Pittsburgh Steelers Have Problems, but Run Game Without Le'Veon Bell Isn't One

It was an ugly Thursday night for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who opened the 2015 NFL regular season against the defending Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. It's not just that they fell, 28-21, but it was how they did it.

Pittsburgh's revamped defense, featuring a host of new players running new defensive coordinator Keith Butler's scheme, looked no better than it had during the preseason. To call it a work in progress would be generous.

And the Steelers' vaunted offense faltered on two key occasions in the first half, first following a trick play on the opening drive that saw the Steelers move backwards and ultimately closed with kicker Josh Scobee missing a 46-yard field goal. Scobee missed another one later in the half before making his final attempt with seconds remaining.

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There is a lot of work ahead for the Steelers if they are going to remain one of the AFC's top teams. But not everything went poorly, most notably the run game.

The Steelers spent the offseason preparing for life without starting back Le'Veon Bell, who is serving a two-game suspension to start the season. Thankfully, the Steelers had more time than last year, when a knee injury suffered by Bell gave them just one week between the close of the season and the team's Wild Card playoff contest against the Baltimore Ravens to sign and prepare Ben Tate.

This year, the Steelers chose to go with veteran free agent DeAngelo Williams to serve not just as a veteran presence at the position and as a proven backup for Bell but also to handle the starting duties during these first two weeks. Williams was more than qualified to do so—he's in his 10th season in the NFL and served as a runner, receiver and blocker for the previous nine with the Carolina Panthers.

And Williams proved that the Steelers chose wisely in the spring by bringing him on board.

He ended the night with 21 carries for 127 yards, averaged six yards per carry and had long runs of 18 and 28 yards. His performance led the Steelers to a combined 134 yards of rushing offense on 25 carries and a team yards-per-carry average of 5.4, which convinced Steelers Digest to name him the team's Player of the Week.

Rush. Att.	Rush Yd.	YPR	Long	Rush TD	Tgts.	Rec.	Rec.Yds.	Rec.TD
21	127	6.0	28	0	1	1	5	0

Though Williams scored no touchdowns, his large chunks of rushing yardage gained helped move the Steelers down the field and into scoring position. What the Steelers did with that favorable position is certainly worth calling into question. But it is refreshing to see that Pittsburgh's offense did not take a considerable step backward without Bell, as it did last year.

Add into the equation that Cody Wallace has stepped in for injured center Maurkice Pouncey, and it is impressive what Williams managed to do.

Williams ran up the middle as well as bounced to the outside with ease—ease that is uncommon to see against the Patriots defensive front. Though he wasn't the same kind of force in the passing game as Bell is, having been targeted just once by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, for a five-yard gain, Williams was still a force in the offense, period. 

That's all they needed from Williams, and he gave so much more—and against a Patriots defense that a year ago was giving up no more than 104.3 rushing yards per game on average. So while the Steelers have a number of worries after this Week 1 loss, at least Bell's absence isn't one of them.