Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Articles Archive

Enclosed in this archive is every bit of the action and updates that occurred in October 2003 within the world of fantasy football. You may want to read these articles for research on players in the coming year, or just check to see if we were way off base with our reporting. Whatever the reason, it's all here for your enjoyment.

Fantasy Football Challenge - October 2003 Fantasy Football Articles

Fantasy Football Challenge - October 2003 Articles Archives

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holes in the zone and cover-2. And it kind of puts a little more pressure on Tommy to find us in all that traffic.

"For the coaches, there''s only a handful of plays you can call with those coverages and, after a while, it keeps getting repetitive and repetitive and repetitive. You try to window-dress it or give it a different look, but it''s basically the same play from another formation.

"Teams are picking up on it, they''re sitting back in zones and not giving us a big play, and just telling us to beat ''em."

Not helping matters is the Steelers'' failure to convert third-down opportunities. In their past three games, the Steelers have been successful on just nine of 39 chances on third down, a conversion rate of 23 percent. In their first three games, the Steelers converted 44.6 of their third-down opportunities (21-of-47).

According to Dulac, here''s why:

Of the 39 conversion attempts, 15 have been third-and-8 or longer. What''s more, nine of those have been longer than third-and-10.

"We''ve had too many third-and-longs," offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey said.

Because of that, opposing teams are even more likely to drop more players in coverage, making it difficult to find open receivers.

That''s why they''re hoping Bettis, despite a juggled and ineffective offensive line, can help put the Steelers in more third-and-short situations. Especially against a Rams team that, under former Tampa Bay defensive assistant Lovie Smith, plays a lot of cover-2 defense.

"They tend to play well on first and second down and they get teams in a lot of third-and-10 and above, and that''s when a lot of times you see cover-2," Burress said. "Their defense basically plays off their offense. They have an explosive offense and they can run it up, put 40 points on the board. Why not sit back in cover-2 when you got an offense that is putting up points?"

Ward and Burress have combined for 69 catches -- 12 fewer than Holt and Bruce -- but 53 came in the first four games. In their past outing, also at Heinz Field, the duo combined

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