Joe Burrow reveals the boring, yet very real, truth about Myles Garrett’s record-breaking moment in Bengals’ loss to Browns
Joe Burrow is now part of history in an unfortunate way.
Joe Burrow avoided it for as long as he could’ve, but Myles Garrett proved to be inevitable.
Garrett notched sack No. 23 on the season during the Cincinnati Bengals’ 20-18 loss to the Cleveland Browns., breaking the NFL single-season sack record in the fourth quarter.
Garrett’s pursuit of history was the biggest storyline of a matchup between two clubs fighting for just pride and NFL Draft positioning. The CBS broadcast crew spent nearly as much airtime talking about the all-but-locked-in Defensive Player of the Year’s plight for the record during the thrilling contest.
Cincinnati, obviously, knew Garrett was gunning for the record. The offense made an effort to prevent him from getting to Burrow behind the line of scrimmage.
But was it any different compared to all the other games Garrett has tried to ruin the Bengals’ day? Not so much according to Burrow
Joe Burrow discusses Myles Garrett’s record-breaking moment
Burrow will forever be associated with Garrett’s historic takedown, which he managed to get in a rare one-on-one situation against left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. It was one of the few times Garrett wasn’t met with multiple blockers and had a clear lane to a stationary Burrow in the pocket.
Garrett could’ve had 30 sacks on the year entering the game and the plan to neutralize him would’ve been the same. Burrow knows the No. 1 part of any plan against the Browns is to put extra eyes on No. 95.
“You have to if you want to be successful against that team,” Burrow said of focusing on Garrett after the game. “He’s the focus of our game plan every time we play them, it’s no secret. You have to. And it’s challenging because you have to commit resources to that, and that takes away resources from from elsewhere. But for the most part, we’re pretty good against him today, but you can see how impactful we have no help on him one time he gets one.
“He’s an aware, elite player that you have to revolve your game plan around.”
Garrett proved, once again, why he’s worth game-planning around
The Bengals wanting to prevent Garrett from breaking the record was simply a byproduct of wanting to prevent him from sacking Burrow. Period. His lone sack of the day forced the offense into a 2nd-and-15, and the series ended with a punt on 4th-and-15.
Cincinnati possessed the ball just once more, scoring a go-ahead touchdown with 1:29 remaining, and lost in the final seconds thanks to a 49-yard field goal.
Garrett breaking through when the opportunity presented itself helped Cleveland emerge victorious and sent the Bengals into the offseason down in the dumps. To think they only wanted Garrett nullified to rob him of history is simply, well, simple-minded.
Cincinnati tried its best to do both win and hold Garrett sack-less. 0/2 is a fitting way to enter a long offseason ahead.