Steelers Great Ben Roethlisberger Critical Of Ravens' Game Plan For TJ Watt: "He Should Send Some Flowers To John Harbaugh"

The Pittsburgh Steelers secured a much needed victory in Week 5 to reclaim the number one spot in the AFC North. They did this by defeating the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 17-10. The offense for the Steelers once again did not look fantastic, and the defense had to make a multitude of plays in order for the Steelers to win this game. A big reason the Steelers were able to come out of this game victorious was TJ Watt, who finished the game with two timely sacks and a fumble recovery. 

Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger Questions The Ravens' Game Plan For Watt

Coming into the Week 5 contest, Watt was tied for the NFL lead in sacks with six. In Week 4, he had his worst game of the year against the Houston Texans and was not able to get to their rookie quarterback CJ Stroud for a sack. Coming off of a performance that left a bad taste in his mouth, it should have been assumed that he was looking to have himself a good bounce back week against Baltimore. 

On top of Watt having a great year so far and playing with a little extra motivation after a bad game the week before, Watt has been playing the Ravens twice a season since he entered the NFL. One might think that the Ravens and their coaching staff know how good of a player he is, and how he can change the game in an instant. Ben Roethlisberger, who was a teammate of Watt's for five years, was especially perplexed by the Ravens seeming to leave Watt with just one player blocking him. Roethlisberger spoke about this on the most recent episode of his podcast Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger. 

"Thank you to Baltimore for just not helping on TJ Watt more. Like what are we doing? What's going on? I just kept waiting for them to bring help. They did chip sometimes, but why wouldn't you take a page out of what Houston did last week and put a guy there to chip him? Do something, TJ should maybe send some flowers to John Harbaugh." 

Even when Watt was not getting a sack, he was able to force Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson out of the pocket, which oftentimes led to him getting tackled for a short gain or making a bad throw. The stat sheet will say Watt only had two sacks, but he affected the game in a variety of ways that don't show up in the box score. 

The 2021 NFL Defensive Player Of The Year was able to consistently make an impact on the game, and it didn't seem that Baltimore made any adjustments throughout the course of the contest to slow Watt down. Not only were no in-game adjustments made, but not having a better plan for one of the league's best pass-rushers who you play against twice a year is insanity. 

Watt has played in 13 games against the Ravens in his career, and has recorded 14 sacks against them. It's almost disrespectful to Watt that the Ravens did not have a better game plan to contain him. Roethlisberger continued to speak about Watt's great performance against Baltimore. 

"TJ is one of the best and if not the best player in the game of football. How are you not putting two and three people on him? Thank you Baltimore, that's why we've dominated you recently. TJ Watt is one of the baddest game wreckers that I've seen and that this game has seen in a long, long time. You can't put one guy on TJ Watt. I don't care who it is."

The Steelers do play Baltimore once more this season, and surely Head Coach John Harbaugh and the rest of his coaching staff will have a better game plan to minimize Watt's impact on the game. Watt will look to contribute to a sweep of the Ravens later this year, but he should be prepared to face more than one blocker for the majority of the game. 

What do you think of Roethlisberger's comments on Watt and the Ravens' game? Let us know in the comments below!

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