Heading into the Week Five matchup against the Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt found himself staring down quite a favorable matchup against backup right tackle Patrick Mekari.
One week after failing to take advantage of a favorable matchup against the Houston Texans and right tackle George Fant, Watt would not be denied on Sunday, dominating the matchup.
In 60 snaps Sunday, Watt graded out at an 84.0, including a 78.0 as a pass rusher and a 71.4 as a run defender. In the win over the Ravens, Watt generated five pressures and had two sacks, pushing his league lead to 8.0 on the season and increasing his pressures total to 27. He sits four pressures away from matching his 2022 season that saw him play 10 games and struggle with injuries, playing just 502 snaps. He sits at 299 snaps this season and is on pace for the best season of his career from a sacks perspective, which would break the NFL’s single-season sacks record.
Once again in his incredible career to date with the Steelers, Watt wrecked the Ravens. He dominated as a pass rusher, had some strong reps as a run defender, and had a few key plays that went unnoticed in the game.
Let’s dive into the film room.
RUN DEFENSE
Run defense isn’t exactly Watt’s strong suit.
That’s not to say he’s bad at it, it’s just that teams can run at him and have success.
Against the Ravens on Sunday, that wasn’t quite the case. Watt was much-improved at the point of attack against the run compared to Week Four on the road against Houston.
On the second rep of the game, Watt had a nice rep against right tackle Patrick Mekari against the run.
Great job of squeezing down at the last second before the snap to get head-up over top of Mekari. From there, Watt does well to gain control of Mekari with his hands inside on his chest, riding Mekari down the line while keeping his head across in the gap, essentially showing the gap is controlled to running back Gus Edwards.
As the front side of the play does its job of clogging everything up, Edwards looks to cut it back but sees Watt in the hole. That causes Edwards to slow up just enough, allowing safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to get off a block, get downhill, and make the stick at the line of scrimmage.
Watt might not be the one making a bunch of run stops, but his work taking on lead blockers and squeezing down against pulling blockers is critical in run defense.
Look at this rep here in the first quarter.
Good job of getting upfield and recognizing center Tyler Linderbaum coming his way. You can see late in the rep that Watt sees he has a bunch of space around him, looks inside for the pulling lineman, and squeezes down just enough, tightening the lane that Edwards has to run through. That muddies things up, as does Elandon Roberts’ work taking on the lead blocker, leading to a short gain in the run game from Edwards.
It all works together.
His quickness at the snap of the ball played a key role in putting the Ravens behind the chains on a run play.
With Baltimore pinned back deep in the fourth quarter, Watt drew a holding call against the run from Patrick Ricard, making it 1st and 20 for the Ravens, ultimately leading to Miles Killebrew’s blocked punt.
Watt gives a little outside head fake right at the snap to Ricard, which freezes him, opening up a lane inside for Watt to shoot through.
He wins inside, forcing Ricard to grab ahold of him and bring him to the turf, drawing the holding flag.
That doesn’t show up in the stats sheet, but it’s a huge play that allowed the Steelers to dictate the playbook in the fourth quarter.
PASS RUSH
Watt’s first sack of the game was a thing of beauty. It looked so darn easy.
Largely, it was.
Watt has perfected his craft as a pass rusher, especially club/rip. He hit it perfectly against Mekari.
It is so quick and efficient that Mekari threw his pass set punch at the air as Watt had already beat him
What’s even more remarkable about this play is that safety Keanu Neal is untouched up the middle, but Watt beats him to the spot to sack Lamar Jackson.
Here’s the slowed-down version of the rush, too.
That is an incredible pass rush.
It doesn’t get much better than that. Watt might not have the freakish athleticism or the elite-level traits but he sure knows how to win with his hands and his overall body control.
Watt should have had a third sack in the game, this one in the third quarter.
Watt again wins cleanly with a club/rip to get underneath Baltimore backup right tackle Daniel Faalele, easily turning the corner to get pressure on Jackson. He slips on the Steelers’ logo though as he’s turning the corner and falls down, allowing Jackson to step up into the pocket. Fortunately for Watt, linebacker Kwon Alexander is there to clean him up.
That rush against Faalele showed Watt he could win against the big right tackle way later in the game.
Watt called game in a perfect way, splitting the chip from running back Justice Hill while staying low against Faalele, ripping through the block attempt, winning against a hold, and still getting Jackson on the ground to seal the win.
The show of emotion from Watt capped it all off. Even though he received a penalty for taking his helmet off, it was warranted. Watt went beast mode late in the game, giving the Steelers a much-needed win at home against the AFC North rivals.
He’s the best defender in football and continues to dominate as a pass rusher, especially against the Ravens.
