Alex Highsmith already has two AFC Defensive Player of the Week awards under his belt and a few multi-sack games in his career, establishing himself as a great player in the NFL.
But what he did on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 17-10 win was quite remarkable. In fact, it was a career day for the former third-round pick who has developed into a star-level pass rusher.
Highsmith, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, generated a single-game career high of 11 pressures against Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, giving him a league-leading 30 pressures on the season through the early window of games on Sunday.
Though his impact might look slightly minimal on the score sheet with just two tackles and a sack, there is so much more that went into Highsmith’s play against Baltimore.
As Next Gen Stats points out, Highsmith was a force off the edge as a pass rusher against Baltimore’s Ronnie Stanley. Consistently finding himself in Baltimore’s backfield, he put a ton of heat on Jackson. His 11 pressures are tied for the most any player has recorded in a single game this season.
That’s quite an impressive stat for Highsmith, who is coming off of a career-high 14.5 sacks last season. That breakout led to his signing a four-year, $68 million extension this summer, keeping the terrific tandem of Highsmith and T.J. Watt together.
Highsmith capped his career day with his strip sack of Jackson late in the fourth quarter. That led to a Watt fumble recovery that set up a Chris Boswell’s 42-yard field goal with 49 seconds left, making it a 17-10 game.
Watt closed out the game with a key sack on fourth down, sealing the win for the Steelers. But it was quite remarkable seeing the damage Highsmith did to Baltimore’s offense off the edge. We’ll see what the All-22 shows on Monday, but what a day for the fourth-year pass rusher who is becoming a star.
