Garrett finally gets his first crack at Roethlisberger, who he vowed last year to 'chop down.'
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BEREA, Ohio -- Myles Garrett finally gets his chance Sunday to shred Ben Roethlisberger, and the Steelers quarterback paid him the ultimate compliment on Wednesday, calling Garrett an animal.
On July 19, the Browns did a spoof video of "The Office," with Garrett playing the part of Dwight K. Schrute, and putting a Xerox copy of Big Ben through the shredder.
He jumped at the chance to do it, and will jump at the chance to tear Roethliserger to pieces on Sunday in the opener at FirstEnergy Stadium.
"It's just a joke,'' Garrett said Wednesday. "I'm here to have a little bit of fun and play some football. It goes along with what I'm trying to do, so I had no problem doing it."
Does Roethlisberger have the clip on his phone on a loop to get his game face on?
"I haven't gotten any feedback,'' said Garrett. "I hope they bring it up a little bit. That would probably be a little bit funny, but I just hope to have a good game that's competitive, hard-nosed and they come out here and don't take it easy on any of us because we're going to do the same to them."
The paper-shredder comes a little over a year after Garrett said on draft day about Roethlisberger that he's "coming for him first, to chop him down."
Of course, he never got that chance last year, because he suffered a high ankle sprain just days before the opener and had to sit out the first four games. Garrett played in the finale, but Roethlisberger rested for the playoffs.
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So the big showdown is Sunday, and both parties can't wait.
"Mindset is the same as it would be any other week,'' Garrett said. "I want to get to the passer. I want to make plays. I want to be dominant and I know the D-line wants to do the same thing. We're all on the same page and we have a plan to get there and keep him from dominating the game and go out there and enact that."
The chop-down threat rankled the Steelers last year, and Garrett surely put a bull's-eye on his back for this game.
"I mean probably,'' said Garrett. "I have to go out there and show that I'm actually a threat. Maybe after a couple rushes, me getting back there or us getting back there, they may have to turn to who really is getting there. But I plan to get back there a little bit."
Over in Pittsburgh, it wasn't lost on Roethlisberger that Garrett is still talking about sacking him this game.
"Yeah, he's been talking about that for awhile now, so hopefully Al (left tackle Alejandro Villanueva) does a great job,'' Roethlisberger told reporters in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger also complimented the 2017 No. 1 overall pick, who had seven sacks in his 11 starts last season.
"It starts with our left side, their right side in Myles,'' he said. "What an animal. A guy that just gets after the quarterback. We're really going to have to keep two eyes on him.''
Big Ben's tone was a little lighter than last year after Garrett vowed to chop him down in a draft day interview with ESPN's Randy Moss.
"I was talking to (center Maurkice Pouncey) after Garrett called me out," Roethlisberger told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette then. "Pounce got a big kick out of it. All of my linemen enjoyed hearing it. They can't wait to get started. I can't, either."
Roethlisberger also said last year, "I've been playing this game for 14 years now. He's not the first or the last one to talk about trying to get me. I'm just blessed to have a group in front of me to help protect that. I know they're always up for the challenge. They always want to protect me, open up things in the run game. They take pride in being the best in the business and that's what I think they are."
Garrett didn't back down from his remarks back then either.
"I stand by it,'' he said. "You shouldn't be scared to take anybody down. It's the whole defense against their offense. I'm not going to be alone in this.''
All bravado aside, Garrett has the utmost respect for Roethlisberger, who's 21-2 against the Browns, and who's been sacked 37 times in 23 regular-season starts by them.
"He's a Super Bowl champion,'' said Garrett. "A multiple time Super Bowl champion, so you know he's played on a high level consistently for years so you have to be able to respect greatness when you see it, but you also have to seize the opportunity of being able to usurping that position, so you have to be able to respect it but don't be afraid of it and don't be afraid of that moment.''
He acknowledged that it will be tough to being the big Houdini down.
"You've got to use your whole body where you can't try to arm tackle him, where you just try to grab him by his arm or his side,'' he said. "You have to lean into him a little bit, try to torque him. Otherwise, he's just going to strike you off or spin out of the tackle.
"He just has that way where you're on him, but he'll just step up while you're flying by, so you have to make sure you're directly on him. If you're leaning any kind of way, he'll just slip out of there.
Garrett believes he would've made the difference in the opener last year, a 21-18 loss to the Steelers at home. Late in the game, Roethlisberger rolled out and hit Antonio Brown (11 catches for 182 yards) with a 38-yarder that preserved the victory.
"Yeah, that's where I come in,'' said Garrett. "He's not able to extend that play. So, I don't think he gets that off, and I think that's a different ballgame entirely if he's not able to get that ball off, but that's last year and we have to make the plays this year to get the win.''
He won't get any disagreement from Browns receiver Josh Gordon, who believes Garrett is just what the Browns need to get over the top.
"I think it's going to come down to defensive stops and it's going to start with 95 on the edge making extremely athletic plays the likes of which we might not have seen before,'' he said. "I know he's capable of doing it. We've seen it in practice. He's extremely fast. I've never seen a guy that big move like that, but I think he's ready to step up to the challenge. We're all counting on him to get to the quarterback and make a difference."
Garrett acknowledged that missing those first four games, and the Browns getting off to a 0-4 start, drove him this offseason.
"The best quality is availability and missing those games when my team was out there and they just needed a couple of big plays to change the flow of the beginning of the season, that hurt and that did stick with me,'' he said. "So it was one of the things that drove me to be in better condition, to be able to go for a longer play count, to be on the field more, and just being stronger, faster, come back as a more polished weapon.''
And one that he hopes can turn a QB into pulp.
