The Pittsburgh Steelers offense couldn’t do much of anything in the team’s 24-19 loss to the Cleveland Browns, and a big part of that was the impact of DE Myles Garrett. The perennial Pro Bowler was a true game wrecker as he had three first-half sacks and the way he took over the game prevented the offense from really getting going early. LT Dan Moore Jr., who was matched up against Garrett for most of the game, said the Steelers just didn’t do enough to stop the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
“Obviously our plan just wasn’t great against him. We’ll review the film, but like I said, we just gotta be better,” Moore said via Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Twitter.
During Mike Tomlin’s halftime interview, he said there was nothing more “schematically” the Steelers could do to stop Garrett, but whatever they did after halftime worked better. Myles Garrett was held without a sack in the second half, and Pittsburgh’s offense finally found some life in the fourth quarter.
But it wound up being too little. Despite taking the lead, Cleveland was able to score the go-ahead touchdown with just under a minute left to play and held on for the win. Had Garrett not been such an unstoppable force in the first half, Pittsburgh’s offense could’ve stayed on schedule and potentially moved the ball more and given the Steelers a better chance to win, but Garrett really took over the game and hindered the offense’s ability to do much of anything.
Myles Garrett’s performance came after months of debate over whether he truly deserved the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year award over T.J. Watt. While Watt has played well against Cleveland in the past, Garrett looked like the much better player last night, and he took the opportunity to let the world know after the game. Watt didn’t get a hit on the quarterback all night and looked like he got locked up a bit by OT Jack Conklin while Garrett took over the game. Watt’s won the individual matchup and game within the game by outperforming Garrett before, but last night Garrett had the upper hand.
It wasn’t an entirely shocking performance by the Steelers, who were coming off a hard-fought win over the Ravens on Sunday and had to turn around and play in snowy and windy conditions on a short week against another division rival. But the Steelers simply didn’t do a good enough job against Garrett, which ended up being a huge difference in the game.
