The Cleveland Browns defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 13-6 on Sunday in one of the most surprising results of Week 17. For those who watched the game, Browns defensive end Myles Garrett said what everyone was thinking.
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“To some extent, they were more concerned about keeping me away from Aaron (Rodgers) than getting the win. That’s what bothered them,” Garrett said after the game.
The Steelers literally lost the game because Rodgers didn’t want to be a footnote in Garrett’s story. Garrett still needs a full sack to break the single-season record and a half-sack to tie it. That record is currently held by Michael Strahan and TJ Watt.
As a result, the Steelers’ offense stagnated and managed to put just two field goals on the board in an embarrassing road loss. Now, the Steelers face a Baltimore Ravens team that just had Derrick Henry rush for over 200 yards against the Green Bay Packers. The league moved it to the Sunday Night Football spot in Week 18 in a winner-take-all scenario where the loser can watch the playoffs from their recliners.
The Steelers could have avoided all of this and clinched the division title on Sunday if they weren’t so worried about Garrett holding the record against them. What you saw was that Rodgers completed just over half of his pass attempts in this game by running and throwing the ball away to avoid the number 95.
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The Steelers should have won the division by now. This is clearly a bad year for the Ravens, who could return to the postseason with Lamar Jackson perhaps not even playing.
The Steelers already beat the Ravens once this year, in Baltimore. But the playoffs have kept the door open for the Ravens. Then the Packers let Henry run wild at Lambeau Field. Now, Garrett has scared Rodgers away from the potential story and suddenly the door is wide open for a not-very-good Ravens team to walk through.
Garrett could set the all-time sack record next week against the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow probably won’t care if he’s a footnote in that story or not. Meanwhile, the Steelers are flirting with missing the playoffs for the second time in the last six seasons by having to play a game that never should have mattered.
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