Steelers notes: T.J. Watt breaks team sacks record, Pat Freiermuth in concussion protocol

T.J. Watt ended up breaking the Pittsburgh Steelers’ single-season sacks record roughly 45 minutes before anyone knew he did.

Watt was announced as the Steelers’ season sacks king after a 10-yard takedown of Ryan Tannehill 7 minutes into the third quarter of Sunday’s 19-13 Steelers win against the Tennessee Titans. That gave him 17, one more than James Harrison had for the Steelers in 2008.

But not long after that, the official scorers in the Heinz Field pressbox went back and changed a sack originally credited to Cameron Heyward late in the second quarter to credit half of it to Watt.

No mater, Watt still held the record — he just now has 17½ in lieu of 17.

“It’s a great accomplishment with the historic franchise that we have here,” Watt said of the team record.

Watt has three games to play to build on his total, too. And even if this is the first NFL season expanded to a 17-game schedule, there is no asterisk next to Watt because he missed two full games and more than one-half of three others because of injuries to his groin and knee/hip.

Watt leads the NFL in sacks. The official NFL record for a season is 22½ by Michael Strahan in 2001. The unofficial record (sacks were not a league statistic prior to 1982) is 23.

???? Pittsburgh’s NEW SACK KING ????@_TJWatt has now recorded the most sacks in a single season in #SteelersHistory.

????: https://t.co/R4YofnS0C4 pic.twitter.com/FTsvzDW4Ls

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 19, 2021

Freiermuth in protocol

The Steelers made it through Sunday’s game relatively unscathed in regards to injury, although the nature of the ailment makes Pat Freiermuth’s status iffy going forward. Freiermuth is in NFL concussion protocol after absorbing a hit while making a third-down catch during the third quarter.

The only other injury mentioned by coach Mike Tomlin was to veteran defensive lineman Chris Wormley, who was befallen by a groin ailment.

Quick kicks

Chris Boswell is one of two NFL kickers to have made three field goals during one quarter this season — and he’s done it twice: during the fourth quarter Sunday and the fourth quarter of a Week 9 win against the Chicago Bears. … OLB Derrek Tuszka’s fourth-quarter sack was the first of his career. … WR Diontae Johnson had five catches to give him at least that many in nine consecutive games. That is the third-longest active such streak in the NFL. … ILB Joe Schobert’s fourth-quarter interception was his 13th takeaway over the past five seasons, tied for the second-most among NFL linebackers in that span.

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