2024 has been a down season for Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt in terms of sacks. Going into Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Watt had 11.5 sacks and was well off pace to lead the league for a fourth time.
However, what Watt did against the Bengals was something no one could have expected. Watt was completely shut out by Cincinnati. That’s right. No sacks, no quarterback hits, no tackles for loss and not even a tackle. This is the first time this season Watt was completely shut out statistically.
In Week 10, Watt had zero tackles and zero sacks but he did have two quarterback hits and one pass defended. The Bengals schemed up stopping Watt on Saturday night and it worked perfectly.
All that attention on Watt, it did allow other players to have good games. However, this was a huge win for Cincinnati and still another failing of Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin who couldn’t find a way to get Watt involved on defense at all.
