Le'Veon Bell Carrying the Playoff Hopes of Inconsistent Pittsburgh Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger isn't always going to throw six touchdowns.

Lawrence Timmons isn't always going to get a dozen tackles and a couple of sacks.

Even rookie sensation Martavis Bryant isn't going to put up pinball numbers every time out.

Pittsburgh Steelers tailback Le'Veon Bell, though, took Monday Night Football as an opportunity to remind the NFL-watching world how many football ills can be cured by a dominant tailback.

In a game full of wild plays and crazy momentum swings, Bell slowly ground the Tennessee Titans into dust. By turns patient and violent, he picked up yards in chunk after chunk and dominated the fourth quarter of his team's 27-24 win:

On the final drive, Tennessee had nothing left. Desperately needing a stop, the Titans put everything they had into trying to prevent Bell from gaining yards—and it seemed like the harder they tried, the harder he ran and the harder he hit.

On the final, game-sealing drive alone, he had eight carries for 49 yards.

Bell finished with 33 carries for 204 yards, the most ever by a Steelers running back on Monday Night Football. Bell is just the fourth Steeler to notch a 200-yard rushing game at all, per Pro Football Reference, and only the second since the 1972 AFL-NFL merger (though Willie Parker did it twice in 2006).

Through 11 games, Bell's racked up 951 rushing yards with 195 carries. That's a striking average of 4.88 yards per tote and a pace that puts him on track for 1,383 yards on the season. If he keeps catching the ball the way he has, he'll eclipse 2,000 all-purpose yards.

With Bell's dominant performance sealing a comeback win over the shaky Titans, the Steelers avoid dropping into the AFC North basement. In fact, by winning percentage, the 7-4 Steelers (.636) are just an eyelash behind the 6-3-1 (.650) Cincinnati Bengals for the division lead.

Head coach Mike Tomlin had choice words for the assembled media after the game, per Mike Prisuta of WDVE in Pittsburgh:

It's true: The Steelers' playoff hopes are still alive.

Yet, they can't keep playing down to their competition's level. After Roethlisberger's 12-touchdown outburst across two games against the Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers lost to the miserable Jets and needed Bell's massive game to avoid making it two stunning defeats in a row.

Bell was humble in the wake of his performance.

"The offensive line did a great job opening holes," he told ESPN's Monday Night Football crew. "And I was able to get to the second level." That he did, time and again. Bell's contributions didn't escape his quarterback's notice, either.

Mark Zaleski/Associated Press

"We don't have enough time to talk about what he did tonight," Roethlisberger told ESPN.com's Scott Brown after the game.

On a night when Roethlisberger threw for just 207 yards, only one touchdown and a brutal end-zone pick, Bell didn't just make the difference, he bailed out his QB and the leaky Steelers defense. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley deserves credit for recognizing what was working and what wasn't, despite a surprising performance on the other side from Titans rookie quarterback Zach Mettenberger.

"When we were down 11, we didn't want to get away from our game plan," Bell said. Not only did Haley stick with the run, he doubled down. Roethlisberger's 32 pass attempts were his fewest since Week 3 at Carolina, and Bell's 33 carries were a career high.

Is Bell the answer to Pittsburgh's problems? In a word, no—and Bell knows it.

"We've gotta work on being more consistent," he told ESPN's analysts. "Offense, defense, special teams."

The Steelers have absolutely no room for error. The Bengals lead the AFC North at 6-3-1; the Ravens and Cleveland Browns are tied for last at 6-4. Given how competitive the AFC suddenly is, there's no guarantee even one wild-card berth is coming out of the North, let alone both.

The Steelers now roll into the bye week with momentum (and face) saved. Then, they go against the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, two NFC South teams in the thick of a similarly close (albeit slow) division race, and the surging Kansas City Chiefs. In a massively unfair twist of scheduling fate, the Steelers play both halves of their home-and-home series against the Bengals in the last four weeks.

Weeks ago, I wrote that the Steelers won't go any farther than Roethlisberger's play will let them. His multiple malfunctions against the Jets and Titans nearly ended their run in the middle of November. Bell picked up the Steelers' season and ran with it, but he can't keep doing it by himself.

With a back-loaded schedule featuring two games against the team they're chasing, the next time Roethlisberger or the defense drop the ball could be the end of the season.