The Cleveland Browns cheered loudly. However, the result of the game against the Cincinnati Bengals had little to do with it. The franchise was much happier about an NFL record for Myles Garrett.
After the pass rusher went home empty-handed last week, it seemed for a long time on Sunday as if Garrett would actually miss his 23rd sack of the season, which should put him past Michael Strahan and TJ Watt (22.5 each).
But just under five minutes before the end it worked. Garrett sneaked past the Bengals’ left tackle and threw himself at Burrow, who had already moved toward the ground to protect himself from the charging Garrett.
Garrett now has 125.5 sacks in his entire career. There are also 411 tackles and 23 forced fumbles.
NFL: Burrow had nothing to give away
Garrett would have liked to celebrate his record against veteran Aaron Rodgers the previous week. According to the new record holder, the Pittsburgh Steelers wanted to actively prevent this.
“To some extent I felt like they were more concerned with keeping me away from Aaron than getting the win. I think that paid off for them,” Garrett said.
During the week, the Bengals quarterback referred to these statements and assured that he would approach the game like any other.
“I’m definitely not going to overcompensate. I’m not going to go out of my way to stop him from breaking the record and I’m not going to go out of my way to let him break the record,” Burrow said before the game.
“There will be situations where a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play and maybe I’ll take one, and there will be other situations where I’m about to get sacked and I have to throw the ball away in that situation,” the playmaker said.