T.J. Watt has ended plenty of games by going through an offensive tackle and burying a quarterback.

On Sunday, he found another way to take over.

Pittsburgh was clinging to a 13-10 lead over Atlanta early in the fourth quarter, and the Steelers’ offense had gone quiet after halftime. They’d just gone three-and-out after gaining only seven yards, giving the Falcons the ball back with a real chance to flip the game. Fifty-five seconds into the quarter, Watt made sure that chance was squashed.

TJ Watt Is A Magician

Atlanta opened the quarter with a Bijan Robinson run right at Watt. Watt stopped him for no gain, and then made Cooper Rush deal with him in a completely different way on the very next play.

On second-and-10, Rush tried to get the ball out quickly to Robinson in the right flat. Watt came off the line like he was rushing the quarterback, then saw the throw and got himself into the passing lane. He picked it off cleanly at Atlanta’s 35, went down untouched, realized the play wasn’t over, and took off.

From there, nobody was catching him.

The 35-yard return was the first pick-six of Watt’s career and the third touchdown he’s scored. It put Pittsburgh up 20-10 with 14:05 left. Atlanta added a field goal, but never got any closer than the final score of 20-13. Watt’s touchdown ended up being the difference in a game Pittsburgh’s offense never really put away.

It also felt like the perfect play for the kind of afternoon Pittsburgh’s defense was having. The front had made life miserable for Rush all day. Watt had already sacked him twice, Alex Highsmith was getting pressure from the other side, and Cam Heyward kept getting his hands in passing lanes. So when Watt dropped back instead of rushing, Rush probably thought he had an easy completion.

He didn’t.

Pittsburgh Needed Watt To Be Ridiculous

Aaron Rodgers finished with 221 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, so it’s not like Pittsburgh’s offense completely fell apart. But the Steelers still managed just 264 total yards, ran for 58, went 3-of-13 on third down, and came up empty on both fourth-down tries. Their only offensive touchdown came on a 31-yard drive after Jaquan Brisker’s interception. They weren’t exactly giving Watt much room for a quiet afternoon.

So Watt did what Watt does. He finished with two sacks, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits, four total tackles, an interception, and a touchdown. Alex Highsmith added two sacks, Cam Heyward knocked down three passes, and the defense held Rush to 143 passing yards. It was a really good defensive performance across the board. Watt just made the one play that gave Pittsburgh some breathing room.

And Watt became just the second player since sacks became an official stat in 1982 to reach at least 100 sacks and 10 interceptions. The other guy is Julius Peppers, which is pretty good company.

Watt also became the only player to record at least two sacks and an interception in multiple season openers. He first did it in his NFL debut against Cleveland in 2017. Nine years later, he did it again.

He had just seven sacks in 14 games last season, his lowest total since his injury-shortened 2022 season, so he really needed to start hot like this. One opener doesn’t answer every question about a 31-year-old pass rusher. But it does give us a pretty good reminder of what a healthy Watt can still do. Even when he doesn’t get all the way to the quarterback, he can still wreck the game.

Pittsburgh has plenty to clean up. But when the offense scores one touchdown and the defense has T.J. Watt, sometimes that’s enough.

All stats courtesy of NFL Pro.

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