Mueller: T.J. Watt's injury a big blow, but Steelers can weather it
One T.J. Watt tweet was all it took for Steelers fans everywhere to breathe a sigh of relief.
Watt sent out a gif of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, “I’ll be back,” to let fans know that his torn pectoral muscle will not be a season-ending injury.
It is a near-lock that Watt goes on short-term injured reserve – the team has until Saturday afternoon to decide, and by the time you read this, may have already made the move – and will be eligible to come back after four weeks. It might take closer to six for him to actually recover, according to Dr. David Chao, an orthopedic surgeon who previously served as the Chargers’ team doctor.
Either way, the fact that Watt tore his actual pectoral muscle and not the tendon, thus avoiding surgery, is a second huge win in three days for Mike Tomlin’s team.
Going over the top in celebration after a thrilling, bizarre, see-saw road win over the defending AFC champions would have been tough if the best player on the team had been gone for the season. How much worse is the Steelers’ defense when Watt isn’t around, you ask?
According to PennStakes.com, much worse. The team is 0-4 in such situations. They give up 7.63 more points per game, 30.6 more yards per game, and allow 2.4 more first downs per game. The second two numbers might not seem like much, but the first number is eye-popping. To put it in perspective, the Bills led the NFL in scoring defense last year, allowing 17 points per game. The team that was approximately 7.63 points worse was the New York Giants, who were 23rd in the league.
An extra touchdown is the difference between an elite defense and a bottom-tier outfit.
If Watt is gone for six weeks – and Chao stressed that as long as the team lets his injury fully heal and doesn’t rush him back, he shouldn’t be at any higher-than-normal risk of a re-tear – it’s not a great situation for the Steelers, but thanks to the schedule, it’s manageable.
Normally, you’d look at New England coming up in Week 2 and get a cold shiver down your spine. Vegas still has them favored by 1.5 points this week. But the Pats have major issues. Bill Belichick’s team is still okay on defense, but truly wretched offensively, and in Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, two head-coaching failures without extensive offensive backgrounds tasked with cleaning up the mess. They managed just 7 points last week against Miami, and were never really serious challengers in a 20-7 loss. In other words, these aren’t your older brother’s Patriots. They can be had.
The Browns are 1-0, and they get the Steelers at home, and on a short week. But they would have lost, but for a very fortunate missed call late against Carolina. Cleveland looks tougher than New England, but far from infallible.
The Jets stink.
Those are three games that all look winnable, even with the Steelers’ offense doing their best impersonation of last year’s pop-gun outfit. Mitch Trubisky’s performance was reminiscent of what Ben Roethlisberger delivered last year; virtually nothing for most of the game, then some heroics late to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
One problem: Roethlisberger was nearly 40 and clearly at the end of the line. Trubisky is still just 28, and was supposed to have gone through a career rehabilitation in Buffalo last year. With the exception of a handful of plays against Cincinnati, he was not good. They were important plays, sure, but the Steelers won in spite of him far more than because of him.
If the team is to survive their Watt-less period, they must get more from Trubisky. He was reasonably well protected by the offensive line, though that group opened no holes in the running game, and needs to get the ball down the field more, lest the same story that has defined the last 25 games or so for this offense play out yet again; the opposing defense realizes the Steelers will not challenge the intermediate depths, nor the middle of the field, and makes playing offense impossible by utilizing press coverage and daring Pittsburgh to take downfield shots.
Trubisky might not have Najee Harris at his disposal, at least this week, either. Oh sure, Harris said he’ll play, but that’s not his decision to make, and Tomlin was noncommittal on the subject during his Tuesday press conference.
Were it up to me, Harris would sit at least this week, and maybe next. On the only two runs where he gained significant yardage, he didn’t look like himself. He didn’t look explosive – tentative would be more apt – and was clearly compromised, even before he left the game with a more obvious injury.
Jaylen Warren didn’t do much statistically in relief, but he looked like he belonged, and Tomlin has clearly taken a liking to him. No one is questioning Harris’ guts or toughness, but he’s useless to the Steelers if he goes out and gets himself more hurt.
Those concerns, however, like the ones about Watt in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s game, can be pushed to the side, at least for the time being. The Steelers got an improbable win despite their best efforts to give it away. They’re 1-0 when very few people outside their locker room thought they would be. This is a time for celebration.
Life without Watt won’t be easy, but it won’t be impossible, either. Like they did against the Bengals, the Steelers can survive.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: T.J. Watt's injury a big blow, but Steelers can weather it
