It’s not often you’ll hear opposing players say that they were glad to go against Pittsburgh Steelers star outside linebacker and future Hall of Famer T.J. Watt, but that was the case Sunday for Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson.
Speaking to reporters after the Falcons’ 18-10 loss to the Steelers open the season, Robinson said that he’s glad they got such a good test in Watt so early in the season.
“They were bringing pressure; they got a very talented player in Watt, and he brought some pressure, and we were trying to just contain him, but I think it was really good that we had him first game,” Robinson said, according to video via the Falcons’ YouTube page. “It was a great test for all of us. Just because, when you’re playing against a guy like that it gets us better for these games coming up.
“But hats off to their defense for maintaining that pocket to get sacks and get turnovers. But this was a good one to learn from and obviously we don’t want this to happen again.”
There is no denying Watt’s talent at this point in his career, as hard as some analytics companies try and do.
Watt wrecks games week after week, and that was the case on Sunday, even with some questionable calls going against him.
The star pass rusher finished with four tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and three quarterback hits. Without some questionable calls from officials, Watt would have had three sacks, a forced fumble and a second fumble recovery.
He was that good on Sunday.
To cap things, Watt sacked Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins on the final snap of the game, sealing the win for the Steelers on the road.
As Robinson said, it was a good test for them early in the season. It’s likely they won’t face a better pass rusher all season, even with Dallas Cowboys edge Micah Parsons and Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby on the Falcons’ schedule.
Watt was a handful for Falcons right tackle Kaleb McGary on Sunday but having that experience against him should only help the Falcons grow moving forward. Fortunately for them, they don’t have to face Watt again.
