Le'Veon Bell Proves He Can Carry Steelers with Big Ben Out

When the Pittsburgh Steelers needed less than a yard to clinch a miraculous, much-needed win, there was no question in anyone's mind who's number was getting called: Le'Veon Bell. The star tailback's do-everything skill set and eye-popping explosion are winning games for the Steelers, even though quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is out injured.

With five seconds left on the game clock, the Steelers' final play call came in. Pittsburgh lined up in a funky-looking Wildcat formation. Bell took the direct snap and attempted to follow the blocking of fullback Roosevelt Nix.

He had only one thought on his mind.

"I gotta get it in," Bell told ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters after the game. "I was thinking, OK, even if I get stopped, maybe four seconds, maybe we can call a timeout and go for the field goal, but I wanted to end it right there."

Bell was stood up at the line of scrimmage, and for a second it looked like he was going to go down in flames.

But the every-down back flashed his balance, kept his feet, bounced it back outside and found just enough daylight to dive for it, reach for it and break the plane with the nose of the ball as he was dragged down from behind. As replay revealed, Bell did indeed get the ball where it needed to be just before his knee hit the turf.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

It was a walk-off touchdown: Bell put the Steelers ahead, 24-20, with zero seconds left on the clock.

Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers' brilliant effort and previously suspended tight end Antonio Gates' sterling 2015 debut were wasted. Steelers second-string quarterback Michael Vick's shaky, oddly conservative 55 minutes or so might as well have never happened.

If the suddenly 3-2 Steelers are going to make the playoffs this season, they're going to need every win they can get—and Monday night's gutted-out head-to-head win over another team fighting to stay in the wild-card race could be enormous.

In fact, it's entirely possible this very win is the head-to-head tiebreaker that sends Pittsburgh to the playoffs and knocks San Diego out.

Most of the game didn't look like it was going to end well for the Steelers. Vick was painful to watch in action. It looked as though offensive coordinator Todd Haley didn't want to let Vick throw a downfield pass if he could possibly help it. Given how Vick repeatedly failed to see (or studiously ignored) wide-open downfield targets, it seemed as though the Steelers coaches were right on in their assessment of his ability.

The two teams held each other's Nerf-weapon offenses to just 17 collective points over the first three quarters. They combined to convert just nine of 28 third downs into first downs; if that were a rating for the whole season, it would rank 29th out of 32.

The halftime score—thanks in part to a missed Josh Lambo field-goal attempt—was breathtakingly low. It was just 7-3 when the two teams came back out on the field for the second half. The next seven offensive series, for both teams, ended like this: Fumble, punt, punt, punt, pick-six, field goal, punt. Just a few seconds into the fourth quarter, the game was knotted at 10. It looked, for all the world, like the two offensively challenged teams were headed to a grueling overtime.

Then Rivers mounted an eight-play, 5:50, 60-yard touchdown drive, capped by his second touchdown pass to Gates. On the very next play, Vick did what the Twitter wags had called for all night long: ran play action on first down, ripped it deep to one of the Steelers' speedy wideouts (Markus Wheaton) and completed it for a massive score. Reportedly, Roethlisberger himself called this play:

Rivers had to answer, and answer he did: He engineered a 12-play, 4:46 drive that ended with a Lambo field goal. Still, it wasn't enough.

Not only did Bell tear up yards in chunks on the ensuing final drive, Vick moved the chains with both his arms and his feet. On his first (and only) rushing carry of the evening, Vick shredded the Chargers for 24 yards. At the end, the Steelers took a big risk by running the ball with just five seconds left. But putting it in your best playmaker's hands with a win on the line really isn't a risk.

The final stats give Bell credit for 21 carries, 111 yards and a rushing touchdown, plus four catches for 16 yards. These are great numbers; averaging 5.3 yards per carry is no joke—especially when defenses are trying to stop that tailback at all costs.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

While Vick did prove himself useful with the big plays at the end, it's obvious he's a player the Steelers will have to work intensely hard to motivate (and make up for) if they want to win. That means lots more reliance on Bell, who proved Monday night he's willing and able to not only carry the load in Roethlisberger's absence, but also do it well enough to snag a win or two before the Steelers get their QB back.

With Bell still playing like the NFL's best all-round tailback, the No. 7-ranked scoring defense (before this game re-adjusted that number) and Vick making two enormous plays when he absolutely had to, there's no doubt: The Steelers have what it takes to pull off victories in big games.

That's huge, because the Steelers host the Arizona Cardinals, travel to Kansas City Chiefs and host the Cincinnati Bengals over the next three weeks. If Big Ben can't get healthy quickly, they could easily lose three straight—dropping them to an all-but-unsalvageable 3-5.

Can the Steelers make the playoffs without Roethlisberger? Win the Super Bowl with him? Is Vick actually the best quarterback on the roster? Of course not—but thanks to Bell, the Steelers have proven they're just good enough to set the table for a season-saving table-run when Roethlisberger gets back.