Entering Sunday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, there was a lot of attention focused on the marquee matchup in the trenches between Eagles All-Pro RT and future Hall of Famer Lane Johnson, and Steelers All-Pro OLB and future Hall of Famer T.J. Watt.
It was star against star, the best of the best matching up on an island.
As expected, Watt had an impact on the game in a major way, but Johnson won his fair share of reps and had a great game as well, helping the Eagles roll to a 27-13 win over the Steelers.
After the game, Johnson said he had one thing on his mind all day.
“I’ll tell you, all I was thinking about was T.J. Watt. I didn’t give a shit about anything else,” Johnson said to reporters, according to a tweet from PHLY’s Zach Berman. “Get off the ball and don’t let T.J. Watt fucking destroy the game. You watch that guy on every film, he’s destroying football games.
“Hope he’s OK. He’s probably one of the best in the world.”
Coming into the matchup, Johnson was the best right tackle in football. He had allowed just seven total pressures entering the Week 15 game against the Steelers and hadn’t given up a single sack all season.
The sack numbers continued this week, even with Watt getting two sacks. Neither were charged against Johnson as Watt had a chase-down sack on Jalen Hurts that was a generous credit for a sack, and then on the very next play — after a Johnson false start — Watt tracked down Hurts from behind as the quarterback broke left out of the pocket for the 12-yard sack.
Watt beat a chip and Johnson on the play, but the sack was surprisingly charged to Hurts for breaking out of the pocket. Realistically, though, Watt beat Johnson clean and did what he does: play with high effort and make plays in big spots.
The Steelers star finished with seven tackles, two sacks, one tackle for loss and had a forced fumble after chasing down Hurts on a run to punch the ball free.
But things came to a halt late in the game as Watt went down with an injury, which had Johnson worried, putting his hands on his head after seeing Watt on the ground. Despite the ferocious battle the two had all game, there’s a great deal of respect there and Johnson hated to see Watt get hurt while locked up with him on a pass-rush attempt.
“Yeah, I guess he went around the edge and then I saw him kind of like, I don’t know, I don’t think nothing popped, but I saw him grab the back of his knee,” Johnson said of Watt’s injury, according to audio provided by the Eagles. “And so, yeah, man, you don’t wanna see a player — or any player, much less him — go through any of that because I think he’s probably the best player I’ve faced.
“His production’s always up there every year. I think effort, I think his arsenal, I think he’s probably the most intelligent football players, in reality, I would say. He’s unbelievable.”
Watt is unbelievable, and so is Johnson. The 12th-year veteran knew he had his hands full on Sunday with Watt, especially on an island much of the game. It was a great battle between the two, and it’s great to hear a player of Johnson’s caliber giving credit where it’s due with Watt.
Hopefully Watt’s ankle injury isn’t too serious and he’s able to get back into the lineup on Saturday against the Ravens in a pivotal AFC North battle.
