WHAT IF BURROW LAYS DOWN FOR GARRETT?

Here's an excerpt from my latest TribLive.com column:

A postgame sidebar says that the Steelers were more concerned about preventing Myles Garrett from getting a sack, which would have broken T.J. Watt’s single-season record, than they were about winning. Tony Romo conjectured such on CBS, as did Garrett himself after the game.

I wondered the same. But every team uses lots of manpower to block Garrett. Any quarterback is going to throw the ball away with Garrett looming, not least one that’s 42.

I don’t think the Steelers put extra emphasis on stopping Garrett, not beyond what they normally do, and not for Watt’s sake.

But the Garrett narrative is easy to buy because the Steelers are petty. Tom Petty.

The fabled “standard” has a low bar these days.

Garrett didn’t get a sack.

Way to go, Steelers.

To read more, click HERE.

So, Garrett still needs one more sack. The Browns play at Cincinnati this coming Sunday.

When the New York Giants' Michael Strahan got his half of the sack record in 2002, Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre intentionally allowed Strahan to sack him in the waning moments of the season's final game. That set the mark of 22½, erasing Mark Gastineau from the record books. (Gastineau was not pleased.)

What if Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow does the same? (Or Joe Flacco, Jake Browning, whoever plays.) What if the Bengals' QB lays down for Garrett?

The entire Watt family would wet their pants simultaneously.

I know what I'm rooting for. It would be more glorious than D-Day.

Sure, Garrett should have to earn it. The same should have gone for Strahan. If Favre doesn't flop, Watt owns the record by himself right now.