CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Other than extending his consecutive games with a sack streak, it was a quiet afternoon for Myles Garrett Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Garrett dropped Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger late in the second quarter for his seventh sack of the season and marking his fifth straight game bagging a QB.
Unfortunately, Garrett’s sack was one of very few highlights in the 38-7 loss.
“We did not have any problems,” Garrett said. “There was respect during and after the game.”
Prior to the game Garrett was spotted by TV cameras shaking hands, hugging and chatting with Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. It was widely, and inaccurately assumed, that it was a peace offering by Garrett after what took place last November in Cleveland.
“Talking to him had nothing to do with last year,” Garrett said. “Him, his brother, my mother and my uncle all went to school together in Virginia so we were just talking about that. I made a little joke about some phone games they had been playing, and that was it. He said, ‘Good luck, live your life, have fun and tell your mother I said hello.’”
CBS reported Sunday that the owners of both teams spoke leading up to the game about making sure the contest would be played clean and incident free.
“They did not do anything uncharacteristic of them,” Garrett said. “They were scheming to try and get me off my game. They were getting after all of us. They were chipping, and the guard was staying in and staying close. They were making it difficult for us on defense.”
Garrett’s streak of a sack in five straight games ties a franchise record owned by Anthony Pleasant (1995) and Reggie Camp in (1984).
His 37.5 career sacks tied Carl Hairston for fourth on the Browns’ all-time list and rank third behind Mario Williams (39.5) and Bruce Smith (44.5) for the most sacks by a No. 1 overall pick in his first four years and are the most by a No. 1 overall pick in his first 43 games.
He is the only Brown in franchise history to record seven or more sacks in his first six games of a season and he’s now done that in back-to-back seasons.
Closing the gap – Sunday’s loss resembled Week 1 in Baltimore, especially on the scoreboard.
The Ravens and Steelers have outscored the Browns 76-13 in two games, but players disagreed that the losses are an indication that they have some catching up to do to compete with the top two in the AFC North.
“I do not think that is a great indication. We play those guys again,” receiver Jarvis Landry, who had three catches for 40 yards, said. “They will have to play damn near the same type of game they played the first time to beat us. We have to do better. Both games we turned over the ball and both games we had penalties. When you do that against good football teams, you lose the game. Regardless of any team we play, it could have happened against the Colts or it could have happened against Dallas. We did not turn the ball over those games. We did not have any self-inflicting things. A lot of times when you don’t do that, you have a good chance of winning the game. We did that from the first drive and pretty much throughout the entire game today. That gets you beat against anybody.”
Garrett agreed.
“It is one game,” Garrett said. “We will see them again and then you will be able to measure how we stack up against either of them. Until then, just leave it as it is. They had our number. We have a gameplan, we adjust, come back and we will be at full strength by then.”
Both Baltimore and Pittsburgh dominated in the trenches, making life miserable for the offensive line as well as quarterback baker Mayfield.
Week 1 was a wakeup call and a four-game win streak followed.
Left guard Joel Bitonio hopes history repeats itself.
“That is the goal,” Bitonio said. “It is one game. We lost. It is a division game. It was tough. We wanted to come out here and put on a good performance, and we did not, but we are going to try and grow from this.
“The great thing about the NFL is that you play next Sunday, and you have a chance to get right. Winning cures all. That is kind of the goal for us is to take it one week at a time. This counts as one loss, we will move forward and we don’t want to make it turn into two.”
Red Carpet Ride – The Steelers apparently forgot Rashard Higgins was on the field.
Higgins was left wide open in the end zone to catch his ninth career touchdown, the lone score of the afternoon for Cleveland.
House of Horrors – Pittsburgh dominated on both sides of the ball and beat the Browns for a 17th straight time at Heinz Field.
Ben Roethlisberger also improved to 24-2-1 against the Browns. Maybe they should’ve drafted him in 2004.
Look on the Bright Side – With 59 career touchdowns, Baker Mayfield now trails Matthew Stafford (60), Cam Newton (64), Jared Goff (65), Jameis Winston (69), Peyton Manning (85) and Andrew Luck (86) for the most TD throws by a No. 1 overall pick in his first three years.
Injury report – The Browns did not report any in-game injuries.
