,” Watt said. “Glad we were on the winning end.”