Cleveland Browns Star Myles Garrett Offers Candid Take On Pittsburgh Steelers’ Game Plan
If you looked purely at the scoreboard, Sunday was a great day for Cleveland. A 13-6 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers is the kind of gritty, ugly, AFC North victory that fans usually savor, but everyone had their eyes glued to one man: Myles Garrett.
The Browns’ superstar pass rusher walked onto the field needing just a sack and a half to rewrite the NFL history books. He was hunting the single-season record, a holy grail of defensive play. But instead of a coronation, he got a masterclass in avoidance.
The Art Of Playing Keep-Away
Aaron Rodgers is a future Hall of Famer, but on Sunday, he played like a man whose primary goal was self-preservation. You can’t really blame him. When you see a force of nature like Garrett lining up across from you, the instinct to get rid of the ball immediately isn’t cowardice; it’s survival.
Rodgers averaged a minuscule 3.5 air yards per completion. To put that in perspective, you could probably throw a paper airplane further than Rodgers was willing to throw the football. The Steelers’ game plan was painfully obvious: get the ball out before number 95 could wreck the party. They chipped him, they double-teamed him, and they threw quick slants until the clock hit zero.
And it worked—at least for Garrett’s stat line. He finished with zero sacks, one tackle, and a single quarterback hit. But here’s the kicker: the Steelers lost the game. By focusing so heavily on neutralizing the Defensive Player of the Year candidate, their offense stalled out completely. They scored six points.
Rivalry Pettiness At Its Finest
This is where the human emotion of the rivalry really shines through. After the game, Garrett didn’t hold back. With the frustration clearly simmering under the surface, he accused Pittsburgh of caring more about the record book than the win column.
“I feel like they were more worried about keeping me away from Aaron than getting the win, and I think that’s what came back to bite them,” Garrett said.
There is something deliciously petty about that idea. The current record is shared by Michael Strahan and Steelers icon T.J. Watt. Did Pittsburgh sabotage their own offense just to protect Watt’s slice of history? Mike Tomlin called the record “irrelevant” in his post-game presser, claiming it was just standard business. But anyone watching Rodgers play hot potato with the football might beg to differ.
One Last Shot At Immortality
So, where does that leave us? The Browns move to 4-12, a rough season by any metric, but Garrett remains the bright spot. He has one game left. Sixty minutes of football against the Cincinnati Bengals to get those two sacks and stand alone at the top of the mountain.
He says he’s confident it will get done. “However you want to draw it up,” Garrett said to reporters. And frankly, after watching the Steelers twist themselves into knots to stop him, the Bengals might want to take notes. But for the sake of entertainment, let’s hope Cincinnati actually tries to play football, rather than playing keep-away. History is waiting, and Garrett is running out of time.
