Steelers' Alex Highsmith Talks About Prepping For And Beating The Legendary Tom Brady And The 2022 Comeback

Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker, Alex Highsmith had the best season of his career in 2022. He finished the season with 14.5 sacks, good for 6th in the NFL. 

Steelers fans love nothing more than a good underdog story and HIghsmith's is one of the best. Pittsburgh is a blue-collar team and the fans value players who put their nose to the grindstone and put in the hard work necessary to make them successful. Highsmith epitomizes that kind of player. He is humble and team-centric off the field and aggressive and hungry on the field. It is no wonder he has quickly become a well-respected member of the team. 

One of the moments of the 2022 season that Highsmith enjoyed the most was sacking the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady during Week 6 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It might have been the last chance Highsmith would ever have to sack the future Hall of Famer, as Brady retired at the end of the season. 

Steelers' Highsmith On Sacking Tom Brady

HIghsmith recently appeared on the House of Yinzer podcast and spoke about how they prepared for Brady. The Steelers were coming off a tough start to the season and were sitting at 1-4 going into the Bucs game. The previous week they had a particularly bad outing, getting routed by the Buffalo Bills 38-3. The Bucs, who were 3-2, were not particularly good, but were nearly 10-point favorites over the Steelers. 

Leading up to that game, things felt different. It felt like this was a bit of a must-win for the Steelers if they were to have any hope of recovering the season. But Brady has gotten the best of the Steelers a lot, he is 12-4 against us for all time, so the odds weren't with us.

Highsmith said that the team pulled out all the stops in preparing for Brady and the Bucs:

"We were in a tough spot going into that game, I think we were like 1-4 at the time. So we knew that was a huge game, but I feel like the preparation was solid. When you prepare for a guy like Tom Brady, you know the G.O.A.T., you gotta be locked in. You gotta prepare well. I think we had a really good week of preparation, you know guys were locked in."

The Steelers were definitely locked in, they beat the Bucs that day 20-18. Brady was so frustrated at trailing the Steelers that at one point, he is seen blowing up at his offensive line for their poor performance. That win lit a spark that helped ignite a flame. 

Highsmith said that is what really made this 2022 team so special, that they continued to fight back and improve. The Steelers made a remarkable turnaround after their bye week and nearly made the playoffs. 

"That's the thing I love about our team, that we keep fighting. When we started the season 2-6 and we fought our way all the way back to 9-8. It was just a great week of preparation. But we know that when you play against a guy like Tom Brady, you got to be ready, you can't make any mistakes because if you do, he'll exploit them. Everyone still makes mistakes, a game's never perfect no matter how good you play the defense, but we really limited our mistakes that game. You know we played an overall well-rounded game."

The Steelers may have fallen short of their overall goal of a postseason run, but they definitely found success as a team and it gives them something solid to build upon in the offseason. Highsmith also became a part of an elite club of linebackers that sacked the great Tom Brady. 

What did you think about the team's performance against Tampa Bay and Brady? How did it feel to beat him for what was likely the last time? How do you see Highsmith evolving as a player? What do you predict for the team in 2023? Click to comment below. 

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