The Acrisure Stadium crowd was fired up for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Monday Night Football tilt with the Cleveland Browns, a game Pittsburgh won 26-22 largely thanks to Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt. Highsmith and Watt each had a sack and a defensive touchdown, and both credited the fans for helping the Steelers pick up their first win of the season.
“We feed off the crowd, Steeler Nation, they were there and they were loud today and we fed off of that, Renegade was playing and stuff like that too,” Highsmith said via Steelers.com.
Highsmith got the crowd going early on the first play from scrimmage, picking off a Deshaun Watson pass and returning it 30 yards for a touchdown.
He came through again in the fourth quarter, sacking Watson and forcing a fumble that Watt scooped and took back for a 16-yard touchdown to give Pittsburgh a 26-22 lead it never relinquished.
Watt thinks the Steelers can continue to be even better with a rowdy home crowd.
“I just think we really fed off the crowd. I still think we can do a better job of executing in those moments when the crowd is going absolutely bananas like they were tonight,” he said via the team’s YouTube channel.
Watt set the team’s franchise sack record in the game, taking down Watson on a third and 7 with 1:03 left in the third quarter. It was a crucial play in a crucial spot, and the fact it made history was that much sweeter. Former Steelers OLB James Harrison was also in the stadium to see Watt break his record.
Highsmith also credited the playing of Renegade, the Styx song that’s come to be Pittsburgh’s anthem, before his fourth-quarter strip sack. Brooke Pryor of ESPN also passed along that the crowd was loving Watt getting amped up to some Bruce Springsteen ahead of the fourth quarter, so shoutout to the Acrisure Stadium DJ for having a hand in Pittsburgh’s win.
It’s always nice playing at home to cut down and travel and keep players well-rested, but a good home crowd can be the difference between a win and a loss, and that was proven last night. It was a game the Steelers had little to no business winning, given the fact they didn’t gain a single yard in the fourth quarter.
But the crowd gave the players energy to keep going, and despite the defense being on the field for over 35 minutes, that energy propelled Watt and Highsmith to come up with big plays to help lead the Steelers to victory.
All that matters is that Pittsburgh got the win, even though it was ugly. There’s a lot of work to do, but it feels a lot better being 1-1 than 0-2, and the Steelers can thank those in attendance at Acrisure Stadium on Monday night for having a hand in that.
