T.J. Watt’s great Week 1 performance could’ve been even better. While his stat line is still colorful, two calls from the officials wiped out impact plays that would’ve made the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 18-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons a little more comfortable.
Speaking to reporters post-game, Watt reacted to having two sacks wiped from his stat line.
“I talked to the official about it,” Watt said via the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “Something we’ll get cleaned up hopefully moving forward. It just sucks when you study so hard and find a little nugget, a golden nugget and you get it. And it gets taken away from you. So that was unfortunate, but it’s not gonna deter me from continuing to study and making those plays in the future.”
The most impactful play taken off the board came late in the first half. Watt seemed to perfectly time his rush, beating RT Kaleb McGary, and strip-sacking QB Kirk Cousins while recovering the fumble. A play that not only would’ve given Pittsburgh the football but taken Falcons points off the scoreboard. Instead, Watt was called for offsides. Replays show it being a bang-bang moment between the snap and Watt’s movement. Watch Watt at LDE.
While Watt didn’t disclose the “golden nugget” he had, it seems he was timing his snap with the head bob of Atlanta C Drew Dalman. With Steeler Nation’s intense presence, the Falcons were forced to work on a silent count and allowed things like Dalman’s head bob to be identified on tape.
Throughout his career, and especially since 2020 when the pandemic took crowd noise out of the equation, Watt has credited intense film study as being a key to his success. One play after the penalty, Cousins found TE Kyle Pitts wide open in the end zone for the touchdown, giving the Falcons a lead they’d carry into halftime.
Less egregiously, Watt had another strip-sack fumble taken away in the second half, wiped out by an illegal hands-to-the-face call on CB Donte Jackson. Pittsburgh still stalled the drive but couldn’t have a potential game-changing moment.
Despite the flags, Watt still had a big day. He finished the game with four tackles, three QB hits, two tackles for a loss, a sack, and fumble recovery. As we noted heading into the week, no pass rusher has been as impactful in Week 1 as Watt since being drafted in 2017. His 11 sacks entering the 2024 season were tops in football. He put another up on the board, a walk-off sack on the final takedown.
The refs may have taken away Watt’s sacks. But they weren’t taking away the Steelers’ win.
