The Pittsburgh Steelers won’t have star outside linebacker T.J. Watt for their Wild Card Round matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. The Steelers have won just one game without Watt since drafting him in 2017, and Jason McCourty thinks it’s time for the Steelers to show something new. On Good Morning Football this morning, he implored the Steelers to find a way to win without Watt.
“For the Pittsburgh Steelers, I’m looking at them like, show me something different this time around without T.J. Watt,” McCourty said on the NFL Network show. “This is a team that found some type of resiliency throughout the course of this season. There were a moment a few weeks ago when people were questioning whether Mike Tomlin should remain the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’ve always been able to fight and claw, Mason Rudolph has gotten in there. So find a way to go out there and still perform, especially defensively without someone like T.J. Watt in there.”
One of the reasons the Steelers are so effective at fighting and clawing and winning gritty games is because of their ability getting after the quarterback with Watt. He’s such a dynamic playmaker that he allows them to get away with playing substandard football on offense at times because he can force turnovers and putting opposing offenses in less-than-ideal positions by getting after the quarterback and making tackles for a loss. He’s probably the worst player for the Steelers to lose to an injury, and their 1-10 record without him speaks for itself.
But the Steelers have been effective with some simulated pressures in recent weeks, particularly in Week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals, and they still have a really effective pass rusher in Alex Highsmith. Markus Golden and Nick Herbig have both flashed at times this season, and they’re more than capable as replacements for Watt. No one can fully replace Watt, but the Steelers made an effort to improve their outside linebacker depth last offseason, and that decision should hopefully pay dividends in the playoffs.
Pittsburgh is going to have to find a way to get it done without Watt and having a fully healthy secondary for the first time since Week 15 could help. It’s going to be important for the Steelers to force Bills QB Josh Allen into some bad decisions, and getting pressure and being aggressive on balls in the air is going to be key for the Steelers. This is a team that knows it needs to win a playoff game, and Mike Tomlin is going to be hungry to end the Steelers’ drought of not winning when it counts, which dates back to 2016. We’ll see if they can get it done without their best player.
