5 longest individual Steelers sack streaks

Throughout the 2020 NFL season and even into 2021, there was much discussion about the Steelers record-setting consecutive sack streak. Registering at least one sack in every regular season game from November 2016 through Week 2 of the 2021 season, the Steelers 75 games will stand for at least three more seasons has the longest current streak is 21 games shared by the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens. But with all that hype around the Steelers team streak, what often doesn’t get discussed is the best individual sack streaks by players.

Looking at the best streaks by members of Pittsburgh Steelers, I first filtered (on Pro Football Reference) by games in which players had at least one sack in consecutive regular season games. While it gave some interesting results, I realized that my search parameters were flawed. First, I dropped the requirements to being 0.5 sacks in the game to still give credit when a player was in on a sack. Additionally, the streaks looked more promising whenever I included the postseason.

Now that I’ve laid out the criteria, here are the top five player streaks on the list since 1982 when NFL sacks became an individual statistic where a player had at least 0.5 sacks in a game, including playoff games.

Clark Haggans, 6 games

2004-2005

The late Clark Haggans is the first player on the list with six consecutive games with at least 0.5 sacks. There does need to be some explanation with his streak as it might not be on the radar depending on the filter. First, Haggans’ games all were games where he got exactly 1.0 sack. The streak started in the Steelers Divisional Round game of the 2004 season and went through the Conference Championship as well as the first three weeks of the 2005 season. Where things may look different is because Haggans missed the next three games with a groin injury and returned in Week 8 where he had one more game to complete the streak. Over the six games, the Steelers were victorious in four of the contests.

Greg Lloyd, 6 games

1994

Greg Lloyd’s streak in 1994 fell completely during the regular season from Week 5 through Week 11. During the streak, Lloyd had 1.0 sacks each game with the exception of the Steelers Week 9 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals where he had 2.0 sacks. During Lloyd’s streak, the Steelers won five of the six games.

Lamar Woodley, 7 games

2010-2011

Starting the last two weeks of the 2010 regular season, Lamar Woodley’s stretch of seven games went through three postseason matchups, including Super Bowl XLV, and extended into the first two weeks of the 2011 season. Woodley had 0.5 sacks in the first game of the streak as well as 0.5 sacks in the final game of the streak. In the other five games, including the three postseason games, Woodley had 1.0 sacks per game. During the streak, the Steelers went 5–2.

T.J. Watt, 9 games

2019

T.J. Watt started the longest sack streak of his career in Week 4 of the 2019 season with 1.5 sacks against the Cincinnati Bengals. Extending all the way through Week 13, Watt had one game with 0.5 sacks, four games with 1.0 sacks, two games with 1.5 sacks, and two games with 2.0 sacks totaling 11.5 sacks over the course of the streak. During the streak, the Steelers went 7–2.

Lamar Woodley, 10 games

2009-2010

The only player appearing on this list twice, Lamar Woodley has a 10-game sack streak which ties him for second place all time in the NFL since 1982. Beginning in Week 10 of the 2009 season, Woodley’s streak did not include any postseason games as the Steelers failed to make the playoffs but continued into the next season through Week 2. Woodley had 13.5 sacks during those 10 games where he had one game with 0.5 sacks, five games with 1.0 sacks, and four games with 2.0 sacks. During Woodley’s streak, the Steelers lost the first five games but were victorious in the next five.