I gotta be honest, this game stressed me out. As I’m sure it stressed the rest of Steelers Nation out. But our beloved Steelers have always got to make things interesting, don’t they? Although it wasn’t pretty, I’ll take it. Especially on the road against a division rival.

Now let’s move onto the fun part: defense.

For the most part, this is going to be the T.J. Watt Show. Well, because he put on quite a show in his regular season debut: 7 tackles, 2 sacks, and 1 INT. So, without further adieu, here is the T.J. Watt Show.

Here is Watt’s first sack of the game:

For T.J.’s entire time in Black and Gold, I’m going to do my best to not compare him to his older brother, but I’m making an exception this time. One thing that T.J. has that his brother has is an endless motor. That’s what you see here. Watt just doesn’t try to come off the edge and bull rush Joe Thomas, he bull rushes him, does a spin move, and gets Kizer for the sack. Endless motor.

Here is Watt’s first career interception:

Before the snap, you see Watt drop into coverage. Kizer threw it, and Watt used his prior TE skills and picked it off. My jaw dropped. This is what, well-rounded, 3-4 OLB do, drop into coverage and make plays like this.

Since the Steelers got 7 sacks in this game, we’re going to highlight another one. Enter: Joe Haden.

I was happy to see Joe Haden make this type of play against his former team. Haden used his experience to time his blitz, and his quickness to get to Kizer quickly. Doesn’t Haden look better in Black and Gold?

Hargrave continues to impress:

Hargrave absolutely owned the center on this play. It’s just a straight bull rush, Hargrave comes off the block, and gets Kizer. I can’t wait to see more from J-Wobble.

Quick hits:

• Very early in the game we had the unfortunate luck of seeing Stephon Tuitt exit the game with an arm injury. So, DE Tyson Alualu came in to relieve him, and he played pretty well in his place. On one play in the first quarter, Alualu went through the RG like a hot knife through butter. He didn’t get the runner, but he pushed him more outside. Thankfully, it sounds like Tuitt’s injury isn’t as serious as we originally thought. If Tuitt can’t go for a couple weeks, I have no worries with Alualu playing in his place.
• Anthony Chickillo is slowly turning into a force off the edge. He had 2.0 sacks in this game, and was, seemingly, around the ball constantly. It’s exciting to see this kid grow and mature.
• William Gay, the guy that’s always trying to be replaced, but can’t, because he’s always making plays. Like Chickillo, he was all over the place. He finished this game with 4 solo tackles, and 1 assisted.