The Pittsburgh Steelers came crashing back to Earth with a disappointing home loss to the Seattle Seahawks. It was a tale of two games, at least offensively. However, the Black and Gold were uncharacteristically poor defensively yet again, allowing at least 31 points for a second consecutive contest.
Steelers superstar edge rusher T.J. Watt's presence (or lack thereof) was at the forefront of the team's 31-17 loss to the Seahawks. He was oddly quiet, failing to record a sack, just like in their highly spirited regular-season opening win over the New York Jets.
Notably, this drought goes beyond the early 2025 campaign, which should rightfully sound alarms in Pittsburgh.
T.J. Watt's Week 2 dud has Pittsburgh Steelers fans asking questions
Watt has gone sackless for six straight games since last season (h/t Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot). That includes Pittsburgh's 2024 Wild Card defeat to the Baltimore Ravens. It's a concerning development, especially after the Steelers made him one of the highest-paid players in football this past offseason.
If something happens once or twice, we can typically chalk it up as an outlier or call it a fad. But this has gone on long enough to deem it an alarming trend. Watt's supposed to be a one-man wrecking crew, which the Steelers are compensating him handsomely to do, though it's been quite the opposite.
It wasn't necessarily a poor showing from Watt against Seattle. He tallied four tackles, two QB hits, and a batted pass. Nevertheless, Seahawks signal-caller Sam Darnold didn't have to run away from him as much as expected, to the tune of a near 300-yard passing day.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave Watt a 71.4 overall player performance grade versus the Seahawks. While that's nothing to scoff at, it's also a far cry from his mark last season (92.2) and Week 1 (89.1). More importantly, his ability to generate pressure has regressed significantly thus far this year.
Pittsburgh hasn't had to worry about Watt for nearly a decade. He hasn't earned a 70 or higher pass-rushing assessment ($). For context, the perennial All-Pro has never finished below that threshold across his illustrious nine-year NFL career.
Given what we saw from the Steelers-Seahawks clash, Pittsburgh can't rely on outscoring opponents to beat them. The scoring unit will have its ups and downs. It's on the defense to return to its roots of being the linchpin of this organization, which starts and ends with Watt.