The Steelers’ season ended when the Patriots crushed them 36-17 in the AFC title game. Despite the score, Le’Veon Bell said Friday that he alone would’ve been enough to make up the difference.

Appearing on ESPN, Bell told “First Take” that the Steelers would’ve beaten the Patriots if he had played the entire game (he left early with a groin injury). His reasoning? The Steelers’ running game would’ve kept the Patriots off the field, and it would’ve set up their aerial assault:

“I think we beat them. I think the first time we played them in the beginning of the year, we kind of gave that game away. We were playing with our backup quarterback. We didn’t even have Ben [Roethlisberger]. I think when we played them in the AFC Championship Game, when I was out there, I wasn’t feeling well at all. “But the fact that I was out there, their game plan was so different, just because I was out there. I think if I go out there healthy and we go out there and do what we normally do, the way that we’d been doing it the whole season, especially in the playoffs -- like running the ball, opening play-action, leaving [Antonio Brown] 1-on-1, leaving Sammie [Coates] 1-on-1, Jesse James, all the receivers, our O-line blocking the way that they do, I think the outcome is really different. “We’ll get back to that next year, but I think we win that game.”

Bell isn’t necessarily wrong. After all, he racked up 337 rushing yards in the Steelers’ first two playoff games after averaging 157 yards from scrimmage in the regular season. Without Bell on the field for most of the game, the Patriots were able to zero in on stopping Antonio Brown, holding him to 77 yards. That task would’ve been more difficult if Bell had been running the way he did in the Steelers’ two playoff wins. But that, of course, doesn’t mean the Patriots wouldn’t have found a way to beat the Steelers considering they’re the Patriots, a team that overcame a 25-point deficit against the Falcons in the Super Bowl.

The good news for the Steelers is that they’re likely to get another crack at the Patriots in 2017. By franchise-tagging Bell (they’re reportedly working on a new long-term deal), signing Brown to a monster extension, and bringing back James Harrison, the Steelers should remain one of the favorites in the AFC.

The other favorite? The Patriots, of course. So, Bell might get his chance to back up his assertion.