To the victor go the spoils. For the Cleveland Browns, they’re enjoying their biggest win of the season. Upsetting the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-19, on primetime television/streaming, DE Myles Garrett the star of the show. Three first-half sacks on QB Russell Wilson to give him 10 for the season, Garrett vaulting to second in the league only behind Cincinnati Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson. After Garrett declared himself No. 1 postgame, the Browns trolled T.J. Watt with this tweet a short time ago.
They posted a photo of Garrett celebrating a sack with his quote “I’m No. 1” with the caption of “Nothing he’s not used to.”
For those who aren’t as terminally online as we are, the “nothing he’s not used to” comment is a reference to what Watt tweeted after finishing runner-up to Garrett in the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting. Watt skipped the ceremony and sent out tweet full of shade.
“Nothing I’m not used to,” he tweeted in February.
While Garrett had a monster game in the win, Watt’s performance was quiet. He finished with four tackles, zero sacks and, based on our charting, zero pressures. Isolated one-on-one, he was taken upfield by RT Jack Conklin on one of the biggest plays of the game, QB Jameis Winston’s fourth-down touchdown run. While EDGE Nick Herbig and NT Keeanu Benton were held on the play, Watt just had a bad rep.
On the season Watt has 7.5 sacks. That’s still tied for eighth-most in the league, though he could fall down the charts once the rest of the Week 12 games are played. He’s on pace to finish the year with 11.5 sacks. A good number for many but it’d be Watt’s lowest output since his rookie year, excluding his injury-marred 2022 campaign.
Watt is a supremely talented player, and a relatively quiet stretch won’t change that. But Thursday night was unusual for him, the six-time Pro Bowler often in the headlines because of the game-breaking play he made. Instead, it’s about the ones he didn’t as Garrett wrote the story. A bounce-back game for T.J. Watt in Week 13 against rookie RT Amarius Mims would be ideal.
