How The Browns Were Able To Neutralize T.J. Watt On Sunday
Originally Posted by :
CLEVELAND, Ohio --Breaking out as the potential favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year, Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt was a dominant one-man wrecking crew in the 2020 season. Leading all defenders in sacks (15.0), tackles for loss (23), quarterback hits (41), and pressures (55), he's transformed into the face of the Steel Curtain and should be an easy lock for a payday from the team.
The Browns offense took all that into consideration and prevented him from getting a single hit or sack on Baker Mayfield. On a day where Joel Bitonio was out and Jack Conklin missed the second half of the Wild Card Round, Cleveland negated one of the game's best pass rushers into a nobody, using his disappearance as the offensive line's greatest magic trick. This aided not only in the team's first playoff win since 1994, but their first win in Pittsburgh since 2003.
Not a single hit, not a single sack was allowed against Watt. In fact, that was the case for the entire Steelers defense, as they went without a single QB hit for the first time all season. Using backups like Michael Dunn, Kendall Lamm, and a guy named Blake, this is a modern-day miracle.
So...how the hell does a depleted offensive line easily contain a cyborg pass rusher? Let's take a look for ourselves and see how the Browns were able to neutralize T.J. Watt on Sunday.
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
This is probably exactly what they'll do vs. Clark. Double/chip him, and run plays away from him. Same thing Gruden did/does, what LAC did . . .
Someone else is going to have to step up pass-rushing. Still like our defense to do better than PIT's did on Sunday though.
That's fine... I'm not sure that will make much difference. Spags will bring some more creativity to the game. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
This is probably exactly what they'll do vs. Clark. Double/chip him, and run plays away from him. Same thing Gruden did/does, what LAC did . . .
Someone else is going to have to step up pass-rushing. Still like our defense to do better than PIT's did on Sunday though.
I fully expect Clark to be invisible for 55 minutes but manage to come through with a huge sack to seal the win. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 58-4ever:
That's fine... I'm not sure that will make much difference. Spags will bring some more creativity to the game.
Two things:
we're not going to be playing from a 28-0 hole, so that will be different.
And i like Spags and our LBs/DBs over what PIT put on the field on Sunday. Spags will have the advantage of seeing what PIT did and why it didn't work, plus our CBs are just better than PIT's. You could say that PIT might have an advantage at S, but I'd call it a wash at best. Spags will show Baker/Stefanski things they haven't seen yet, HB will do his "let me run around and pretend to cover 3 different receivers" thing, and sooner or later we'll put them in a hole they won't be able to climb out of. [Reply]
we're not going to be playing from a 28-0 hole, so that will be different.
And i like Spags and our LBs/DBs over what PIT put on the field on Sunday. Spags will have the advantage of seeing what PIT did and why it didn't work, plus our CBs are just better than PIT's. You could say that PIT might have an advantage at S, but I'd call it a wash at best. Spags will show Baker/Stefanski things they haven't seen yet, HB will do his "let me run around and pretend to cover 3 different receivers" thing, and sooner or later we'll put them in a hole they won't be able to climb out of.
Yep.
Spags is going to confuse the shit out of Mayfield. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
I fully expect Clark to be invisible for 55 minutes but manage to come through with a huge sack to seal the win.
Something like that. My only hope is that Spags doesn't have Clark just bang his head into a wall trying to get to Baker for most of the game. Like PIT did.
Don't waste him like that. Move him around, have Clark do different things other than just line up over the RT. Force CLE to account for him on every snap. When we have a good lead, and time's running down, and Mayfield has to drop back and read the defense, that's when I want to see Clark pin his ears back and go after Baker. [Reply]
Watt was running in quicksand though, as were all the Steelers. If you rewatch Watt is jogging when the ball is going away which is very uncharacteristic. They were definitely in a funk. [Reply]
