Myles Garrett on what he'll do to Steelers fans chants for Cleveland - even after Browns loss

PITTSBURGH — With the Browns trailing by several points midway through the fourth quarter, the chants from the Pittsburgh crowd began to rain down, in sync with the terrible towels waving gleefully overhead.

“Cleveland sucks! Cleveland sucks!”

The Browns’ 27-14 loss was the perfect exclamation point in a revenge game two weeks after Cleveland beat Pittsburgh 24-19 in prime time Thursday Night Football.

But as the chant grew louder, Cleveland’s star edge rusher Myles Garrett seemingly fired up the crowd, waving to his ears for more to say.

Why did he want it louder? Is this something the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year will hold on to and use as motivation?

“Oh yeah,” Garrett said afterwards.

So what does he hope the end result is?

“We’ll see them again next year,” Garrett said. “So the bottom line is that they will have the same energy when we come to their house next year.”

Next year is really all the Browns have right now. At 3-10, Cleveland is officially eliminated from the 2024 postseason.

Nonetheless, one of Garrett’s “whys” is the fact that he loves rooting for this rivalry – look no further than his three-sack performance against Pittsburgh in Week 12.

Before that game, he revealed that he was upset with the Steelers’ star pass rusher TJ Watt for disrespecting Garrett’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in February.

After the Browns won the first, Garrett continued talking, showing how excited he was.

“I’m No. 1,” Garrett said on the Amazon broadcast after that game. “This is from Edge 1 to Defensive Player of the Year. I’m the guy. This penetrates me, and there is no other person who is as defended as I am, or who has as many schemes or schemes against me as against me. Just goes to show you can throw it out the window – I’ll find a way.”

In that loss on Sunday, Garrett finished with a sack – he now has 99.5 sacks in his career – three quarterback hits and recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter.

But the Steelers had a better game plan this time against Garrett, and that performance wasn’t enough to make up for penalties, missed shots, botched assignments and the general lack of complementary football.

“That’s to be expected,” Garrett said. “Somehow with the first game and they come out quick, want to stay on time, kind of do what the Broncos, the Commanders have done in the past to slow me down.

“We just have to make plays, whether it’s hitting balls, just applying more pressure early. This is one way to ultimately unburden ourselves. If we’re able to extend those routes and make long plays, they have a better chance of getting back there. But I mean, there was pressure and then we got hits, but it just needs to be a little bit more consistent and we need to be a little bit stickier.”

As for Steelers fans adding fuel to Garrett’s fire, they have history on their side when it comes to poking the bear.

With Sunday’s loss, the Browns continued their depressing streak: They still haven’t won a regular-season game in Pittsburgh since 2003 (where they won the 2020 wild-card matchup) and haven’t beaten the Steelers in a season since 1988.

Garrett will have a long time to come to grips with this and the story here.

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