FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Myles Garrett had already broken his own Cleveland Browns sack record, and he didn’t want to stop.
“I don’t care how much time is on the clock: If there’s a chance we can win, I want to be a part of that,” the All-Pro defensive end said after watching from the sideline as the New England Patriots ran out the clock on Sunday.
“I don’t care how dire the situation looks. I’m going to try and make something happen,” Garrett said. “I hate to come out in those situations. I hate that kind of inevitability and not being able to do anything about it. Because I want to win.”
Garrett sacked the Patriots’ Drake Maye five times for a total loss of 33 yards on Sunday; on one of them, Garrett also forced a fumble.
But the Browns lost their 12th straight road game.
“Committing two people to him, and him still affecting the quarterback, is obviously impressive,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “Just size, speed, athleticism … it’s impressive, and it’s hard.”
Garrett has 10 sacks this season — his eighth straight season with double digits — with nine games to play. (His career high is 16, in both 2021 and ’22. ) His 112 1/2 sacks are the most for a player under the age of 30, surpassing the 108 by Reggie White (who played until he was 39 and finished his career with 198).
Garrett is the 20th player since the stat became official in 1982 with five or more sacks in a game.
But he’s only the fourth to lose when doing it.
“I would throw the whole performance away for a win,” he said.
The No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 draft out of Texas A&M, Garrett is a four-time All-Pro and the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year. After the Browns won three games last season, the 6-foot-4, 272-pound defensive end requested a trade but wound up signing a four-year, $204.8 million contract extension.
He arrived in New England with 13 quick pressures (allowed in under 2.5 seconds), tied for fifth most in the NFL. But he has expressed his frustration with the team’s direction, saying he was embarrassed and “frustrated as hell.”
Heading into their bye week with a 2-6 record that is last in the AFC North, Garrett said his advice to teammates would be, “Don’t quit.”
“Keep your head up. We’ve just got to find something, some kind of remedy for this,” he said. “I see a young team that’s fighting. We’ve all got to help each other. No one on the outside is going to help us. No one’s going to come in with a magic cure-all. So we have to rally together and find the best way to win.”
The previous Browns record was the 4½ sacks Garrett had against the Chicago Bears in 2021. But on Sunday he took advantage of Patriots’ first-round draft choice Will Campbell, who entered the game allowing a team-high 27 pressures on 253 pass blocks this season.
Vrabel said it was a tough assignment for the rookie.
“We’re trying to chip him, and he ‘Gumbys’ around one guy and then speed bursts the other guy,” the Patriots coach, a former linebacker, said. “He’s just an elite athlete with a tremendous skill set. … He certainly impacts a lot of football games.”
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