For the first two weeks of the season, Steelers opponents ran away from T.J. Watt—rather literally their rushing offenses. With Watt mostly staying put on his defensive left side, offenses attacked the defensive right side. Although the Patriots were more balanced, the defense as a whole played the run better. The biggest issue was QB Drake Maye, who gained 45 yards, largely on scrambles.
Either way, however, Watt believes teams running away from him shouldn’t be a problem. Indeed, he thinks the Steelers can use it to their advantage. Speaking to reporters on Monday, he called such scheming just “part of the game”.
“Obviously, I’m trying to make it effective on the left, try to go over to the right from time to time, but I just feel more at home on the left right now”, Watt said, via the Steelers’ website, about trying to counter teams avoiding him by switching sides. “If it makes teams one-dimensional, that should be something that we can weaponize”.
At the end of last season, T.J. Watt said he needed to be more open about flipping sides. While the Steelers have flipped him some this season, it has hardly been substantial. He has 74 pass rushes from the left, for example, versus six from the right.
But if offenses are going to telegraph their plans to scheme away from Watt, then he is right that they should be able to use that to their advantage. That’s harder without Alex Highsmith, who is currently sidelined due to injury. But Nick Herbig is no slouch, and they just got Derrick Harmon on the field, which should help.
T.J. Watt still managed to be productive against the Patriots, notching two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. As far as the run game goes, Patriots running backs managed just 3.4 yards per carry. They totaled 74 rushing yards on 22 attempts, combining for three lost fumbles. Watt forced one of them, though if you want to credit it to Jabrill Peppers, nobody would blame you.
Really, though, the Steelers did too much bending for comfort. Through three games, they have the second-worst yardage ratio and rank 28th in yards allowed per game. That’s not just because teams are avoiding Watt, by any means, though that’s not something they want to continue. After all, the Steelers are paying him a bunch of money to make plays, not to be a decoy.
And to Watt’s credit, he showed on Sunday that he can still make plays even as offenses try to avoid him. That doesn’t necessarily mean he has been at the top of his game all season. But there is still a lot of football left to play, with the next game in Ireland. The Vikings appear to have a solid run game this year, so that should be a good test for the unit.
