Thirty-five yards the other way
The biggest swing in Pittsburgh’s 20-13 win over Atlanta did not come from the offense. T.J. Watt picked off a pass and took it 35 yards for a touchdown, and the league rewarded that afternoon earlier today by naming him AFC defensive player of the week.
The rest of his line was not decoration either. Two sacks. Three tackles for loss. In a game decided by seven points, one defender accounted for the touchdown that mattered and spent the rest of the day pushing Atlanta backwards.
The interception was the 10th of his career, and that figure carries more weight than it first appears. Sacks only became an official NFL statistic in 1982, which is where the record books start on this. Since then, exactly two players have reached both 100 sacks and 10 interceptions: Watt and Julius Peppers, already in the Hall of Fame.
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Nine awards, and the company that comes with it
This was Watt’s ninth career defensive player of the week award. Nobody has ever won more. Chris Doleman, Bruce Smith and Lawrence Taylor are the three men level with him, and all three are in Canton.
What makes the number odd is the gap that preceded it. Watt had not taken the award since 2024, long enough for the usual questions about a veteran pass rusher to start circulating around Pittsburgh. Week 1 dealt with those in a single afternoon.
The Steelers have built their identity on this for a decade. When the defense scores, the offense can be ordinary and the result still holds. Twenty points is a modest total by the standards of a league that watched Chicago hang 59 on Carolina in the same week. Pittsburgh did not need more.
What it sets up
A 10th award would leave Watt alone at the top of a list he currently shares with three Hall of Famers. He has spent his whole career in Pittsburgh chasing that kind of separation, and the pick-six against Atlanta is the sort of play that produces it.
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