Week 8 - Monday

'72 Miami (5-1) vs. '76 Pittsburgh (3-3)

The Dolphins travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers, and each team is looking desperate for the win. With a loss, Miami could slip to 2nd place in the AFC East, where 2 other teams have 2 loss records. With a win, Pittsburgh could sit on top of their division.

The weather in Pittsburgh was great but a bit breezy, as the Dolphins lined up to kick to the Steelers. Miami's "No Name Defense" made quick work of Bradshaw, (INT?) giving Miami the ball with great field position. But the Steel Curtain held the Dolphins to a FG. And no sooner than Pittsburgh had the ball again, history would repeat itself as Miami took the ball back again, but settled for 3.

From that point, both teams struggled to move the ball as defenses put the pressure on. Pittsburgh failed to find much footing at all, and Morrall would continue to struggle with his throws and the Steelers held off the usually brutal Dolphins run game.

Luck would change later as Morral hit Twilley on a small toss, who ran all the way for a 76 yard TD to give Miami a 13-0 lead. The Steelers, however, would bounce right back after some great momentum, setting up for an easy Bleiler touchdown. The Steelers would inch even closer on the last seconds of the half, as Gerela nailed a 40 yarrder to put Pittsburgh within 3.

The 2nd half saw Pittsburgh stop Miami early, and Bradshaw put together an excellent drive, with Bleiler running for a TD 6 minutes in to get in the lead, 17-13.From there, Pittsburgh continued to dominate, getting another TD on a Harrison run as the Steel Curtain held off Miami.

Just inside the 2 minute warning, Miami came up huge with a few good passing plays, and Morral found Warfield for 13 yard to get a score.. Unfortunately for Miami, their attempts at both a 2 point conversion and the onside kick failed and Pittsburgh wore out the clock.

The Steelers defeat the Dolphins 24-19, breaking their 5 game win streak. That also leaves the only streaks of more than 2 games in the LFL as losing streaks!

A quick look at the numbers show this game was all about Defense, and despite Miami holding Bradshaw to just 60 yards passing, the Steel Curtain held Csonka and company to just 82 yards.

League Leaders - AFC

With the results of Week 8's final game out of the week, some teams have had their by week but we can still take a look at where stats are in the league to see who's still on top, and who is not.

In the AFC, Larry Csonka and Franco Harris lead yards per carry. Csonka comes in 2nd for total yards to Houston's Arian Foster, whose 691 yards puts him...  Csonka, however, is just 1 of several rushers for Miami that contribute to the Dolphins whopping 1608 running yards - several hundreds yard more than their competition.

Foster has several more carries at 158 than his compatriots in the AFC, with Thomas coming in 2nd at 141. But it's Thomas, whose huge game last week, puts him on top of all-purpose yardage at 861, 250 of that in receiving. Thomas and Foster both tie for leading scorers in the Conference at 60 points each.

Maynard of the Jets just tops Branch's 20.0 at yards per catch with 20.4 in receiving, which is little surprise for those who have seen his incredible deep catches. This also puts him #1 in thte league. In 4th place is his teammate George Sauer, 2 of the big reasons the Jets have been a force to be reckoned with this year. As for receiving yards, it's the Texans again on top with Johnson having 826 yards across 52 receptions. Only the Patriots' Welker has more catches at 56, a league high.

From behind the Center position, Tom Brady leads in almost every QB category except passing TD's, where his 12 scoring throws is 2 less than Morral's 14. Brady's 63.1% completion is just above Fouts and Schaub, who are tied at 61.4%. He holds a QB rating of 93.3, several points higher than Brunell, who comes in 2nd.

For kickers, several are still 100% on PAT's but only Gostkowski is 100% on FG's. But Hollis of the deadly Jaguars team has nailed a 3 pointer a full 18 times.

On Defense, the Chiefs are a nightmare for QB's with 4 players in the top 10 list for INTERCEPTIONS, totaling 22 picks. 13 of those are spread between #1 (J. Robinson) and #2  (E. Thomas). Equally intimidating is the Steel Curtain, for whom 3 members are part of a 7-way tie for sacks with 4 each. Vrabel of the Patriots still leads in sacks with 9 so far. Miami, despite taking away fewer turnovers than the Chiefs, have the best turnover margin at 2.0

It's not just QBs who should be afraid of Pittsburgh, as their rush defense is #1 in the AFC and in the league, holding teams to an average of just 75 yards / game. Miami comes in #2 against the pass, with Denver actually in the #1 spot. But for total yards, the Miami and Pittsburgh defenses have both held teams to an average of 280 yards per game.

On total offense, the Patriot's near 3,000 yards puts them light years ahead of their competition. This is in part to almost 2,000 passing yards, which is a category the Patriots easily lead. They also are 1 of 3 teams averaging over 25 points per game, with Jacksonville and Miami the others. But if you think that's the only place to fear them, because their D, yards or not, has held teams to just 12.5 points on average per game. Tennessee comes in a close 2nd.

League Leaders - NFC

NFC clearly dominates the run game. Not only does Jim Taylor lead the NFC at already over 1,000 yards, his team leads the league in Rushing Off. with 1450 yards.

In the # 2-4 slots for single rushers are individuals who all have more than Foster's 691 yards in the AFC. Barry Sanders is 2nd place with 1,005 yards and leads scoring efforts with his 12 TD's for 72 points. Jim Taylor also leads the NFC, and the league, in yards per carry, due in large part to several of his 20+ yard gains. Barry Sanders again is 2nd with a 5.2 average, and 2nd in carries behind Jamal Anderson. Anderson has taken 229 balls from Chandler's snaps. 

On the receiving side, Atlanta's Mathis and Martin duo are in the #1 and #2 spots for average yards with a vicious 19.5 and 18.6 yards per catch, respectively. Mathis, with several more catches than his teammate at 47, leads the NFC. And if you do the math there, that puts him at 919 yards receiving already as the league leader. 3 NFC receivers, Martin, McGee and Keyshawn Johnson, tie for scoring with 6 TD's, also tying them with Smith's 6 TDs for Jacksonville in the AFC.

Despite Arizona, Atlanta and New Orleans all having over 1,800 yards, Tampa Bay averages 250 per game, just slightly more than the AFC competition.  But for all those yards, 2 QB's are clear winners in the passing categories. Brees leads completion % with 67 and has a 95.3 rating thus far - making him the league leader above Brady. Tom Brady still leads the league with passing yards and TD's, as Carson Palmer tops Brees in these categories with 1863 total yards and 12 TD throws.

With kickers, again many are 100% with PAT's as with the AFC, and also Butler remains the only one who has hit every FG attempt. Anderson for Atlanta has hit 18 FGs total on the scoring side of things.

Finally, a look at D shows Green Bay is to be feared. Four of the top 10 pickers are on GB, with Minnesota's Krause the leader with 8. It's Los Angeles, however, who seems to have found a way to penetrate any O-line, with Youngblood, Brooks and Dyer all in the top 3 spots for sacks, for a total of 28, giving them top spot in the league in this category.

No surprise then that GB leads total D with just under 225 yards/game average, both in NFC and in the league. Not only that, they lead the NFC in pass defense, holding teams to just under 114/game. No doubt the first Super Bowl team is looking to be the first LFL champion. Only in rushing D does Green Bay come in 4th, where 3 teams are ahead, holding teams to just around 80 yards / game. Chicago is in the #1 spot for the NFC and #2 in the league just behind Pittsburgh.

Conclusion

That's all for this halfway point in the season. Next week we'll start looking at some extra analytics ahead of playoff determinations. Specifically, we'll try to figure out who's schedule has been roughest so far and who has the roughest road ahead.

For a look at current standings, see the Google spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K7J2XADFBhYTviP_bKMmwioBf2BSxJY0m5hnCI8K0tc/edit?usp=sharing