Time to face an ugly truth

The loss of Le'Veon Bell is hurting the Steelers more than anybody wants to admit.

I say the loss of Bell because I think it's going to be too late to salvage the season when he returns, and he will return just in time to get his year toward free agency.

Yes, the defense stinks. We knew that was going to happen.

And yes, Ben Roethlisberger's poor play was a significant part of last night's loss and the tie against the Browns, but that is part of where Bell comes in.

Opposing defenses are not respecting James Conner the way they did Bell and Conner simply isn't running well enough to take advantage of it. The Browns game is looking like more and more of a mirage. There were multiple plays last night that Conner was held to a short gain when Bell could have broken something. Conner isn't a bad running back, but he's not Bell and last night was the best evidence yet.

When Roethlisberger struggled the first half of last season, the Steelers were able to turn to Bell to carry a big chunk of the load. They can't do that with Conner and the result is an offensive stinker like last night. Remember, it was Bell who carried the offense in the first meeting with the Ravens last season and he made some key plays when they beat them the second time around.

I don't think this team was winning a Super Bowl anyway, not with that defense, but it's time to stop fooling ourselves. The combination of Bell, Roethlisberger and Brown was what made this offense so dangerous and it's a far weaker unit without Bell.

 

I was thinking something similar watching the game yesterday. Aside from poor execution, the offense also became one dimensional very early on. This coupled with Ben being off with deep throws at the moment means suddenly we're much easier to stop.

I'm not going to write Connor off after 1-2 bad games, any more than I'd anoint him to the HOF after 1-2 games. But Bell added danger and explosion to the offense which we just didn't seem to have last night.

I remain optimistic that we have that kind of explosiveness still on the offense, but we have to use the pieces right... and that includes using Ridley and Samuels more, as well as continue to use Switzer all over the place, and more double TE sets when playing a fierce pass rush.

 

I think a lousy defense is hurting the Steelers.

 

Playing catchup is a recipe for disaster.

I'm curious how well the O-line is playing. They have been banged up.

 

Its the end of a career. Ben is done.

 

It's true that not having bell is hurting but they haven't won Anything with him so who cares.. I'd rather have James Conner as your feature back with a dominant defense rather than bell and this defense

 

I agree we are missing Bell. But we are not even trying to establish the run. Conner just isn't getting carries. The last three games our offensive gameplan seems to be, just let Ben chuck it all over the field. Ben barely even lines up under center anymore.

 

It was 14 - 0 early. There was no running game because the Steelers were playing catch up all game. With a defense like we are fielding you better be throwing the ball a lot and hoping Ben can execute. Conner has done well when he's been given the chance. They didn't even try the running game yesterday. This team is circling the drain right now

 

I agree

This is my stance also , its has nothing to do with Bell ,we have plenty of offensive weapons . We didn’t win SB’s with Bell either,this is on B.B. and the actrocious D

 

the defense, the offensive line, the qb. those are the 3 problems.

 

The defense stinks but they did there job in second half.......... This game is on Ben..... He was friggin horrible last night... There is no way around it....... How many wide open receivers did he miss? This team is shot.......

 

Personally I thought this defense would be better. Obviously not unfortunately. Goes to show when the offense struggles it's time to fold up the show.

And the whole Bell fiasco enough already. Could he have helped? Who knows. And we won't find out. And if he does come back the 10th game they may already be out of any playoff contention and he will just go through the motions.

The team as it stands is not progressing. That has to do with coaching first and foremost.

Seems the O Line is underachieving in run blocking. It's not just Conner.

Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

 

Yupp. Conner is just not that guy.

 

Can’t understand why all you so called NFL fans fail to see how important an elite RB is in this league. If the Steelers didn’t have Bell last season they would not have made the playoffs. Fact.

 

I hate to say it but the dynasty is falling fast. Ben is coming to a end and the D is terrible which we all know. I think the team is poorly coached, no one is motivated, and very undisciplined. This is not the Steelers as we all know them.

 

Everyone is losing: Bell $850K/game, the Steelers FO who never imagined it would come to this, AB not open as much bc no Bell, the fans for enduring a poor team, Cam Heyward, not related to Bell, just wanted to point out again how useless he is...

 

Agreed. We will be a 8-8, 7-9 or 6-10 team real soon over the next few years. Bad coaching that is not being addressed is causing many of the issues we are all seeing. The undisciplined nature of this team is the root cause of most of our issues. First time in a very long time that I have seen all three phases of this team completely suck and I’ve been watching Steeler football for over 40 years. We had some mediocre teams over the years, but we also didn’t have much of the talent we have now, which makes this upcomimg chapter hard to understand.

 

I don't understand why so many people ignore Ben's horrible play. Every year we expect great things from the offense and every year we are disappointed because Ben is simply not a consistent performer. This is not helped by him not taking practice seriously and sitting out a lot of them. He needs to get his ass on the field for every damn practice and stop with the hero ball and going for deep shots on 3rd and short. Play smart football and take what is there. Unfortunately that is not Ben so we will continue to see the garbage offense we have gotten so far this year. Occasionally when Ben hits the big plays everything will look great but for the most part we will see wild swings and the offense will continue to under perform.

 

The ugly truth is Ben has been inaccurate in his throws. This is a change for the worse. We already knew the defense was bad against the pass and that remains unchanged. We have played 4 games now. We are past a slow start due to lack of playing in preseason.

Ben cannot play 4 quarters at a high level anymore. His passes are inaccurate too often.

Another ugly truth is we may be better served having a bad year, then draft a real starting QB in the first round. That is how we got Ben. A bad year of 6-10 and we were 11th in the draft.

 

Bee got his way when he chased Haley out of town .This is why you don't let the inmates run the asylum . It never ends well

 

As much as we rag on the defense, the defense held the rats to 4 field goals in the second half and thats the 12 points the rats won by, while our offense scored nothing in the second half for the second time in two weeks no less, it's pretty sad to say this offense couldnt cover a 12 point deficit in two quarters and lost the game to a sputtering rat offense, shame on ben and his offense.....

 

It wouldn't have mattered. Bell never did well against the ravens anyway.

 

Maybe Ben needs to not take Wednesday off, and needs to play more in preseason. Also warm up more or do something different before game starts and after half time, these slow starts in games and after half time are starting to get annoying. Along with this defense we seem to always play from behind.

 

Conner is a great story, not a great player. He just can't do it. This team cannot play from behind, we don't have the offense or the defense for it. That said, our BIGGEST problem is coaching. Tomlin, Butler and Fichtner could fugg up a three car parade. When you don't have the better talent, you need better coaching and unfortunately, we have three dummies.

 

I really don't think having Bell would make any difference and Conner needs to get more credit for what he is doing rather than lamenting Bell not being here. For comparison:

Bell's stats through the first 4 games last year [ yards (carries/receptions) ]: Rushing: 32 (10), 87 (27), 61 (15), 144 (35) for 324 (87) and 3 TDs. Receiving: 15 (3), 4 (4), 37 (6), 42 (4) for 98 (17) and no TDs
Conner's stats through the first 4 games this year: Rushing: 135 (31), 17 (8), 61 (15), 19 (9) for 232 (63) and 3 TDs. Receiving: 57 (5), 48 (5), 34 (5), 25 (3) for 164 (18) and no TDs

Bell had more rushing yards, but he also had nearly a whole game's worth of more carries. Also, the rushing TDs are the same despite 24 more carries for Bell. Conner has better receiving stats with only 1 more reception. Isn't Bell's biggest selling point that he catches passes? Well, Conner seems to be doing just fine there as compared to Bell. The blame for what this team is has nothing to do with Bell not being here. It has to do with the poor quality of the coaches, defense, Ben's inaccuracy, discipline, and lack of heart. Conner is one of the few guys on this team who seems to be excited to play and succeed. You can't say the same of Bell who only cares about money. Time to forget Bell, he was never as great as we thought he was. He was certainly not the clear best back in the league as too many people seem to believe.