CLEVELAND, Ohio — Myles Garrett didn’t get the apology he was hoping for from T.J. Watt, but he certainly made Watt and the Steelers sorry.
After revealing on Tuesday that he was ticked off at Watt for disrespecting Garrett’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in February, Garrett threw the gauntlet down at Watt’s feet and then stomped on it.
In the first half of the Browns’ 24-19 upset of the Steelers on Thursday Night Football, Garrett sacked Russell Wilson three times, strip-sacking him once. Meanwhile, the Browns held Watt, the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, without a sack.
It was a very decisive 3-0 victory for a very motivated Garrett, who now has 10 sacks on the season to Watt’s 7.5. He also has three strips to Watt’s four.
“I’m No. 1,” Garrett said to Amazon after the Browns improved to 3-8 and the Steelers slipped to 8-3. “That’s from Edge 1 to Defensive Player of the Year. I’m the guy. That runs through me, and there’s no other person being defended as I am or schemed or planned against like I am. Just goes to show, you can throw that out the window — I’m going to find a way.”
Garrett, who achieved his fifth career hat trick — including his second in the past three games — got the sack party started early with an 8-yard takedown of Wilson on the Steelers opening drive to force Chris Boswell to attempt a 58-yard field goal. He sailed it wide right. In the second quarter, he zoomed off the end and sacked Wilson for a 7 yard loss, raking the ball out of his hand. Winston Reid recovered and the Browns converted into a field goal for 10-3 lead. For an encore, he closed out the first half with another 8-yard sack on a third and 10 to prevent a Hail Mary.
Afterwards, he admitted that the Watt slight lit even more of a fire under him for the showdown. It was their first meeting since Watt posted on X the night that Garrett won AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year ‘nothing I’m not used to.’
“You try to take things a bit personally, yeah,” he said. “There’s certain aspects to the game that you want to use as motivation, as newspaper material or clipboard, whatever they call it. But you use that as motivation to go out there and play your very best and just try to make that as contagious as possible to men around you.”
He swears he paid no mind to Watt getting shut out, in large part by right tackle Jack Conklin.
“I was really just focused on going out there and playing the very best ball I could,” he said. “But yeah, I wanted to make it known that I’m the guy, I’m the No. 1 edge defender. That was a statement I was intending to make and I think I made it.”
Before the game, team captains Garrett and Watt marched out to the middle of the field for the coin toss like two gladiators going to battle, and gave each other an obligatory half-hug. Afterward, Garrett didn’t get what he asked for on Tuesday: an apology from Watt for stealing his thunder on one of the biggest days of his life.
“I didn’t see him afterwards, but take nothing away from him, no disrespect from my comments,” Garrett said. “He’s an absolute dog, a hell of a player and I’m staying in my lane. But I’m trying to be the guy and I think I’m showing that day in and day out.”
Jameis Winston, who’s developed a close bond with Garrett in their short time together, knew he was loaded for bear from the Watt snub.
“You know, you don’t want to put a chip on Myles’ shoulder, all right? Because he will definitely go off,” Winston said. “And, man, I’m just excited. I’m blessed to be a part of a team that has great players and he is a phenomenal player.”
Winston revealed that Garrett gave a fiery pre-game speech of his own.
“I’ve played with some great players, but, he led the charge, man,” Winston said. “He spoke to us in the locker room before the game and he called on everybody to step up and fight with him, and he really set the tone.”
Garrett, now just 1 1/2 sacks shy of 100, explained why he felt it was important to do so.
“I just wanted to let everybody know the mission,” he said. “It doesn’t change. Darn the records. This is division football. This is as classic as a matchup as it gets. Brown-Steelers. Thursday night. You can’t ask for a better platform, a better time to showcase what you can do as an individual and as a team. So just go out and recognize the opportunity and take hold of it.”
Finding something bigger than yourself to play for was a main theme of his speech.
“Find your why,” he said. “Whatever it is, go out there and find it. Go out there and go get it. It’s out there for the taking. Take this opportunity. Take a deep breath and capture the moment.”
His relentlessness rubbed off on his teammates, who shut down the Steelers in the first half, and closed out a hard-fought battled in white-out conditions on a snow-covered field. The game ended with Grant Delpit knocking down Wilson’s potential gamewinning Hail Mary in the end zone. In the middle, there were two huge fourth-down stops.
“(Garrett’s) a beast,” said linebacker Jordan Hicks, who pressured Wilson on that final play. “He’s one of one. He’s a monster. I’ve never been around, never seen anybody do the type of stuff that he does. So it’s crazy how you look at it and it’s expected of him to have those type of games on these prime time. But you watch the film and he’s dominating out there, so obviously great to have him on our side.”
Ogbo Okoronkwo minced no words about where Garrett’s head was at during the game.
“Myles Garrett vs. T.J. Watt,” Okoronkwo said. “Myles Garrett was the best player on the field on defense for both sides. Really proud of Myles. There were a lot of storylines in that game, but Myles, he put some things to rest tonight.”
Kevin Stefanski knows what makes his star defender tick.
“Obviously he loves the matchup of going against another great player,” Stefanski said. “I know they don’t face each other, but we’ll just convince him he’s got that matchup every week.”
Browns Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas tweeted that the Steelers were doing everything possible to stop Garrett in the first half, and still couldn’t. What was the secret?
“Well, I actually can’t tell you because it might be used against me next time,” Garrett said. “We see them in two weeks (in Pittsburgh). So let me go ahead and say it was tough, so let’s just keep it at that.”
One player who took Garrett’s speech to heart was Winston, the king of the pre-game oration. Winston fought back after back-to-back turnovers in the fourth quarter to engineer the gamewinning touchdown drive, capped by the Nick Chubb 2-yard run.
“He sure did,” Garrett said. “He doesn’t get rattled. He’s just tuned in and focused as anyone I’ve seen at that position. Turn the page. There was a turnover, came back to the sideline, ‘Love you. I’m sorry. We’re going to get it back.’ He was already on to the next one, ‘How can we complete the mission?’
“So I have a lot of respect for him. First was from afar and now seeing it on the field in front of me, it’s a blessing to have someone who plays a game with such a passion and want to. You can’t ask for a better teammate when they take those things to heart and they want to play for you like we’re actually brothers and that’s what we have to attain. That brotherhood.”
With Garrett leading the way, the Browns fought as hard as they have all season even though they’re not realistically in the playoff hunt. Any talk of quitting will be absent this week.
“It just shows what kind of resilience we have,” Garrett said. “We’re still a team that’s very bonded, still has a lot want-to, that’s very passionate about this game. We’re not bowing our heads to the season or towards anybody. We want to win. We’re not playing for any consolation, no picks.
“We want to go out there and put our foot on everybody’s throat. We’re trying to carry this momentum throughout the season. But guys got to take this one in, take that 24 hour rule, watch the film, dump it, and then go on to the next one.”
In mega-Watt fashion, Garrett did his part.
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