As George Pickens seems to agree with, the 2024 Cleveland Browns haven’t been a very good football team. They’re just 3-9, but one of those three wins did come against the Pittsburgh Steelers a few weeks ago. During that snowy Thursday night game, Browns’ star edge rusher Myles Garrett had quite the day.
Garrett had three of his 10 sacks on the season against Pittsburgh. He made an impact against the run as well, with three tackles for a loss. The reigning defensive player of the year is never easy to game plan against, and the Steelers weren’t able to prepare for him two weeks ago.
Mike Tomlin is doing his best to make sure the Steelers don’t make that same mistake again. On Saturday’s edition of The Mike Tomlin Show, the head coach discussed the way his team is preparing for Garrett.
“We gotta prevent the bomb from going off,” Tomlin said of Garrett. “Such is life in the AFC North. I just think dynamic edge rushers have been a component of this division for a long, long time. But like I said last time, we won’t be doing anything unique that he doesn’t see week in and week out. The dynamic rushers, they see chips and body position, and multiple tight end man surfaces on play action passes just about every week… When you’re playing Myles, both tackles gotta be ready ’cause you move them around quite a bit.”
Tomlin makes a good point, there isn’t anything any team can do to Garrett that he hasn’t seen yet. When facing an edge rusher that dominant, all you can really do is throw as many guys at him as you can, as Tomlin alludes to with the chips Garrett will face.
However, it seemed like Garrett was extra-motivated last week. Aside from the obvious rivalry, which gets both teams amped up, Garrett and Steelers’ edge rusher T.J. Watt have developed a rivalry of their own. Each of the two are easily among the best at their position, and find themselves competing for the Defensive Player of the Year Award seemingly every season. The reigning defensive player of the year seems to be downplaying that rivalry this week, though.
Still, it won’t just be Garrett with some extra motivation this week. With a win on Sunday, the Browns will accomplish something they haven’t done in quite a long time. The last time Cleveland swept Pittsburgh was all the way back in 1988.
If Cleveland does beat Pittsburgh, Myles Garrett will probably have a lot to do with that. To avoid a loss and keep their hold on the AFC North this Sunday, containing Garrett will be one of the Steelers’ top priorities.
