Sunday should be a monumental day in Cleveland. In short, the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ Killer B’s, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, running back Le’Veon Bell and wide receivers Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant, all figure to be on the field together Sunday for the first time since Week 8 of the 2015 regular season.
In total, that Steelers quartet has played in just 11 regular season games together and hopefully that total grows to 27 this season in addition to producing offensive stats for Pittsburgh similar to, or better, than what has been previously been posted in past games.
For starters, the Steelers compiled an 8-3 record in the previous 11 games in which Roethlisberger, Bell, Brown and Bryant have all played in together. It’s worth noting, however that one of those three losses in Week 8 of the 2015 regular season against the Cincinnati Bengals, was the game in which Bell suffered a knee injury in the first half that would ultimately sideline him for the remainder of that year.
In those previous 11 games that the Steelers Killer B’s have played in, the King B, Roethlisberger, averaged 329 yards passing while completing 67.5% of his pass attempts. Roethlisberger threw 25 total touchdowns in those 11 games and 9 interceptions of which three came in the aforementioned game that Bell injured his knee in. That game was also Roethlisberger’s first in several weeks as a result of a knee injury that he had suffered earlier that season.
As for Bell, specifically, he averaged 134.5 total yards from scrimmage in those 11 games and 4.43 yards per carry to go along with 10 total touchdowns. When it comes to Brown and Bryant, the former averaged 8.55 receptions and 101.5 yards receiving in those 11 games with 9 touchdowns while the latter averaged 2.73 receptions and 54.3 receiving yards in those contest. Bryant, however, caught 8 touchdown passes in those 11 games.
Also in those 11 games, the Steelers averaged 29.3 points scored and 414 net-yards of total offense. If that’s not enough to get you excited, the Steelers offense had a red zone efficiency percentage of 62.2 (23-of-37) in those 11 games and that includes the unit going 0-3 in that dreadful 2014 Week 10 road loss to the New York Jets.
In summation, a lot should be expected out of the Steelers Killer B’s and the rest of the offense in 2017 and it all starts Sunday on the road against the Cleveland Browns. For his career, Roethlisberger is 20-2 against the Browns and 10-2 when playing them in Cleveland. In the 12 games that he’s played against the Browns in Cleveland, Roethlisberger has only averaged 219.6 yards passing, but with that said, he’s never faced the Browns with the services of Bell, Brown and Bryant all on the field at the same time with him.
