Steelers' TJ Watt Was A Savage Pointing Directly At Mike Tomlin After Week 3 Sack "'I Told You"

The Pittsburgh Steelers began the challenging process of getting their 2023 season back on track with a Week 3, 23-18 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Entering the game, the Raiders had yet to allow a single sack, something that former AP Defensive Player of the Year TJ Watt used as bulletin board material. According to Watt's brother, JJ Watt, the Steelers pass rusher wanted to make up for an error during their 2022 meeting with the Raiders, something he did with flying colors.

Steelers' Watt Remembered A Mistake From A Year Ago

When the Steelers played the Raiders late in the 2022 season, it would be remembered as one of Kenny Pickett's fourth-quarter comebacks. For Watt, though, something else stood out that he carried with him into 2023. The Raiders used play-action on one of their plays during that 2022 matchup, and Watt ended up biting on the fake. After the game, despite the Steelers getting the win, Watt knew that the next time he got the chance to play the Raiders, he wouldn't make the same error.

The older Watt joined The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday to talk about his little brother. The play-action from 2022 was something that stuck with Pittsburgh's Watt as he prepared for 2023's Week 3 meeting with the Raiders. The now-retired Watt said that following the 2022 Raiders game, his younger brother told Mike Tomlin that he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"I actually asked him about this [Watt's sack against the Raiders in Week 3], because I saw this on TV, and it's a play-action, so they're faking the run... normally you're gonna bite on this run fake, but TJ doesn't bite on it at all. He goes right past the tackle, he's going straight for the quarterback, and it's an immediate sack. Now, if you watch, he points to the sideline right away, so as soon as I saw this on TV, I said there was something that he knew about this play-action that he was never gonna bite on the run fake. He was going for the sack."

Having one brother who won multiple DPOY Awards and is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, and another brother currently playing at a generational level in the NFL means that there is a special insight. The retired Watt just had to know what his younger brother recognized about that play that enabled him to tear through the lineman and get to Jimmy Garoppolo. As it turns out, Pittsburgh's Watt had been waiting patiently for that exact moment.

Steelers' TJ Watt Got His Revenge For 2022

It's one thing for a pass rusher to be great; it's another to keep a vault in your head of specific moments from months or years ago just in case that situation comes back around. For the Steelers' Watt, that is exactly what happened.

For a player like Pittsburgh's Watt, mistakes don't happen too often, so when they do, it's of absolute importance that he does everything possible to erase the error. The 2023 season's Week 3 Sunday Night Football game against the Raiders was everything Watt hoped that it would be, including him putting that unfortunate 2022 memory behind him and turning it into a positive.

The older Watt brother told McAfee that he had to call his younger brother to find out just what that point before his patented celebration was all about. The high kick and dynamic energy that follows every Watt sack is something that Steelers fans know well and look forward to, but Sunday night's celebration had that little bit extra.

"So, I asked him about it, and I said, 'Dude, you gotta tell me, man, what was the point about? What did you know? What was your key?' And he said, 'Last year on this exact same play, I bit on the run fake, and I told Coach Tomlin during the week, I'm not gonna bite on that run fake this time.' So he got the sack, and he pointed straight at Tomlin, and he was like, 'I told you! I told you!'"

It is a wonderful thing to see a player of Watt's caliber not only flourish in Pittsburgh, but put some demons to rest with his amazing play on the field. Not only did Watt have a brilliant game on Sunday night, it added something special to know that the Raiders hadn't allowed a single sack prior to Watt's prophetic takedown. Every single Steelers fan would have no problem with this kind of defensive production continuing for the rest of 2023. Let Watt address all the past errors because, apparently, 2023 is the year for atoning on the gridiron.

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