Film Room: Le’Veon Bell and the “Big Boys” beat Buffalo
From a four game losing streak, to a four game winning streak, life feels pretty sweet as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan right now. The Steelers went into Buffalo, in the snowy conditions, and came out victorious.
The Pittsburgh offense produced excitement and frustration.
Star running back, Le’Veon Bell, had a career day, by every meaning of the word “career”, while Antonio Brown provided splashes of his usual play-making self.
The offensive line might have had their best performance as a whole all season long.
The frustration mainly came from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Ben’s interceptions squandered some opportunities that could have lead to points. Luckily, despite the turnovers given up by Pittsburgh, the away team seemed to never lose control of this one, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching.
As mentioned Le’Veon Bell, a.k.a “Juice”, had an amazing day on the ground. The Buffalo Bills were without their elite defensive lineman, Kyle Williams, who was out due to injury. The big man probably could have helped contain Bell a little more, but I doubt he would have altered Bell’s success that much.
Juice was running like he had some serious money depending on it. (Which he does.)
This is a very important year for Bell financially speaking. The Steelers can choose to franchise tag him, pay him the big deal, or let him test the market (which I don’t feel will happen).
I think Bell has already proven his worth, and at the very least, needs the franchise tag treatment (if not the big money deal he is looking for).
Le’Veon had his best day as a pro on Sunday, rushing for 236 yards and scoring three touchdowns. In a game where Ben was not his best, Bell took the reigns of the offense, and looked darn good doing it.
The first touchdown of the scoring trifecta came early in the game, on a run where 26 showed real effort.
The Steelers pull David DeCastro from left-to-right on your screen, fooling the Bills defense just enough to squeeze Bell in behind B.J. Finney and Maurkice Pouncey.
It would signal the way the offense would run in the second half, as Big Ben had a down day with three interceptions.
Even though Roethlisberger struggled at times, his favorite target Antonio Brown, still found a way to make an impact. Pittsburgh has had trouble finding a consistent deep threat since Sammie Coates has gone cold, but AB has been known to take a swing at the go route once or twice.
Brown’s timing could not have been better as he and Big Ben connected on a deep ball of 40 yards on one of the best plays of the day (if not the best) from Ben and AB.
Brown tip-toes to stay in-bounds with an amazing effort, and after a first down to tight end Ladarius Green, Le’Veon Bell was ready to punch it in again.
After re-watching the touchdown, it is clear that Bell should take his lineman out to dinner, because he goes in untouched. The big boys make it look easy as Maurkice Pouncey, B.J Finney, and Alejandro Villanueva all hold their blocks beautifully.
B.J Finney, Ramon Foster‘s healthy fill in, even gets himself a pancake block, as they line parted the sea.
The holes that the Steelers offensive line produced were top notch, and deserve recognition.
That would become even more obvious upon Bell’s final touchdown of the day. Along with their beast of a fullback, Rosie Nix, Bell seemingly jogs into the endzone for what might be the easiest touchdown scored of the week.
Pro Bowl guard, David DeCastro, along with Nix (and company) executed the play perfectly. (Nix seals the final block, as Bell once again enters the endzone untouched.)
Most people assumed that the Steelers would need to be the more physical team if they were going to win. I think it’s safe to say they owned that title on Sunday.
They needed it.
Ben Roethlisberger had one of his worst performances of the year in the snow. His three interception game was the first he has had in 2016.
Granted, the first two looked as if miscommunication was the problem, however, the third one was as ugly as you’ll see him throw.
It really says something about a team’s overall talent when their QB can throw three interceptions, and yet appear to never lose control of the contest. That says something about the opponent as well, but I like to view things on the positive side.
Before long Pittsburgh put this one away. The age old phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” certainly applied now.
Le’Veon Bell took whatever will was left of the Bills defense and bent it sideways.
This run below was on a 1st and 20 play. Letting up a first down (especially through the ground) on 1st and 20 is absolutely unacceptable. It was clear to me at this point that the game was over.
Once again Rosie Nix paves the for Bell, with what looked like an old school Steelers power running game gashing the Bills.
When the dust (or snow) cleared, the final score read 27-20, Steelers. The score makes the game look a lot closer than it was and that’s a shame. But a win is a win.
- Le’Veon Bell was nothing short of amazing. And that means, the offensive line was dominant (a.k.a. the Big Boys).
- Antonio Brown still managed to catch 5 passes for 78 yards despite Ben’s rough day.
- Ladarius Green had a healthy six targets, catching two of them for 25 yards.
- Eli Rogers hauled in 3 passes for 20 yards.
And you can’t forget Cobi. Cobi Hamilton had yet another important catch on 3rd down, for 15 yards. Hamilton has officially made a name for himself as a third down target of Roethlisberger.
Pittsburgh now sits atop the AFC North with a comfortable one game lead now, thanks to New England defeating Baltimore.
Life feels pretty sweet, I hope it continues to feel sweet into early February.