Baltimore Ravens: What is the Impact of the Le’Veon Bell Injury?

After Le’Veon Bell suffered a knee injury in last week’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the MRI scans came out that he has no ligament damage. However, he has hyper-extended his knee, and his status for the Wild Card matchup with the Baltimore Ravens is up in the air.

For discussion purposes, let’s just say that Bell is to miss this game. Or even if he does participate, let’s just say that he were to not have a significant impact. This would obviously be a huge break for Baltimore, being that Bell has been arguably the best all-purpose running back in the NFL this season.

He finished second in the league in total rushing yards with 1,361 and also caught 83 passes for 843 yards through the air. Those would be impressive numbers for a wide receiver, so considering a running back did it, it makes it even more commendable.

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Needless to say, the Steelers would be suffering a big loss if he were to miss Saturday’s game. However, I don’t think it will hold them back from snatching a victory. Baltimore holds the fourth-best rushing defense in the league, so that defensive element has never been the greater problem for the Ravens.

The bigger issue is the secondary.

Baltimore’s passing defense ranks 24th in the league, and that number is very misleading. They faced two third-string quarterbacks over the last two weeks, and that helped their rank enormously. Heading into Week 16, the Ravens held the 30th-ranked passing defense in the NFL, which says more about them than the 24th ranking.

Going up against Ben Roethlisberger, who is having a career year in his 11th season, will be the main task on the Ravens’ hands. Now, I am not saying that Bell is not an important key to a Steelers victory. All I’m saying is this: If Bell doesn’t play, it does not change that much for the Ravens.

However, it would certainly help to some extent, because you never want to face a guy as explosive as Bell in the first round of the playoffs. We will just have to wait and see what the final ruling on Bell’s status for Saturday’s game is.