For the second time in five weeks, T.J. Watt has been named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his three sack effort in Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Defensive Players of the Week (Week 5):
AFC: @steelers LB @_TJWatt
NFC: @AZCardinals DE @chanjones55 pic.twitter.com/Wd9bVNhdYQ— NFL (@NFL) October 10, 2018
It’s the second time this season Watt has posted a three sacks game, doing the same in the opener versus Cleveland. He also received Player of the Week honors for that effort.
“The stat line says it all,” Mike Tomlin said Tuesday when asked to rate how impactful Watt was. “Very. But again, he was not alone. It was a collective rush. And that’s usually the case.”
It was part of a stellar pass rush and defensive performance that sacked Matt Ryan six times. The Steelers lead the league with 19 sacks while Watt is tied with his older brother for the NFL lead with six of them.
Watt is already just one sack shy of matching his rookie year total over 15 games. He also leads Pittsburgh with 20 pressures, more than double that of Cam Heyward or Stephon Tuitt. As we pointed out in our stats of the weird section post-game, Watt is the first player with multiple three sack games in his first two seasons since Vic Beasley in 2016. Others with that achievement have turned out to be pretty good pass rushers: Von Miller, Clay Matthews, Justin Houston, and J.J. Watt have all done it over the last several seasons.
