FMIA Week 13: How TJ Watt, Steelers Stopped Ravens Late

With the flightiness of NFL greatness (outside of New England), one of the sport’s oxymoronish phrases is “enduring rivalries.” There is only one that truly endures at the highest level of the game, year after year. Ray Lewis comes, Hines Ward goes. Billick/Cowher out, Harbaugh/Tomlin in. It never changes. The games I’ve covered in this rivalry in Pittsburgh—five of them in this century—have the kind of intensity that other great NFL games, even some of the Pats-Colts encounters, don’t seem to have. Former Ravens guard John Urschel put it this way: “When we went to Pittsburgh, you could feel the entire stadium hate you.”

Shoot. You watch the games. You know. You hear it. There’s a fury other games just don’t have. The cities are 250 miles, and worlds, apart.

So here we were Sunday, in the 43rd regular-season meeting of the Ravens and Steelers this century. Of course the series this century was tied 21-21, and of course it came down to the last 12 seconds. The situation: Ravens score a TD to narrow the lead to 20-19, and because his team was injury-ravaged in the secondary, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh chose to try to walk it off right there. Two-point conversion, with the league’s most dangerous two-point-conversion guy, Lamar Jackson, behind the center.

The moment, the sound, the drama. It’s why we watch.

Twenty-four minutes after the game ended, Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt got on the phone to describe what happened next.

“Sorry for my hoarse voice,” he said, “but I’ve been yelling and screaming. I’m all sorts of out of breath here too, still.”

Watt: “We see they’re going for two, and it’s not really anything that our guys were shocked by. They’re a team that likes to take chances and go for it on fourth down. I fully respect their decision, especially with Lamar. But the two-point play is something we take pride in stopping. Every week in the practice—and all the time in training camp—we work on it. We call it ‘Seven shots.’ Seven shots the offense gets to score from the 2. So it’s something we definitely are prepared for. This week, our offense used multiple guys [to simulate Jackson] on the scout team. Ray-Ray McCloud, one of our quick receivers, went and did some reps. We were prepared.

“The fans were going absolutely crazy. Terrible Towels waving like crazy. Just a special atmosphere. But once the play’s called, and you know your assignment, you just lock in, and it’s football.”

I told Watt it looked like his assignment, at left end, was to not let Jackson get outside, and to pressure him without him juking and getting getting free.

“That’s exactly it,” he said, “but you know. It’s no easy task.”

Watt went upfield at the snap to close off Jackson’s outside rush lane, as Baltimore tight end Mark Andrews sprinted to the right behind the line across the formation. Watt then lunged toward Jackson, who knew he was going to have to throw it just a tick sooner than he wanted because of Watt in his face. “The play I replayed in my head all week was Lamar pump-faking me last year in…