Week 4 in Review:

 

Long-term Stiller.com fans may remember the stat breakout shown below as similar to those begun last season.� The first (3) categories are variants of the traditional �control the tempo� paradigm.� Takeaways can be an equalizer.� YPA is (yards per passing attempt); TOP is (time of possession).�

 

Category	Previous	This week	Year to date	Won this stat but lost the game
Total yards rushing	37-19-1	9-2-1	46-21-2	Cincinnati, Philadelphia
TOP	38-19	5-7	43-26	Pittsburgh Cincinnati Dallas Atlanta Philadelphia Buffalo St. Louis
100 yard rushers	16-7	5-3	21-10	Cincinnati Philadelphia NY Jets
>/= +2 Takeaways	24-2	9-1	33-3	Dallas
YPA	46-10-1	11-0-1	57-10-2

 

Futility Index, per right-most column above:

 

Pittsburgh won TOP, essentially tied rushing but lost badly in YPA and, of course, was negative in takeaways.

 

It was a bad week for the TOP indicator; excluding Dallas, every team winning this battle but losing their Sunday war, lost over takeaways.�

 

Steelers Index:

 

1. Against the Saints, Tommy Maddox was 22/38 with (1) INT and (3) TD.� The week before, against the same defense, Joey Harrington was 22/35 with (0) INT and (1) TD.� Harrington is a rookie and Maddox has been around a bit, then again, the Saints game was Harrington�s 2^nd start; Maddox made his 5^th last week.� Through (1) game, Maddox had results similar to those of a high 1^st round QB.� If, and this is a big if, Maddox can continue at that level then the Steelers may be able to address their D-side issues, whether by draft or FA.�

 

2. The Lions protected their QB against the Saints but the Steelers did not.� NO LB Darrin Smith had (3) of the Saints (4) sacks.� In (8) previous seasons including (115) starts, Smith had just (23) sacks.

 

3. Evidently, the Bus has some miles to go and, evidently, Amoz is up off his deathbed.� Bettis had 4.4 yards per carry and Amoz 14.88 yards per touch.�

 

4. How badly has the defense performed?� Well, after their toasting in New Orleans, that side actually rose in the league-wide standings for every statistical category except YPA against.

 

5. Through (4) games, opposing QB have gotten (161) passes away.� Steeler DB have come down with (1) INT, that being Scott�s pick of the half-ending Hail Mary Couch threw up at Heinz.� �

 

6. Currently, the Steelers are in a 5-way tie for the 6^th pick overall next spring.� The good news is that they could have their pick of any DB in the draft; the bad news is that, at the moment, no DB projects as Top Ten worthy.� The worse news is that Miami DT William Joseph will certainly be gone by #6.

 

7. Aaron Brooks got (24) passes off; the Steelers defended (4) and percentage-wise, that is well above their season average.� Farrior, Flowers, Gildon and Poteat had (1) each; that is a season first for each player.� Brent Alexander actually defended a pass too, though he won�t get credit.� Alex broke crisply on a deep seam route, went up hard and delivered a blow that separated Hank Poteat from what otherwise would have been that player�s 1^st career interception.�

 

8. Credit where credit is due:� Jason Gildon had (1) Pro Bowl series last weekend when on successive plays he defended a pass against Joe Horn, had a solo stop after a short completion to that WR and then blew by RT Spencer Folau for a sack.� Both the sack and the PD were Gildon�s first on the season; Gildon was silent for the rest of the game, of his (3) solo stops, (2) came during this series.

 

9. Fair�s fair:� Joey Porter came unblocked late to record his 4^th sack of the season.� Presuming this is a dong-drop then that is his 2^nd this campaign.�

 

10. The Steelers are (-9) in takeaways; previously, they had shared the league-lead with the Vikes and Lions at (-7).� Both of those teams were idle last weekend and, presumably, the Steelers are now at the top of that heap.� (-9) through (4) games is (-2.25) on average; teams that went (-2) in a given game are 2-24 this season. �

 

11. �The Steelers may not be last in turnover ratio; after all, the Rams are in the league.� However, the Steelers are definitely #32 in KO returns against.� Aside from the fact that Petersen drives the ball like a woman slapping a Titleist with a teaspoon, Pittsburgh fields the slowest coverage guys in football.� Generally, �ARE and Mays were met inside the 20 last weekend; generally, Saint Michael Lewis was untouched until, say, the 30.�

 

Next week:

 

Against the Colts, Corey Dillon was 23/164 to give the Bengals a slight TOP advantage.� Kitna was 31/43 for 244 and (1) TD; the Bengals threw often but with little effect achieving just 5.39 YPA.� However, they did protect their QB yielding just (1) sack.� The vital stat was Kitna�s (3) INT; to win, the Steelers will need their DB to gain a similar harvest. ����