Will T.J. Watt record his 100th career sack for the Steelers against the Dallas Cowboys?
After three straight games recording one sack, T.J. Watt came up empty last week. Once again, he enters the day sitting at 99.5 sacks for his regular-season career, needing one for the century mark. Or, you know, half of one, but you get the idea.
If you are rooting for T.J. Watt to get sack number 100 today, then the Dallas Cowboys are not a bad way to go. QB Dak Prescott has already taken 10 sacks this season, or one on 6.29 percent of his dropbacks. While that’s not phenomenally bad (it’s not even in the top 10), he has still taken the 12th-most sacks.
And the Cowboys’ tackles have been particularly bad this season in terms of their pass protection. While I don’t think the Steelers will move T.J. Watt around much (though they could), both Terence Steele and rookie Tyler Guyton have fallen short in this area.
Any match T.J. Watt gets is a mismatch because he’s T.J. Watt, of course. But every team has a plan to defend him, and the Colts had a plan that worked better than most. At this point, it’s rare for Watt not to record a sack in a game. That is, of course, why he is about to reach 100 for his career the second-fastest of anybody in history.
More generally, Watt is in like a 100-way tie for 13th place in the league in sacks right now with three. He is far off the leader’s mark, Aiden Hutchinson, with 6.5 on the season. Even the Ravens’ Kyle Van Noy, at 33, has six sacks already. And everybody’s favorite, Myles Garrett, has four, bad feet and all.
With Highsmith out and Nick Herbig nursing an ankle injury, the Steelers will really need T.J. Watt to produce in this game. Even with Jeremiah Moon stepping in to help, he must be that game-wrecker today. And doing so in historic fashion is never a bad thing.
The Steelers’ 2024 season is underway, following another disappointing year ending in a first-round playoff loss. They have had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills stamped them out of their misery back in January. There are positive signs, but things could jump off the rails any moment.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Will Russell Wilson regain his job when he is healthy, or is Justin Fields stealing it? How will the team continue to address the depth chart, which is surprisingly still in flux?
The regular season is here, following weeks of camp and preseason games. The Steelers made numerous moves through signings and trade—and release. More than usual, they seemed comfortable creating holes, confident they can fill them. Some they managed to fill, others not so much. Now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, however, we merely have a new set of questions to ask.
