BEREA — Joe Burrow can’t hide from the truth. That is especially true when the subject is how many time Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett has sacked the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback.
“He’s got me a lot,” Burrow told Cincinnati reporters Dec. 31. “He’s got me a lot.”
In the interest of accuracy, “a lot” in this instance is equal to 11 times in the nine games in which the two stars have both played. It was the most Garrett had sacked any quarterback until his four-sack game of the Baltimore Ravens‘ Lamar Jackson in Week 11 gave him 11 sacks of Jackson as well.
Garrett, though, still has one more shot at Burrow this season in the season finale Jan. 4 at Cincinnati. All he needs is one more sack to not just push the 2020 No. 1 overall pick back to being No. 1 on his sack list but also set the NFL single-season sack record.
The 2017 No. 1 overall pick was unable to add Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to his QB graveyard in Week 17. So Garrett simply turns to a graveyard regular to help him move off 22 sacks, which is a half sack behind the record of 22.5 set in 2001 by New York Giants Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and tied in 2021 by Steelers star T.J. Watt.
“I’m certainly not going to overcompensate either way,” Burrow said. “I’m not going to go out of my way to not let him get the record, and I’m not going to go out of my way to let him get the record either. I’m going to go and play football.
“There’s going to be situations that a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play, and maybe I take one and there’s going to be other situations that I’m about to get sacked and I need to throw it away in that situation. It’s such a situational game that I don’t think you can go in thinking one way or the other. Every play is so different.”
It’s not the first time Burrow has been in the crosshairs of a Garrett milestone. A year ago, in a Week 16 game at Cincinnati, it was a sack in the second quarter that gave Garrett 100.5 career sacks, making him the youngest to reach the 100-sack plateau since the statistic became an official one in 1982, and the first to do so before his 29th birthday.
Burrow’s not the only one wearing a striped helmet Garrett has tormented. He has 15 career sacks in 13 games against the Bengals, the most he’s had against any team.
The conversation after the Browns beat the Steelers was about the way Pittsburgh overcompensated for Garrett, even more than normal. Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor came down on the Steelers’ side of things, in part because he knows exactly what it’s like to try to scheme against Garrett.
“Every team goes in there with Myles Garrett on every single play, ‘What are we going to do with him?'” Taylor told Cincinnati reporters. “Pittsburgh was trying to win the game. The way to do that is you try to limit Myles Garrett. You watch every tape — teams are doing everything they can to limit his effectiveness. Every run, pass, screen, naked. It all has 95 in mind.
“Our plan has never been any different. You want to limit his effectiveness. He makes as much of an impact on the game as any player in the NFL. Period. You think about 95 in your head every second of every week you’re playing the Cleveland Browns. You have to be ready for him.”
The first time the Browns and Bengals played this season, in Week 1, Garrett had two sacks of Burrow. Cleveland got to him three times total.
Four of the five Bengals offensive linemen remain the same as the opener. The only change is that Dalton Risner has started the last seven game at right guard, and Lucas Patrick was making his only start of the season at right guard in the opener.
“I think they’re playing exponentially better than they were at the time,” Burrow said of the offensive line. “I know they’re excited about the challenge, but I know their front is tough to deal with, starting with [Garrett]. But they have a lot of other guys, too, that can be very challenging to handle up front. I know they’re excited for it.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ