Steelers Throwback Thursday: T.J. Watt finishes the Ravens

Steel City Underground presents “Steelers Throwback Thursday” featuring plays from recent seasons which you may have forgotten about! Now we’re “bringing them back!”

In 2017, outside linebacker T.J. Watt was having one heck of a freshman season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL. Through 11 weeks of play, Watt had racked up five sacks, 28 solo tackles (seven for a loss), seven quarterback hits, one interception, six passes defensed, and played an average of 83.3 percent of defensive snaps.

Entering the late-season meeting with the Baltimore Ravens, Watt had seen opponents take his early-season fire down a notch. In a game where the Steelers were having a difficult time getting to Joe Flacco, someone needed to step up if Pittsburgh was going to come away from the game with a win. It was December at Heinz Field, and the Steelers led, 20-14 at the half. They were then shutout, 17-0 in the third quarter.

The Ravens were not only out-rushing the Steelers with Flacco handing the ball off to Alex Collins and Javorius Allen, but they were also finding ways to get their rushers the ball in the passing game and nice help from their receiving corps. With just over six-and-a-half minutes left in the game, Allen took a run nine yards into the end zone to put the Ravens up 38-29. The Steelers weren’t done and found a way to get into the end zone, but they were down two points and had to give the Ravens the ball back with just over three minutes left in the game. The defense held, but when the Steelers offense got on the field, they couldn’t get anything done and settled on a 46-yard Chris Boswell field goal to go ahead, 39-38.

With 42 seconds left in the game, and the Ravens looking like they’d be able to come back, Watt made the play that sealed the win for the Steelers.

Watt easily beat the outside blocker and turned on the jets as Flacco attempted to escape. Quicker, Watt closed the distance and wrapped his arms around the Ravens quarterback, swatting the ball away. The loose ball bounced in the field of play before going out of bounds.

Dut to the spot of the fumble being in the field of play, the game clock restarted as soon as the officials placed the ball. The Ravens, not even prepared to snap, ended up having time expire on them thanks to Watt’s huge, heads up play.

The Steelers would finish the season 11-2, win two of their next three games before entering the postseason. Watt would finish his rookie season with 7.0 sacks, 54 total tackles (40 solo), ten tackles for a loss, one interception, seven passes defensed, and one forced fumble – the one that made a big difference against the Ravens.