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01/04 21:15 CST Myles Garrett breaks NFL single-season sack record with 23 and laments not getting 2 more Myles Garrett breaks NFL single-season sack record with 23 and laments not getting 2 more By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer CINCINNATI (AP) --- The night before Myles Garrett got his 23rd sack to break the NFL single-season record, he had a nightmare that he fell short of the mark. Garrett instead made his sweetest dreams come true. The All-Pro Cleveland Browns pass rusher took down Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow with 5:09 remaining in the fourth quarter on Sunday to finish his extraordinary season with 23 sacks. "Despair. I was scared as hell," Garrett said of the nightmare. "We got to deny fate, whatever it is, we got to make it happen. And I just went into it and still had the utmost confidence in myself and my preparation and in my guys." The record came in a victory that concluded an otherwise difficult season for the Browns (5-12). Andre Szmyt kicked a 49-yard field goal as time expired as Cleveland rallied past Cincinnati 20-18. Garrett came into the game needing one sack to surpass the mark of 22 1/2 shared by Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan (in 2001 in a 16-game season with the New York Giants) and Pittsburgh's T.J. Watt in 2021. Burrow was in the shotgun formation on first-and-10 at the Browns 45-yard line when he saw Garrett coming and went down. According to Next Gen Stats, Garrett crossed the line of scrimmage 0.23 seconds after the snap from Bengals center Ted Karras, the fastest on any sack this season. "He's the sack king," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. "They've been playing this game for a long time, and for him to go get that in the circumstances with the degree of difficulty in which he got it this season is unbelievable." The sack in some ways was similar to Strahan's record-breaking sack of Green Bay's Brett Favre in the 2001 season finale. Both quarterbacks didn't put up much of a challenge when they saw an oncoming pass rusher. Garrett's teammates celebrated his milestone even though Cincinnati tried to go no-huddle on the next play. Bengals coach Zac Taylor wasn't pleased that the game was briefly stopped, even though it is standard protocol for an officiating crew to do that when a record-breaking moment occurs. "The refs just said they had made the decision as a crew that they were going to stop the game. It didn't matter when it happened, they were going to stop the game," Taylor said. "They said they tried to do it as quickly as possible. I feel that. (But) we didn't sub. We're trying to be on the ball and go, play tempo and the umpire just held the ball so that we couldn't do anything." Once Garrett got to the Browns sideline, tight end David Njoku placed a fake crown on his teammate's head. There was also a boisterous celebration in Cleveland's locker room after the game. Garrett has sacked 51 players over his nine-year NFL career. Burrow is at the top of the list at 12 in 10 meetings. "He's the focus of the game plan every time we play them. It's challenging because you have to commit resources to that and that takes away resources from elsewhere," Burrow said. "For the most part, I thought we were pretty good against him today. But you can see how impactful he is. We have no help on him one time and he gets one. He's an elite player." Garrett recorded six pressures against the Bengals, but he was chipped or double-teamed on most of his 39 pass rushes. He thought he had a chance to get Burrow midway through the third quarter, but Burrow scrambled around right end for an 8-yard gain and at one point looked back at Garrett and was likely relieved. It was Garrett who was the most relieved after the game. "It was everything I expected. It was so tough. I knew they were going to make it difficult," he said. "I don't think I saw more than three singles on a real drop-back the whole game. And I just knew that if I did, I have to make that moment count. And the feeling couldn't be better." Garrett's parents, Audrey and Lawrence Garrett, were in the stands. Lawrence Garrett had a camera with telephoto lens ready to capture the record-breaking moment. The NFL did not start counting sacks as an official statistic until 1982. Mark Gastineau of the New York Jets had 22 in 1984, and Strahan surpassed him 17 seasons later. Watt tied the record during the final game in 2021 by taking down Baltimore's Tyler Huntley. Garrett has recorded at least half a sack in 13 games this season, including 11 of the last 12. He had 14 during a five-game midseason span that included a team-record five against the New England Patriots on Oct. 26, four against the Ravens on Nov. 14 and three more a week later at Las Vegas. Garrett is a four-time All-Pro and is favored to be named the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in three seasons. Besides leading the league in sacks and tackles for loss (33), he was fifth with 77 pressures, including 31 quick pressures under 2.5 seconds. "He's the defensive player of the year. You can make him the MVP if I had a vote," Stefanski said. Garrett came into the interview room with Kanye West's song "I Wonder" playing through his headphones. He echoed the opening lyric as he discussed the record, but also lamented falling short of 25 sacks. He had written that number on his right wrist tape since early in the season. "I wonder. Find your dreams come true. I mean, been waiting on this my whole life, my whole football career. So I knew I had it in me," he said. "I wanted that 25, but they made it real difficult these last two games especially, but really these last three. So that'll be the next journey, trying to go out there and get 25." ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

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