PITTSBURGH -- Two weeks ago, Steelers players looked at coach Bill Cowher with disbelief. He relayed perhaps the weirdest stats they had heard in the NFL.

	The Steelers like Tommy Maddox as starter because he keeps them from getting in early holes caused by mistakes.

In the first four games, the Steelers didn't run a single offensive play with the lead. Not one offensive play. During the team's disappointing 1-3 start, the Steelers had the lead for only 2:54 of more than 240 minutes of football. For a front-running squad such as the Steelers, that's like Popeye facing Brutus in the midst of a spinach fast.

"It really didn't hit me until coach Cowher said that,'' Pro Bowl left guard Alan Faneca said. "I knew we weren't doing things right, but that explained it. When we are behind, it puts pressure on our offensive plays. It affects our defensive play-calling. I know last year when we didn't do good it was times when we weren't on top.''

ABC flashed an incredible statistic during Monday night's 28-10 Steelers demolishing of the Indianapolis Colts at Heinz Field. The Steelers are 70-1 in games in which they get a 10-point lead, the greatest front-running stat in the history of coaching. That's better than Lombardi, better than John Madden, better than Curley Lambeau. And now that the Steelers moved into a new stadium named for a Pittsburgh-based company that makes condiments, the formula for success is simple -- you can't catch up against the Steelers.

That's one of the reasons Cowher switched from Kordell Stewart to Tommy Maddox two weeks ago. Stewart had thrown 15 interceptions in the past seven games, and four of those games were losses. In Stewart's first four games, he didn't get the lead, and the Steelers lost three. Enter Maddox, who learned to read defenses quickly in the Arena League and makes fewer mental blunders.

Maddox led the Steelers to a 34-7 rout of the Bengals last week, and came out on fire Monday night against the Colts. Maddox drove the Steelers for three touchdowns in his first three possessions and had a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter. He completed 10 of his first 13 passes for 111 yards. He was in a zone throwing the ball to Plaxico Burress. Jerome Bettis scored two touchdowns. And Hines Ward caught a perfectly-thrown 17-yard pass from Maddox.

"Having the lead lets us use all the weapons we have,'' Bettis said. "When you are down, you don't have the opportunity to use the running game. We have some pretty good weapons in the running game. When we are behind, it limits us when we don't run the football.''

What was strange Monday night was the Colts let the Steelers play their game. Burress and Ward drew more single coverage, and Maddox picked the Colts secondary apart. Burress had five of his six catches in the first half, when the Colts seemed unable to slow them.

"It surprised us a little bit because they play a lot of 'Cover Two' with the middle linebacker running down the middle of the field,'' Burress said. "It seems like every play that we called, they were in the right defense. When we ran the ball, we were gashing them for big plays.''

Cowher's formula for success has been simple. Play good defense. Get the lead. Run the football. Force turnovers with an aggressive defense while teams try to come back.

"There is an energy that you play to when this stadium gets going,'' Cowher said. "I think that when we do that and are able to get the fans into the game -- it is proven over time that when we do that, we win a lot of those football games.''

Part of the reason for the Steelers' early failure was their opponents They played the Patriots and Raiders, who were the two best teams in September. Their other loss was to the Saints, currently the best team in the NFC.

Monday's victory gave the Steelers a 3-3 record, tying them for the AFC North lead with the Ravens. The Steelers schedule should be a breeze from here. They don't play a team with a winning record until their Dec. 23 visit to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"We are grinding to get ourselves out of a hole,'' Bettis said. "We haven't turned the corner yet. We're at the stoplight. We're trying to turn the corner. We are still stopped at the light. We just have our blinkers on.''

Two concerns did emerge during the second half. Bettis and center Jeff Hartings went down with left knee sprains. Of the two, Hartings appears to be the worst, but Cowher has not idea how long they will be out. Bettis called his injury a sprained medial-collateral knee injury.

"I think Jerome may be a little better than Jeff in the early stages, but I have no idea about the extended period,'' Cowher said.

For teams to beat Pittsburgh, they need to copy what the Patriots and Raiders did. It's strange to think that the Colts didn't. Instead of spreading the field with receivers and having Peyton Manning call no-huddle plays, the Colts stayed in mostly regular two-back formations and ran a balanced attack.

"You would think with a quarterback like Peyton, that they would spread us out,'' safety Lee Flowers said. "I wished they would have spread the field. We practiced it again this week. The Bengals didn't use it last week either. We are ready for the spread. Instead, they tried to pound the ball.''

While the Steelers have had back-to-back solid performances, the Colts are in an offensive funk. Edgerrin James rushed for only 62 yards on 20 carries. Manning threw the ball 48 times but 11 of the passes went to James. He killed three drives with interceptions.

"Brent Alexander (a safety) and I disguised a lot of coverages,'' Flowers said. "Every time Peyton would make a check, we made a check. Every time we made a check, he could hear us. Some of the time he was flustered. On all of the interceptions, he shouldn't have thrown the ball. He kept trying to force the ball to Marvin Harrison in double coverage. And I don't think Edgerrin James is running too well.''

The Colts dropped to 4-2, but still hold a one-game lead in the AFC South, the other weak division in the conference. After the game, coach Tony Dungy sounded concerned.

"Fundamentally, we just didn't play well enough to compete,'' Dungy said. "I thought we played hard, but from special teams, penalties and in the trenches, we just didn't play well fundamentally. You can't do that against a team that has as many good players as these guys.''

The biggest mistake appeared on the scoreboard. They gave the Steelers the lead. Give the Steelers a 10-point lead, and the game is over. Call them the NFL's ultimate front-runners.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.