Some Very Quick Steelers-Lions Thoughts

That, in a nutshell, was the kind of win that goes a long way towards winning over skeptics - like me - to your side. The Steelers went into a hostile environment against the league’s top scoring offense as 7-point underdogs, and walked out with a 29-24 win.

They played a team known for its physicality and relentlessness, even when banged-up, and were the more physical team by far. They harassed Jared Goff consistently for three-and-a-half quarters despite not having T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig.

The offense actually brought the goods, piling up 481 total yards, including a whopping 230 on the ground. Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell touched the ball a combined 30 times for 271 total yards and all three Steelers touchdowns.

Gainwell made a catch that, without exaggeration, will go down as one of the great plays in Steelers history, and was an incredibly pivotal four-point swing at the end of the first half. If somehow you still have not seen it, feast your eyes on this beauty:

Funny thing is, as gaudy as those numbers were and as crazy as that play was, particularly in light of how starved this team and its fan base have been for consistent offense, the story of this game was actually on the other side of the ball.

It was a Mike Tomlin masterclass. At least, it was until about 10 minutes were left in the game, but we can cover that another time. Jared Goff finished with big numbers, yes - 364 yards passing and 3 touchdowns - but the Lions’ vaunted running game, the thing that is the engine of their offense, never got going.

Detroit rushed for 15 yards on 12 carries. Take away a 17-yard burst by David Montgomery and they were net negative for the game. Making Jahmyr Gibbs an afterthought allowed the Steelers to tee off on Goff and make him earn every drive, and even then, he only really got going when Tomlin and Teryl Austin deployed the time-honored prevent defense, which seems more a method to ensure that most games come down to the final possession than anything else.

This win, coupled with a Baltimore loss to New England Sunday night, puts the Steelers firmly in control of their own destiny. They can clinch the AFC North without lifting a finger if the Ravens lose Saturday against Green Bay, but even if Baltimore wins, a Steelers victory in Cleveland would sew things up.

These last three games have been eye-opening, to say the least. A win on the road in Baltimore, a throttling of the Dolphins, and then, for almost all 60 minutes, a bullying of a desperate team that is probably the best they’ve faced since the Bills.

Tomlin might just have something going here, mere weeks after many (myself included) threw dirt on his Steelers coaching career for the umpteenth time in recent years.

I’ll have more to say, but for now, call this what it was: A terrific, unexpected win, one that might well reshape the narrative surrounding this team.