Yes the O line sucks but even when gets the rare ball in space like a screen or shallow cross, he looks to be stuck in the mud. Being a “delayed wait for blocks” runner, plus bad O line, plus what looks like an injury is a terrible trifecta. He seems to have zero explosiveness. like him a lot. Hope it gets better.
He looks done not hurt. In Pittsburgh he reminded me of Marshall Faulk. Here he looks like a washed up Eddie George. That said I respect the effort he's giving and he is showing he can carry the load he just frickin' doesn't have it anymore.
He looks slow and without a burst. This is why we shouldn't have drafted a runningback that hasn't played in two years. His whole game is predicated on setting up the block and then shooting through the lane he created with a hesitation. He's too slow to shoot through that hole after the hesitation move. He doesn't have much room to run. And the line sucks. But he had plenty of space on that one screen today and he looked like he was running in sand. Bilal Powell came in and was hopping through holes like he always has.
Well he actually IS hurt...he almost didn't play this week. And the OL sucks. I'm not ready to toss him on the scrap heap yet. It would also help if the HC/OC called more plays where he has some space to make some moves.
#1- Pittsburgh called pass plays to Bells strength and constantly hit him out of the backfield. Where is that here? #2-The Oline for Pitt is probably top 5 in football. We see time and time again in that video where Bell is running through a hole and not even getting contact till 8 yards down the field. That doesn’t happen here. #3-Bell does appear to have more of a burst in general in this video then what he does here when there is a rare hole. He seems to either be hurt or lost a step. I hope it’s not the latter.
He's playing hurt with the knee. But eh I don't think he's gotten a decent hole all year ....plus his style isn't ideal for how bad this line is. The line can't hold blocks for more than a millisecond
Bell isnt hurt he is just running behind the worst o-line in orginized football history..The badness of this o-line predates the NFL..
He hasnt been the diffrence maker that he is suppose to be so far...And that has alot to do with the combination of the bad o line and bad playcalling.He is being set up to fail on every snap.
All true points. It was more to show the reference of his speed. Also remember that it's a highlight tape. I feel like Le'Veon took a lot more of the LOS and 1 yard runs he does here and turned them into 4 yard gains than he has with us. The offensive line is horrible and it's the first time he's played behind a new offensive line in his life. He had Pouncey, Foster and DeCastro his entire career with Pittsburgh if memories serves me correctly. I guess I'm just expecting a teeny bit more out of our top paid RB especially after seeing how much quicker Powell looked behind the same offensive line.
He gets the football and is immediately swarmed by the defense most carries. The offensive line is not opening up anything
Yes yes totally agree but he has had a couple screens and passes and I did not see that explosiveness hope I’m wrong or he’s just dinged up
Something about it though. He's had some space in the passing game. Forget the burst he doesn't make anyone miss anymore and he's instantly tracked down by trailing offensive lineman. Hopefully when we fix the offensive line I'll be proven wrong. He's just trending towards the death age for runningbacks a lot quicker than I'd like. I understand the less miles on the tires and everything but it doesn't always matter when they near that age.
He’s been getting banged up all year and almost didn’t play this week He looked pretty damn good in week 1 when he was healthy Our oline is awful so the running part is what it is but it’s pretty criminal to not be using Bell all over the place in the passing game like Pittsburgh used to
A bad line completely negates both good QBs and RBs. I couldn't see Barry Sanders or Curtis Martin doing any better behind this line. Hell, I don't think we would have won many more games even if we had Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady behind this line!
I fully respect the O line argument I guess I’m just not good at this to me, he seems to not have first gear acceleration even in the flat he looks just average to me (Not talking about running plays) but if you and so many others still see his “pop” then I will chalk it up to me not knowing football as well
Barry Sanders always had bad lines but he’s one of the few players who made a bad line look good. Brady/Manning excel at reading defense and can make a short passing game work and mask the pourous Oline. Outside of them, I can’t see anyone else looking good behind this line. They are atrocious.