Because they’re two different kinds of backs. Bilal is way more direct. He sees a hole, he attacks it. Our OL opens hopes for like .05 seconds so sometimes that works better. Bell has a patient style, he waits for the best hole to open and he attacks. Problem here is, there’s no best hole because our OL just doesn’t open them.
Give Bell a decent OL and he’ll start producing for sure.
I think it's mostly because Powell has fewer carries, so the sample size is smaller. Plus, most of his carries are in less run-obvious spots. Powell isn't getting carries on 2nd and goal from the 2 where your YPC is certain to go down. Those are all Bell. And Bell played pretty much every down when Falk was QB since Gase thought the only way we had any chance is if Bell carried us.
It's also not inconceivable that we all overrate Bell. He averaged 4.0 YPC in 2017 and sat out last season. There's a chance that Bell isn't that good anymore, or that Bell is a system running back, and we don't run the right system.
But I really think it's mostly the offensive line. In 2007, Thomas Jones averaged 3.6 yards per carry. We signed Faneca and Woody, and all of a sudden he averaged 4.5 yards per carry.
I don't know how much of the OL issues could be fixed by coaching.
- Beachum was signed as a stopgap, replacement-level OT that was competent but flawed.
- Winters is replacement-level when healthy, but he's usually playing at like 60%, and 60% of Winters is not good
- Harrison was someone we all wanted replaced before the season. He's not good.
- Ryan Kalil was washed LAST season and came out of retirement in camp.
- Tom Compton was a camp depth signing.
- Alex Lewis was acquired in the middle of camp annd is replacement level
- Kelechi Osemele is some combination of washed/injured/unmotivated.
- Chuma Edoga isn't ready.
- Brandon Shell was a mediocre starter coming off a major knee injury.
You can get away with 1-2 of those caliber players starting. We will likely need to start 1-3 of those guys or guys of that caliber next season. You can maybe get away with more if they have time to practice and play together. OL is a position where continuity helps. This is a unit completely devoid of talent and continuity.
When your offensive line is that bad, you're going to be inconsistent offensively. We have a lot of holding penalties because they can't protect otherwise. We can't run because they can't block. We get in bad down-and-distance situations constantly because of the last two things.
Every one of our offensive issues starts with the offensive line. Part of that is coaching. But most of it is talent.