During the regular season, the Pittsburgh Steelers put up an impressive 6137 yards of offense, averaging about 384 yards per game, and that was with considerable variables along the way in the form of significant injuries and other complications that, over the course of the year, hindered their ability to move the ball.
Of those 6137 yards, a total of 3177 were from the contributions of wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell, accounting for more than half of the Steelers’ total yards from scrimmage. That ratio represented the most in the league for any duo; it’s no surprise why they are both All-Pros.
The funny thing about that is that neither player necessarily had their best season in terms of yardage output—and neither of them even played a full 16 games.
Brown had his lowest yardage total in four seasons when he racked up 1284 receiving yards—in addition to nine rushing yards—over the course of the first 15 games of the regular season, after he and several key starters sat out the regular season finale.
As for Bell, he started the season on a three-game suspension and also rested in the regular-season finale, so he was limited to just a 12-game campaign, and yet still put up an extremely impressive yardage total—in fact, he had the third-highest yards from scrimmage per game average for a season in NFL history.
He rushed for 1268 yards on 261 carries, and added another 616 yards through the air, to give him a total of 1884 yards from scrimmage. Over the course of a full season, that would have set him on pace to break the all-time yards from scrimmage record in a single season, which should not be too surprising.
But that statistic, especially considering that they missed a combined total of five games, really says something about just how important these two players are to the Steelers and their success—along, obviously, with their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who as a trio make up the team’s ‘Killer Bs’, whom many claim to be the best ‘triplets’ on offense in the league.
I would not exactly be in a hurry to argue against that, to be sure. After all, the Steelers had a productive offense this season and they still managed to account for more than half of the team’s total output, even in spite of the fact that they missed a good chunk of that time.
Nothing changed in the postseason, by the way, if you were wondering. The Steelers posted a total of 367 net yards on Sunday against the Dolphins. Brown went for 124 yards on the day. Bell established a new franchise postseason rushing record with 167 yards, adding another seven through the air.
Combined, the duo of Bell and Brown accounts for 298 yards of offense—of 367 total yards. That represents over 80 percent of the Steelers’ total yards from scrimmage on the day.
