Le’Veon Bell on Steelers-Bengals rivalry: ‘They don’t like us and we don’t like them’

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t spend a whole lot of time savoring their back-and-forth, down-to-the-wire, 31-28 victory against the Green Bay Packers Sunday night.

They already have their sights set on their next opponent, AFC North rival Cincinnati.

‘It’s going to be a great game, it’s going to be rough’

And one thing Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell knows he and his teammates will get from the Bengals is a battle from start to finish.

“It’s going to be a tough, hard-hitting game,” Bell told Zig Fracassi and Brad Hopkins on NFL Rewind. “They don’t like us and we don’t like them. It’s going to be a great game, it’s going to be rough.

‘We’ll be prepared, work hard at practice and get ready for that game’

“We obviously know that, so we’ll be prepared, work hard at practice and get ready for that game.”

Bell was a major factor against the Packers as a runner and a receiver. Besides gaining 95 yards on the ground, and averaging 4.8 yards per carry, Bell also caught 12 passes (he was targeted 14 times) for 88 yards.

‘I feel like our team knows all the things I can do differently out of the backfield and when I’m split out’

Much of that was because quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, seeing that the Packers primarily used a Cover Two defense that helped create favorable matchups underneath, frequently checked down to Bell.

“It was obviously in the game plan to give me the ball,” Bell said. “I feel like our team knows all the things I can do differently out of the backfield and when I’m split out. Ben knows that. He likes getting me in different matchups. He exploited that.”

‘We left a lot of points out on the field, we’ll get better’

He sees the Steeler as making improvement, with their top two scoring games the past two weeks (they beat the Tennessee Titans, 40-17, in Week 11).

“Obviously, I still feel like we left some points out on the field in this game,” Bell said. “We left a lot of points out on the field, we’ll get better. I think as long as we continually (do) good (work at) practice, watch the film and understand what we’re doing wrong, this team will be scary.”