I wouldn’t change this season for the world, just because it was adversity,” safety Micah Hyde told me. “A lot of our games were lost by one score, and if we could’ve found a way to win those, we’d be sitting pretty right now. 6-how New England was the bully on the AFC East block again after throwing the ball just three (!) times in a 14–10 win-and how after losing the next week, to fall to 7–6, their season was effectively circling the drain. They all remember what was being said after they lost a weird Monday-nighter to the Patriots on Dec.
You can rest assured: The Bills haven’t forgotten. The Bills’ back-to-back AFC East titles mean something. But I just want to continue to use this momentum and hopefully go to the playoffs here, all things go the right way tonight, and keep going.” And if one more thing goes right for him this week, all the better. I haven’t had time to really take it all in, and I’m sure in a couple days, sometime this offseason for sure, I’ll be able to stop and take it all in and realize how special it is. I’ve played in games, I haven’t played in games. I’ve been healthy, I’ve been not healthy. Maybe in a day or two, he’ll find out he broke it. Happy to be able to make a play in the red zone.” So for now, he’ll settle for tying the mark. Oh, and yes, Watt wound up getting that sack to match Michael Strahan at 22.5 sacks in a season, taking down Huntley at the end of the first half, taking advantage of the Ravens’ trying to chip him with a back: “Was able to come up underneath the chip and come up underneath the tackle’s arms, and come around and make the sack.
When Watt and I talked, he was coy on whether or not he’d watch Chargers-Raiders (“We’ll have to see what time we get back on this flight”), to see the Steelers officially punch their ticket. And I was very ecstatic once that play happened and felt very confident that Bos was gonna make the kick.” “Pat Freiermuth had a hell of a game, and Chase Claypool had a great game and so did Ray-Ray as well, with that big catch. “I’m always super confident when 7 has the ball in his hands toward the end of the games, and a lot of young guys stepped up,” said Watt, who watched all of it from the sideline. And then a 14-yard catch-and-run connection with Freiermuth on third-and-7, an 11-yarder to Diontae Johnson on third-and-9 and, of course, the ball he seemed to will to McCloud on fourth-and-8 in overtime, all of which worked to set up Chris Boswell’s 36-yard game-winner. Down 10–6 halfway through the fourth quarter, Roethlisberger connected with Ray-Ray McCloud for 20 yards on third-and-9, Pat Freiermuth for 11 yards on third-and-6 and then Chase Claypool for a six-yard touchdown on second-and-goal to cap a 10-play, 50-yard slog to make it 13–10 with 2:54 left. Even bigger was how Roethlisberger, who’s clearly not what he once was, gutted out the finish. And sack or not, that play, which ended with DL Henry Mondreaux pouncing on the fumble Watt generated, was a big part of the final result, thwarting a Ravens possession, their first, in Steelers territory, and producing a 3–0 Pittsburgh lead on the back end. Otherwise, the Steelers tied up everything they could with their third win in four games, beating the archrivals Ravens 16–13 in overtime, to finish an improbable run that’ll extend Roethlisberger’s career into one final postseason. Watt hopes the league will take care of it (if they do, he’ll have the single-season sack record to himself, at 23.5). My understanding was that it was a sack, but apparently it wasn’t, at least according to the statisticians.” And it should’ve been? “Yeah,” Watt affirmed, “because he still could’ve thrown the ball.” Which is to say that an otherwise sublime Sunday for Watt and the Steelers-in what could’ve been, but wasn’t, Ben Roethlisberger’s NFL swan song-finished with one loose end. “So, I mean, he very well could have still thrown the ball. And when he got back up on his two feet, I tackled him and got the ball out,” Watt told me. I’d missed the sack he recorded in the first quarter that wound up not counting, but he filled me in on the details. He and I talked as he boarded the plane home for Pittsburgh. Watt believes the sack record should be his. Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports TEN TAKEAWAYS