CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Friday afternoon Myles Garrett delivered a message to his defensive teammates about the need to make big plays.
Sunday afternoon against Chicago, the All-Pro defensive end led the way with a record-setting performance himself.
“I have to go out there and make plays and have to find a way to be effective and produce, as well,” Garrett said. “They stepped up to the challenge. Knew who was coming in here was a great defense and a budding young quarterback who was hungry. We stepped up to the plate, and we knocked it out of the park.”
Garrett broke Andra Davis’ franchise record of 4.0 sacks in a game set in 2003 with a 4.5 sack performance to lead the Browns to a dominating 26-6 win over the Bears.
“He was great today,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said.
Garrett brought the sellout crowd at FirstEnergy Stadium to their feet multiple times and by the fourth quarter they were chanting his name in unison.
“He is a Monstar, man. 4.5 sacks, right? That is unreal,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said.
The Browns defense welcomed rookie quarterback Justin Fields to the NFL with nine sacks – the most for the team since they had nine against the 49ers in 2015.
“It is awesome seeing everybody getting off and making big plays,” Garrett said. “It is just like when you are in high schools, everybody is balling and you feel like you can make a play at any time and you feel like you are the star. Everybody wants to feel like that on the field.
“We are picking for each other, we are working games with each other and helping each other make plays. That is how it is supposed to be.
You are supposed to work in tandem, and that is what it looked like today.”
But the story was Garrett.
He asked and then answered his own call, and his teammates followed.
“It feels good, but knowing that we can be even better, it is tough,” Garrett said. “That is the worst part about it is had a great game, but there are always going to be the ones you miss or the ones you are close on. Glad to be able to ball out with those boys. Glad to see them stay hungry and go feast, but there is still more to come.”
Led by Garrett, the Browns' defense was suffocating.
The Bears finished with just 47 net yards of total offense and 1 net passing yard. They were 1 for 11 on third down. Fields threw for just 68 yards while completing 6 of 20 passes.
Garrett almost added to his sack total late in the fourth quarter with 5.5 but Jadeveon Clowney beat him to it and because of that he found it difficult to say whether or not it was the best performance of his career.
“That will be for y’all to tell me,” Garrett said. “I would say yes until I missed that last sack and gave it to JD. Me and the statistician are going to have a talk to see if I can get half of that.
“It was fun, though. We all on the D line had a great game, and coverage was working, as well.”