On Saturday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to squeak out a win against arguably the best team in football to keep their playoff hopes alive. Pittsburgh won the game 17-10 and will now be watching closely the rest of the weekend to see if they’ll be playing next week or not. Unfortunately, they’ll have to keep a close eye on the injury report all week to see if they have any legitimate offseason hopes.
Steelers Superstar Defender Suffered Major Injury against the Baltimore Ravens
The biggest story to come out of the game against the second string of Baltimore was a knee injury suffered by superstar linebacker T.J. Watt. The injury occurred when Watt extended vertically to attempt to batt down a pass and was undercut by his own player. While it didn’t look like a dramatic injury, knee injuries can be incredibly hard to diagnose visually and it certainly merits some concern.
TJ Watt –
Left Knee hyperextension
Doesn’t seem like enough force to cause an ACL tear but it remains a concern
Potential concerns for:
•mild sprain/bone bruise
•MCL sprain (can’t tell how much valgus there was on the hyperextension)
•ACL injuryHoping just a sprain/bruise pic.twitter.com/kLjPJPoBHd
— Jeff Mueller, PT, DPT (@jmthrivept) January 6, 2024
Watt was removed from the game by Pittsburgh Head Coach Mike Tomlin just to be safe with the face of his franchise but Watt was clamoring to return to the game. Fortunately for Pittsburgh, the team was able to pull out a critical win without him but it would’ve been a different story if they came up short.
Steelers believe Defensive-Player-of-the-Year candidate T.J. Watt suffered a sprained MCL vs. the Ravens pending further testing, per source. Watt wanted to go back into the game with the injury, but the Steelers wouldn’t allow it. pic.twitter.com/twXXW9h1Tg
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 7, 2024
Watt is the obvious choice for the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award after he has put in one of his best seasons to date. Watt is currently tied for first place with 17 sacks this season and four forced fumbles as he has established himself as a force off the edge in the Steel City. As evidenced on the play in question, one of the biggest parts of Watts game is his versatility as he also managed to defend eight passes this season and come down with an interception.
If Pittsburgh does make it into the playoffs it is likely they will play an elite offense as they would be playing the number two seed in the NFL. That is likely to be Miami at this point but could change based on the results of Week 18. Clearly having their elite edge rusher would make a dramatic impact in their playoff hopes as Pittsburgh could be the third AFC North team to make the playoffs this season.
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