The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 16-10, in a critical Week 12 divisional matchup. The defense held the Jake Browning-led Bengals to 10 points and the offense exploded for its first 400-yard performance in years, even if the point total didn’t reflect it. The Steelers’ defense generated one takeaway with a Trenton Thompson interception and T.J. Watt forced another fumble that was recovered by the Bengals. They sacked Browning four times, with two from Watt, one from Nick Herbig, and one from Cameron Heyward.
With that sack, Heyward moved to 79.5 sacks in his career. That is just one full sack away from tying James Harrison for second all-time in franchise history. He had a chance to briefly take the lead earlier in the season before T.J. Watt permanently ran away with the record, but a Week One injury derailed eight games of his season. While he will almost certainly never hold the Steelers’ sack record, he was given a ton of respect by Bengals OT Orlando Brown Jr. after the game.
“I think they did a good job in their five-man front,” Brown said in a video posted by Cincinnati Bengals Talk on YouTube after the game. “They’ve got two great 4i’s, one of them being a Hall of Famer.”
It is difficult for interior defensive linemen to make the Hall of Fame as their stats aren’t often as gaudy as other positions. That being said, Heyward’s 79.5 sacks are currently in sole possession of 124th most in league history, at least since stats started being recorded as an official stat. He can enter the top 100 with 5.5 more sacks in his career, which would put him in impressive company for defensive linemen.
In his career, Heyward has appeared in 187 games, with 632 combined tackles, 79.5 sacks, 119 tackles for loss, eight forced fumbles, 46 passes defensed, and two interceptions. He has been selected to the Pro Bowl six times, the first team All-Pro list three times, and the second team All-Pro list once. That is quite the resume, and in an interview this past offseason, he said “I think I’m on track.” Heyward ranks 21st on Pro Football Reference’s DT Hall of Fame monitor. Twelve of the defensive tackles ahead of him on that list are already in the Hall of Fame, while another five of them are not yet eligible.
With his career much closer to its end than the beginning, Heyward has limited time to make that last push to be a Hall of Famer, but if you ask Orlando Brown Jr. he is already on his way.
