Melvin Gordon is having a career year. He is as decisive and determined as ever. It shows in his play and the Chargers will certainly miss him against the Steelers. Los Angeles will not be without talent in the backfield, however.

America might not be fully aware, but Austin Ekeler has shown all year that he is the real deal. Pro Football Focus has him as the highest-graded running back in the NFL, he just hasn’t played enough snaps to qualify:

Ekeler ranks tied for second in forced missed tackles per touch (0.25) and second in yards after contact per touch (4.01) among the 44 NFL running backs with 100-plus touches on the year. He also leads the group of backs in yards per touch (7.48) and ranks tied for third in percentage of touches resulting in a first down or touchdown (34.3%).

PFF also had a stat from the Titans game, which Gordon missed, that said Ekeler was contacted at or behind the line of scrimmage on five of his 12 carries. Game planning was a bit of an issue, too, simply because they didn’t have a chance to do much of it.

Gordon was a late scratch and instead of feeding Ekeler like they would have Gordon, they used him sparingly. I believe we will see a different story Sunday night in Pittsburgh. The Steelers are the 10th best defense in DVOA to running backs.