When the Pittsburgh Steelers took the sector towards the Atlanta Falcons final Sunday, all eyes had been on Steelers QB Justin Fields. How would he fare in his first begin with Pittsburgh? How would the offense as an entire carry out? However after the sport, all people was speaking about T.J. Watt.
It’s utterly comprehensible, too. Watt had a walk-off sack to finish the sport. He had a fumble restoration, 4 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss and three quarterback hits. He additionally had 2 strip sacks known as again by penalties. Little question Watt needs to hold that momentum into Sunday’s matchup towards the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos definitely received’t be trying ahead to Watt, although. Denver allowed 19 quarterback pressures versus the Seattle Seahawks. That was an enormous a part of rookie QB Bo Nix’s struggles in his NFL debut. And the duty doesn’t get simpler for his offensive line.
“If this matchup goes as south because it has the potential to, to me none of it issues,” mentioned Trevor Sikkema on Professional Soccer Focus’ preview of the Steelers-Broncos sport. “Broncos offensive line versus the Steelers line of defense… The Broncos have, we talked about them quite a bit, the costliest offensive line within the NFL. They didn’t play as much as their price ticket this previous week. And in the event that they play equally towards the Steelers, the Steelers line of defense’s even higher. T.J. Watt can take over the sport himself… If the Broncos’ offensive line doesn’t play a hell of quite a bit higher than they performed final week, T.J. Watt is simply gonna completely eat them alive. So will Cam Heyward, so will all people else on the line of defense as a result of that’s what they’re able to.”
The Steelers had been capable of stress Falcons QB Kirk Cousins 11 instances on Sunday. He dropped again to move 28 instances. Which means the Steelers pressured Cousins on roughly 39.3 % of his dropbacks. In the meantime, Denver gave up 2 sacks and 19 pressures (second most within the NFL in Week 1). Nix dropped again 51 instances towards the Seahawks and was pressured on 37.3 % of his dropbacks.
Early within the week, two of Denver’s beginning linemen had been banged up. OT Garett Bolles and C Luke Wattenberg each did not observe on Wednesday. Bolles was battling a calf subject and Watternburg had an ankle drawback. However when the Broncos launched their damage report Friday, each gamers practiced totally to finish the week. Life will not be going to get any simpler for Nix and his offensive line when the Steelers come to city on Sunday. So having each Bolles and Wattenberg practising totally is sweet information.
However no matter Denver’s well being, Watt and crew will definitely have alternatives to rattle Nix. The quickest option to smash a rookie quarterback’s day is to get early stress and hit him. The Broncos struggled to guard Nix in Week 1 whereas the Steelers excelled at getting after the quarterback. How the 2 matchup on Sunday may make all of the distinction.
