At this point, blocking T.J. Watt with just one player is asking for trouble. Watt has won many games for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and if opposing teams want to stop him, they need to have two guys block him. This year, Watt has been doubled and chipped at a very high rate. However, that hasn’t stopped him from making plays. Against the New York Giants, Watt put on his cape and saved the day with a strip-sack after only being blocked by one person. As Giants head coach Brian Daboll explained after the Steelers’ 26-18 win, that was not supposed to happen.
“He was supposed to be chipped,” Daboll told reporters via the team’s YouTube channel.
That is a very interesting piece of information. Watt’s strip-sack was arguably the play of the game. With a little over four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Steelers were up 26-18. They had a chance to put together a long drive to seal their victory. However, Russell Wilson lost a fumble, giving the Giants a prime chance to score and tie the game.
They almost did it too, getting the ball into the red zone before Watt annihilated quarterback Daniel Jones and punched the ball out. With around three minutes left, the Steelers got the ball back and ultimately won the game.
During that same press conference, Daboll went into further detail on why Watt wasn’t chipped.
“We had a shift with the tight end to get back over to Watt and we didn’t get to shift. We talked about it in the locker room. [Jones] feels terrible to be honest with you,” he said. “I know he’s gonna own it. He came up here to say you own it. There was a shift that was accompanying in the play. He was surveying the coverage, deciding what he wanted to do, and we didn’t get to shift.”
That explanation makes a lot of sense until you watch the play. The game clock still had more than 10 seconds left on it when the ball was snapped. It’s unclear how long that motion was going to take, but it feels like the Giants had time to at least attempt to get it off. Instead, they left Watt one on one with tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, which was not the matchup the Giants wanted.
Leading up to this game, Eluemunor stated that he felt comfortable being left alone against Watt. It doesn’t sound like the Giants were as confident in his abilities. Based on the final results, it’s fair to say the Giants were in the right. Watt finished with two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. He was dominant.
After the game, Jones did take the blame for the mistake.
“I needed to shift Theo [Johnson],” Jones told reporters via the team’s YouTube channel. “Was looking at the coverage, I didn’t shift him. Jermaine’s expecting a chip, so he didn’t get that. So that’s my fault.”
That is good leadership from Jones, but it probably doesn’t help considering how close the Giants were to winning. Even after the strip-sack by Watt, they almost battled back. It took another turnover, this one created by Beanie Bishop Jr., to really end the game.
Watt’s play was massive though. If the Giants would have had a few more seconds on the play clock, maybe they would’ve been able to execute that shift. In that case, Watt could’ve been held off, and they could’ve won. All it took was one mistake, though, and they lost.
That’s why Watt is a leading candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. If you don’t devote as much attention as possible to him, he’ll change the game. He’s a special player, and hopefully he can continue to make big plays for the Steelers. It would be nice if he didn’t always need to be their hero though.
