Myles Garrett decided not to hold back.
Following his three-sack performance in the Browns’ upset win over the Steelers on Thursday night, Cleveland’s All-Pro pass rusher directly addressed the obvious tension that exists between him and Steelers outside linebacker TJ Watt.
Watt publicly expressed his displeasure shortly after Garrett won the Defensive Player of the Year award in February. Garrett decided not to respond until after Thursday night’s game, a game in which Garrett vastly outplayed his counterpart and former fellow DPOY winner.
“I have a lot of respect for him, a lot of respect for all the guys there… but I’m No. 1,” Garrett said after the game. “That’s from the No. 1 running back to the Defensive Player of the Year, I’m the guy. That runs through me. There’s no other person that they guard like me, or plot against me like I do. It just goes to show. ..I’ll find a way.”
It’s hard to argue with Garrett after seeing what he did Thursday night. Garrett took over the game with three sacks in the first half.beating the Steelers offensive line in a variety of ways while leaving Steelers coach Mike Tomlin searching for answers.
“You know, we can’t do anything more sketchy,” Tomlin said at the end of the first half. “We just have to keep working, man. He’s a great player. He’s overcoming some chips and double teams, but we can certainly help ourselves if we stay on schedule.”
It should be said that the Browns use Garrett much differently than the Steelers use Watt.
While Garrett constantly moves around the defensive line in an effort to catch offenses off guard, Watt is stationed almost exclusively on the left side of Pittsburgh’s defense. Yes, Garrett may attract more attention, but offenses always know where to wait for Watt, who earlier this year became the second-fastest player to reach 100 career sacks (Garrett is now 1.5 sacks behind become the third fastest player to achieve that feat). ).
While the argument persists over who is the better player, there is no doubt that, that night, Garrett was the best player on the field regardless of his position. He finished the night with five tackles, three sacks and three tackles for loss, while Watt recorded four tackles and one TFL without a sack.
