What they did fell short of historic by any definition of the word. But given the quality of the opponent and their particular circumstances on Sunday at Ford Field, it bordered on heroic in what ended in a 29-24 victory.
A little more than 4 months ago now during the dog days of another training camp at Saint Vincent College, Coach Mike Tomlin uttered the word "historic" while talking about his defense in an interview with the DVE Morning Show that has been misinterpreted ever since as a prediction when it really was a challenge to the group of players the Steelers had assembled and paid handsomely on that side of the ball during a very busy offseason.
Then the regular season began, and "historic" became an epithet thrown in their faces as the run defense sprouted leaks, the pressure packages were neutered, and the takeaways dried up.
And so it was that the Steelers took their 8-6 record and 2-game winning streak to Detroit for a tussle with a pride of Lions who also carried an 8-6 record. But a dive into the statistics created a strong sense that the matchup was not going to result in a positive outcome for the Steelers.
To refer to the Lions offense as a juggernaut is not hyperbole. Even back in 2024, the unit finished the season ranked in the top 5 in the NFL in third-down efficiency, first downs, passing yards, and total yards, plus it was No. 1 in scoring. In 2025, their offense ranked in the top 5 in the NFL in 7 offensive categories, plus it was No. 1 in scoring again.
Their 2-headed running game had produced 1,700 yards on a 5.2 average and 21 rushing touchdown; their top 2 receivers had combined for 2,100 yards and 18 touchdowns; and all of it was being engineered by a quarterback completing 70 percent for 29 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions.
The Steelers' reality was they were going to be without T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig, who were 2 of their top 3 players at the most critical position on their defense, and James Pierre, who for the last month had been the starting cornerback opposite Joey Porter Jr. and doing a good job at it. Adding a last heaping helping of drama to the start of the game was Cam Heyward blurting out "defer" instead of "receive" after winning the coin toss, which meant that juggernaut of an offense got to take the field first.
But an 8-yard sack by Keeanu Benton on second-and-3 ruined any potential for the Lions to establish a rhythm, and the Steelers defense came away with a 3-and-out. And then 112 seconds into the first quarter the Steelers offense took the field, and the situation was exactly what Coach Mike Tomlin had been talking about a couple of days before the Monday night game vs. the Dolphins.
"It's the defense's responsibility, it's also the offense's responsibility, if you want to wage the war of attrition," Tomlin said at the time. "And really, oftentimes rushing and rush defense have a lot to do with that. Certainly we haven't run the ball recently as well as we'd like, and we certainly hadn't stopped the run as well as we'd like … but they're all interrelated. They're not isolated … It's a component of our profile that we've got to get rectified as we continue to do what's required to win and push into this tournament."
And the offense responded, not that it was perfect or necessarily explosive. Jaylen Warren ripped off an 11-yard run for one first down, and Aaron Rodgers converted a third-and-5 via an 18-yard hookup with Darnell Washington. Aidan Hutchinson gummed things up by recording his 39th sack in his 54th career game, but Chris Boswell came to the rescue with a 59-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.
It wasn't a knockout blow by any means, but in this heavyweight fight the challenger had opened with a stinging jab. The Lions countered by going 62 yards in 9 plays for a first-and-goal at the Steelers 4-yard line. Jack Sawyer, starting in place of Watt, dumped Jahmyr Gibbs for a 3-yard loss, and then Porter was in tight coverage on the incomplete pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown when Coach Dan Campbell predictably went for it on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line.
Keeping the Lions out of the end zone at that point meant they had 0 points to show for their first two possessions, and it also revealed a tentpole of the Steelers defensive plan for the day. Even though the Lions had gone 62 yards in 9 plays, they had been unable to run the ball, with 17 yards on 1 carry and what added up to nothing on the other three. And those two receivers with the 2,100 yards and 18 touchdowns on their resumes had 2 catches for 10 yards combined. Make somebody else beat you some other way.
The first half ended in a 10-10 tie, but the Steelers would receive the second half kickoff, thanks to Heyward.
Before the Steelers began this modest winning streak, the third quarter had been a black hole. In 2 straight losses, at Chicago and then vs. Buffalo, in Weeks 12-13, the Steelers had been outscored, 20-0, and managed only 3 first downs in 30 minutes of game time. On that Monday night vs. Miami, their offense drove 71 yards in 6 plays and then 72 yards in 10 plays for touchdowns both times, and then in Detroit it was less productive from a points perspective but more dominant in every other way.
The Steelers ran 25 plays to 3 for the Lions; they had 7 first downs to none for the Lions; and they possessed the ball for 14:09 to :51 for the Lions. But they only scored 2 points, and that came on a safety when Kyle Dugger sacked Jared Goff in the end zone.
Throughout the game, the Steelers dominated the run-the-ball/stop-the-run dynamic, with the numbers showing that Warren and Gainwell rushed for 193 yards, combined for 279 from scrimmage, and scored 3 touchdowns, to 16, 72, and 1 for Gibbs and David Montgomery.
Fueled by a desperation born of staring at being eliminated from the playoffs in mid-December of a season they began as a favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, the Lions climbed back and gave themselves a chance to pull out the win because they are much closer to being a Super Bowl team than they are on a level of the kind that are eliminated from the playoffs before Christmas.
The Lions drove 74 yards in 10 plays, then 68 yards in 10 plays and scored touchdowns both times to make it 29-24. The Steelers had an opportunity to restore the lead to 8, but a snap that was low and inside the strike zone was part of a 37-yard field goal attempt that doinked off the right upright with 2:05 left in the fourth quarter.
This was it. The defense either makes the big play in the critical moment and the Steelers walk off as winners of a game against a Super Bowl contender on their home turf, or it's woulda-coulda-shoulda and a blown opportunity to clinch the AFC North with a win in Cleveland on Sunday provided the Ravens lose in Green Bay on Saturday.
Remember back on Christmas Day in 2016 against the Ravens when Antonio Brown made a supreme effort to get the ball across the goal line in the final seconds for a critical win on the way to a division title? Well, Dec. 21 has a chance to be put on a similar kind of pedestal, because on fourth-and-goal from the 9-yard line with 8 seconds left Joey Porter Jr. made a supreme effort to prevent the ball from crossing the goal line with a perfectly timed hit for a critical win in a season heading in the same direction as that one.
"It's been playoff-type football for us the last three weeks," said Aaron Rodgers. "We had to win to take the lead in the division, we had to win to shut down a team that had won four in a row and end their playoff hopes, and we had to win against a team with a lot of pride that played in an NFC Championship Game in the last couple years. So it says a lot about the guys we got, says a lot about the leadership, the organization, and the players."
Next stop: Cleveland.
