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PITTSBURGH -- The play lasted 14 seconds, which turned out to be plenty of time to illustrate where the Pittsburgh Steelers offense is right now. Le'Veon Bell is getting the ball, and the Steelers are setting a block and getting out of his way. "He's on fire," fullback Roosevelt Nix said about the man who has 573 total yards and 111 touches in the Steelers' past three wins. Sunday's 29-14 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals was the Steelers' most complete game of the season, and this was the most complete play. It's emblematic of the serious run this team can make. Teamwork, explosive athleticism, physicality, blocking. The play had all of that. The quarterback: With 5:58 left in the second quarter, Ben Roethlisberger prepared to take the snap with Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant out wide and two tight ends inside, Jesse James and Vance McDonald. The Steelers and Bengals were tied at 14. Bell was the dump-off option. "I believe it's the one we had two guys out, kind of deep down the field, they got deep; Le'Veon is right in my vision, right where he's supposed to be," Roethlisberger said. "Get him the ball, let him do the rest of the work." Not that Roethlisberger had much time to savor what was to come. He was busy checking the clock and "making sure guys are OK" across the lineup. But he caught a glimpse. "You just see him keep running, it's just fun to watch him work," Roethlisberger said. The first move: Bell got the ball and saw a linebacker lurking. That linebacker was Vincent Rey, who would meet Bell later in the play. Bell juked to the right and heard a voice as he made his way upfield. "I heard him say, 'Oh my goodness,'" Bell said. "So I said, 'Oh, he missed.' After that, I hit a seam and broke a tackle. Then I tried to get what I could after that." The mentality: Bell knows playing the Bengals requires a level of self-preservation. Vontaze Burfict & Co. are always lurking. Bell suffered a season-ending knee injury on this same field two years ago at the hands of Burfict. So he decided he would match physicality with his own. "That is part of the protection -- obviously, you just run it hard," Bell said. This is where the casual fan gets it twisted, said Nix, who knows that Bell, at his core, is a punishing runner. "People think just because he's really patient that he won’t bring some power with him," Nix said. "He puts them on tape, as well." The throwdown: Burfict was seen diving at Bell's legs after Rey whiffed, but Bell was long gone. The main event was cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, who started to lose his balance as Bell lodged his palm into his chinstrap at midfield. Bell threw Kirkpatrick so hard onto the Heinz Field grass that he bounced right back up, as if Bell was fast-breaking on the blacktop. "That was one of my better stiff-arms of my life," Bell said later. "I don't know what happened or what came over me that play." The blocks: When in doubt, block for Bell. That's usually a good game plan now. Brown gave a nice chip to take safety Shawn Williams out of the play, and Bryant, whose blocking has improved of late, drove cornerback William Jackson downfield. "I thought the wideout perimeter blocking was excellent," head coach Mike Tomlin said. "It's an 11-man job to run the football for us." The knockout: Bell said he's been utilizing boxing training when away from the Steelers training facility. That helps explain his re-acquaintance with Rey, who got shoved out of bounds as he was trying to take Bell down. Bell eventually made his way to the sideline, where guard Ramon Foster nearly toppled him out of excitement. Tomlin played it cooler, as if to illustrate his lack of shock. "That is what we've come to expect from him," Tomlin said.
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