No denying Le'Veon Bell's absence hurt Steelers in Wild Card loss to Ravens

[stillers4me]

In the Steelers (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/pittsburgh-steelers) depressing and disappointing 30-17 loss to Baltimore in an AFC Wild Card game, Saturday night at Heinz Field, many of the problems the team battled throughout the first three-fourth of the season, such as a failure to produce in the red zone, an inability to protect the quarterback, and crippling penalties, reared their ugly heads.
Even though injured and absent star running back Le'Veon Bell (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/players/193405/le-veon-bell) was a huge part of the offense for all but one quarter of the entire regular season, as his 2,215 yards from scrimmage will attest, it might be a little out-of-line to say his presence in the line-up against the Ravens (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/baltimore-ravens) would have made much of a difference.

However, those 2,215 yards represented over 35 percent of the offense's total production, and his 1,361 rushing yards accounted for nearly 78 percent of the load for Pittsburgh in that category, according to ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12111764/pittsburgh-steelers-leveon-bell-knee-wild-card-game).........

read more @ http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/pittsburgh-steelers-opinions-reactions-news-updates/2015/1/4/7489807/steelers-ravens-leveon-bell

[zulater]

Yeah it hurt. Admitting it isn't making excuses. It's being rationale.

[Count Steeler]

It is an absence that could have been overcome with proper game planning and expecting that the Ravens would come hard against Ben.

Not too many slants thrown last night that I can remember. You should not have 1 game plan for 16 teams. Talk about lazy.

[stillers4me]

It is an absence that could have been overcome with proper game planning and expecting that the Ravens would come hard against Ben.

Not too many slants thrown last night that I can remember. You should not have 1 game plan for 16 teams. Talk about lazy.

This.

[tube517]

It's all part of this rivalry. Tomlin got 2 in 2008 and 2010. Rats were bound to get one from us, with or without Le'Veon. Closest thing to Raiders-Steelers in the 70s. Back and forth. They get one, we get two. :heh:

[86WARD]

It is an absence that could have been overcome with proper game planning and expecting that the Ravens would come hard against Ben.

Not too many slants thrown last night that I can remember. You should not have 1 game plan for 16 teams. Talk about lazy.

This!!

[steelreserve]

The main thing that hurt us was that our defense got exactly one stop until desperation time when the Ravens were trying to run the clock out. Bell might have helped, but we really got no worse than we deserved for playing like that. What a frustrating game.