Break glass. Press panic button.Just a month ago, that’s what football fans all over Western Pennsylvania were doing.Even I wrote a column calling them “average.”The Steelers were 2-2. The line was leaky and the defense appeared old and slow.Now, four weeks and four wins later, Pittsburgh is 6-2 for the third consecutive season and looking like the best team in the AFC.The change in perception is a microcosm of the NFL, and sports in general, these days.Teams are never as good or as bad as pundits think they are.People are so eager to bury — or laud — a team after one week and one win or loss, that they lose sight of the bigger picture.It’s a long season, folks.It’s like the weather in Western Pennsylvania. Don’t like it, just wait a few minutes — it’ll change.History has shown us that nothing can really be gleaned with just 50 percent of the polls reporting.The Steelers are 6-2 now, but that is no indication of where they will end up.They could be 14-2 for all we know. They could be 6-10, too.While either scenario is unlikely, it is possible.Look at last year’s Super Bowl winner, the Green Bay Packers.At the halfway point, the Cheese Heads were crying bloody gouda as the Pack was struggling at 5-3 and had suffered a slew of injuries.Green Bay, if you recall, barely made the playoffs, needing the Detroit Lions to beat Tampa Bay on the road in December to give them the playoff edge.The rest is history (and bad, bad memories for Steeler fans).Already this season, too much has been made of poor starts.The Kansas City Chiefs started out 0-3 and looked bad doing it. They had about as much chance to survive as a Kardashian marriage.Now, they are 4-3, looking good and the hip pick to win the AFC West.ESPN’s Power Rankings are a good barometer of these overreactions.The Steelers are third in the Week 9 Power Rankings. Four weeks ago, they were 13th. When the season started, they were fifth. So, in nine weeks they moved up two spots — about right.They took a zig-zag route to get there, though, based on panic.The Buffalo Bills were 31st in the rankings before the season started; The Colts were 8th.No one knew Ryan Fitzpatrick was going to turn into the “Amish Rifle” and no one knew Peyton Manning’s neck was that important to football in Indiana.Still, even though I am a Bills fan, I don’t think they are the seventh-best team in the NFL right now, as the Power Rankings say they are.But, alas, such is life in the NFL these days where panic is the name of the game.Should the Bills lose to the Jets, well ...

break glass. Press panic button.Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.