Throughout Sunday’s San Francisco 49ers’ 30-7 beatdown of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium, there wasn’t much that went right of the Black and Gold in the first season opener at home since 2014.
Second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett played the worst game of his young career, the rebuilt offensive line did not perform up to par against a dominant San Francisco front, and the defense largely had no answers for San Francisco’s offense.
The good news coming out of Sunday’s game though — if there is any to come from a 23-point loss that wasn’t all that close — is the fact that star Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt is back to being, well, T.J. Watt.
After getting hurt early in the 2022 season, missing seven games and then returning and injuring his ribs, Watt wasn’t really himself until late in the season. His struggles last season with injuries and the frustration of not being able to do what he normally would do on the field drove him this offseason.
Once he hit the field Sunday against the 49ers, he was T.J. Watt again.
Watt finished with three sacks of San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy and tied the Steelers’ all-time franchise sacks record, giving him 80.5 to tie James Harrison, though Watt did it in 90 fewer games.
While the Steelers struggled to come up with answers to stop the 49ers’ rushing attack and generate consistent pressure on Purdy in the pocket to disrupt the passing attack, Watt was a force off the edge. Thanks to his big day against San Francisco, Watt finds himself atop many of the pass-rushing statistical boards for Pro Football Focus.
Watt finished the loss with a PFF grade of 94.4, which is the top EDGE defender in Week One with one game still to go. He also had the highest pass-rush grade in Week 1 at 94.9 overall. His 3.0 sacks are tied for first in the NFL with San Francisco’s Drake Jackson and Jacksonville’s Josh Allen. His two forced fumbles are tied for first as well with Washington’s Montez Sweat.
Additionally, Watt generated six total pressures on Sunday, which is tied for third in the NFL (Tennessee’s Arden Key leads the NFL with eight), and his 23.1 percent pass-rush win rate is tied for sixth in the NFL with names like Cleveland’s Myles Garrett and Dallas’ Micah Parsons.
Pittsburgh undoubtedly has to figure things out defensively, especially if captain Cameron Heyward is going to miss some time with the groin injury that knocked him from the season opener. The Steelers struggled to stop the run on Sunday and really didn’t generate consistent pressure outside of Watt. Coverage was a concern, too.
There are plenty of things to correct on both sides of the football, but the good news for Pittsburgh is that Watt is all the way back to being his dominant self. Next up for the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year is a juicy matchup in Week Two against Cleveland rookie right tackle Dawand Jones in primetime.
