Plays of the Year: T.J. Watt tattoos Baker Mayfield for fourth sack of the game

Steel City Underground presents “Plays of the Year” featuring the top runs, catches, hits and everything else in-between from the Pittsburgh Steelers 2021 season.

Week 17 of the 2021 NFL season was no longer the final week of the league’s regular season, due to an 18-week expansion which began this year. However, it would feature a farewell, as Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger played his final game at Heinz Field against a longtime rival, the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns gained some bragging rights at the end of the 2020 season, finishing the final week with a win over the Steelers before traveling to Pittsburgh and giving them a bad beat within their own building during the Wild Card round. The Steelers got some payback in the teams’ first meeting of the season, and the stage was set for Big Ben’s last ride as well as a primetime clash seen on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

But Ben Roethlisberger was far from the only star to shine brightly on this particular evening, as Steelers LB T.J. Watt went on a sack streak within this game. Heading into the final stretch of the fourth quarter, the Browns trailed the Steelers 19-7. Cleveland started to push the ball out to midfield but would be met with resistance on 2nd-and-2 from their 42-yard-line.

Browns QB Baker Mayfield stepped back to pass, but lost track of what was coming from his right side, as Watt soared past his blocker and made what was easily the hardest hit on Mayfield all evening.

In total, Mayfield would be sacked nine times in the game: four of those by Watt. (Of which, this was the fourth.) Watt would finish the 2021 season tying former Giants great and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan with 22.5 sacks.

Both teams would still score within the final five minutes of the game, but the Steelers would send Big Ben off in style with a 26-14 win.