Steelers offense not in sync

think a lot of people had higher expectations. We’re lucky we got the win, but we have a lot of work to do.”

The good news for them is they do have the talent, that Bell eventually will get in step with the rest of his offense and again play like the best halfback in the league. That Bryant will again become the bigplay receiver who can draw the double or triple coverage away from Brown, who was dynamic again to start his eighthseason.

“A.B. bailed us out making those plays,” DeCastro said. “He made it look easy but those are tough plays. You cannot always count on that. When we’re on the same page, we’ll be a lot better, coaches and players.”

Blame the offense’s ragged performance on Bell missing all of the preseason and playing after just one week of practice. Or on Bryant missing all last season to a suspension and not being cleared to practice this summer by the NFL until Aug. 9.

You also can blame all the penalties, where coach Mike Tomlin preferred to lay the blame for the Steelers poor running game.

He said beforehand that Bell’s preseason absence would have its consequences somewhere but refused to say Sunday in Cleveland was it.

“You can write whatever story you want to write about — him missing preseason and all of that,” Tomlin instructed reporters in the aftermath.

“The bottom line is that we got highly penalized, and it put us behind the chains and minimized the running game. Write that because that’s what happened.”

It all could just have been a case of opening-day jitters on the road, too, as some have noted.

But that did not stop them in the opener last year at the Washington Redskins. They scored 38 points and held a decent Redskins team that would finished with seven more victories than the Browns to 16 points.

And they did not play that day with Bell or Bryant.

Now they have both, although not obviously in peak form judging by their play in Cleveland. The offense must play better against the Minnesota Vikings in their home opener Sunday at Heinz Field than it did in the season opener .

“We play 16 games, 15 left,” DeCastro noted. “Adjust and move on. Don’t panic.”

Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.