CLEVELAND —The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday , dealing a crippling blow to the outlook for their 2025 season. They also stopped Browns defensive end Myles Garrett from sacking Aaron Rodgers , keeping him from breaking T.J. Watt 's single-season sacks record for at least one more week.
The idea that the second thing prevented them from doing the first — an idea put forward by many on social media, and Myles Garrett himself — is preposterous.
"They were more worried about keeping me away from Aaron (Rodgers) than getting the win," Garrett said. "That's what came back to bite them."
Did it, though?
The Steelers, of course, came into the game with a game plan that attempted to minimize the contributions of Garrett in the game. Every team that plays the Browns does that. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made it a point to note that the San Francisco 49ers had given future Hall of Fame tackle Trent Williams help with Watt earlier this season. The Steelers were starting former undrafted free agent Dylan Cook in his fourth career game.
Of course they were going to do a lot of things schematically to minimize Watt's impact. That doesn't mean it kept them from doing what they needed to do, in order to win the game. Tomlin said as much afterward.
"We didn't do anything against Myles that we don't normally do against Myles," Tomlin said. "The sack record is irrelevant. We have to minimize him if we want to engineer victory. We did the same thing last time we played them. I didn't think he had any sacks in that game either. And so we didn't take a different approach because of the gravity of the record. It's just standard business when you're playing these guys and him."
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Tomlin is always fully truthful in his postgame pressers. But look at the numbers from this game. Aaron Rodgers dropped back to pass 40 times in this game. Despite rushing at an average of 5.5 yards per carry, the Steelers called just 23 running plays. That's not how a team that was so dead set on stopping Garrett that they'd sabotage their own success would balance an offense.
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 28, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
The Steelers started the game without DK Metcalf and Calvin Austin III at wide receiver. Early in the first quarter, they lost tight end Darnell Washington to a broken arm. They spent most of the game playing at receiver 35-year-old Adam Thielen , who they acquired when he was waived by a non-playoff team, and has 129 yards on the season, Marquez Valdes-Scantling , who was cut twice this season, spent weeks on the practice squad, and has 65 yards on the season, and Scotty Miller , who is mostly on the team for his special teams value, and has 28 yards on the season.
The idea that the Steelers should be giving less help to their offensive line, or forcing Rodgers to hold onto the ball longer, in order to develop longer routes for THAT collection of wide receivers would have been idiotic. The Steelers don't have a great shot at making a deep postseason run as it is. Putting Rodgers in more danger is the last thing that should have been on their minds on Sunday.
If anything, the Steelers should have ran the ball more. Even without Washington available to block for him, Jaylen Warren averaged 5.3 yards per carry and got just 12 rushes. Running more would have made the Steelers look more like a team deathly afraid of letting Garrett get the record — and it might have made them better for it, as well.
Maybe Garrett and his record were in the back of Rodgers' mind. After all, Rodgers admittedly did not play well against Cleveland. He was 3 for 11 on passes that traveled at least 10 air yards. But Rodgers said that he was not.
"It wasn't on my mind," he said.
The idea that the Steelers were somehow distracted by trying to protect their wounded teammate's record is intended to somehow blame the coaching staff for what is actually a much larger issue.
They lack receiving talent. They have always, obviously lacked receiving talent. And the biggest single point of failure for this offense all season was "what if something happens to DK Metcalf ?" Because the Steelers don't have a single player on their roster that is even remotely capable of replacing him when he's gone.
The Steelers came into the season with a player they could not afford to lose, at a position they neglected for the second straight offseason, and they lost him — not to tragedy, injury, accident or illness, but to his own hot-headedness, which was the very thing the Steelers were trying to avoid when the swapped George Pickens for Metcalf in the first place.
The Steelers came into the season with a known weakness. They've done a remarkable job of minimizing it so far. But in the biggest game they've played so far, it blew up in their face, and now it threatens the success or failure of their entire season.
That's a lot bigger deal than being overly worried about the best defensive player on the planet.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Saunders: The Idea the Steelers Were Overly Worried about Myles Garrett is Absurd, but the Truth is Worse
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