CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Myles Garrett was unable to bask in the glow of rewriting the Browns record books Sunday.
Garrett became the Browns official all-time sack leader but he re-injured his sprained left shoulder and his team got embarrassed to fall to 2-4 on the season.
Garrett broke the official record held by Clay Matthews Jr. with a strip-sack of Patriots rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe with 47 seconds remaining in the first quarter and aggravated an injury suffered in a car accident on September 26 on his second sack of the afternoon in the fourth quarter.
Garrett came around the right side and hit Zappe’s hand as he attempted to throw down field popping the football free for Browns safety John Johnson III to fall on at the New England 38.
“It comes in a loss,” Garrett said. “It’s nice to be recognized and honored, but at the end of the day, winners are remembered. And we're not winning. And so I can have all the individual records I want. That'll come and go. But winners, they remain in the hearts of people forever, especially in this town. So we’ve got to turn this around.”
The Browns have now lost three in a row and the schedule doesn’t get any easier with a trip to Baltimore and then back home on Halloween to host the Bengals.
“I feel a lot of it is us beating ourselves,” Garrett said. “Credit to those teams, they still have to go out there and make those plays to win the game, but we put ourselves behind the sticks and out of position more times than we really should, so they’re capitalizing on those mistakes that we’re making. But at the end of the day if we’re where we’re supposed to, they don’t get those big plays.”
Garrett’s second sack came with 5:14 remaining when he took down Zappe, who threw for 309 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his second NFL start.
That’s when he got hurt.
After remaining on the ground for a few moments, Garrett walked off the field slowly with trainers while making sure not to move his left arm. He did not return after aggravating his sprained left shoulder.
“I’ve been dealing with it since the accident, just trying to manage it and be in the best position to play come Sunday,” Garrett said. “And certain falls, tackles, stuff like that that’s going to aggravate it, make it worse, but at the end of the day I want to win, this whole team wants to win, I’m always going to put them first, as long as I can go out there and give my very best, I don’t care what’s ailing me, how bad I’m hurting or anything, I’m going to put my guys first and we’re going to go out there and play our best ball.”
Garrett plans to play next week in Baltimore but it wouldn’t be surprising if he takes some practice time off during the week to rehab and rest the injury.
The 2017 No. 1 overall pick now has 63.5 career sacks, a half sack more than Matthews’ official club mark of 62.0. Five have come this season.
Pro Football Focus credits Matthews with 75.0 sacks as a Brown but the NFL does not recognize the statistic prior to 1982.
