The door is open.
After winning their past four games, the Steelers have climbed out of the basement in the AFC North following a 1-3 start. And, with Thursday night's loss by the Ravens in Miami, a win by the Steelers Sunday against the Lions at Heinz Field would put them back where they finished the 2020 season -- in first place in the AFC North at the midway point of the season.
But to get to 6-3, the Steelers must avoid the trappings that have been pitfalls for a number of NFL teams in recent weeks. Much like the Ravens (6-3) losing to the 3-7 Dolphins, the Steelers have to avoid an upset at the hands of the winless Lions (0-8).
With Detroit coming off its bye week, its coaching staff has had two weeks to prepare for this game, meaning the Steelers can expect almost anything as the Lions try to get a win.
"I understand that they're an 0-8 football team that’s faced a lot of adversity, but this is the National Football League. There are no FCS games, there are no Group of Five games, there are no homecomings," said Mike Tomlin, who became the second-winningest coach in team history with Monday night's win over the Bears, the 150th victory of his career.
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Pat Freiermuth and Najee Harris have accounted for 40 percent of the Steelers offense this season.
"Each and every week, you’re up against it, against paid professionals, guys that I have a lot of respect for and capabilities. Both coaches and players. Couple that with the fact that they're coming off a bye week and there's an element of the unknown associated with that, and we're coming off a short week, it presents some challenges for us that need to have our attention."
To Tomlin's point, the Lions took the Ravens to the limit, only to lose on an NFL-record 66-yard field goal by Justin Tucker. In a Week 6 loss to the Rams, the Lions pulled off a surprise onside kick and ran a pair of fake punts that they converted into first downs. It led to the Rams being forced to rally with 11 points in the fourth quarter to pull out a 28-19 win in a game in which the Lions were double-digit underdogs.
The Steelers have to be prepared for anything. And with Ben Roethlisberger out of this game after testing positive for COVID-19 Saturday, Mason Rudolph will be making his first start of the the season and 10th of his career.
"I think we’re gonna get their best football," Keith Butler said. "They had a chance to win a lot of those games. If you look at the Rams game — the Rams are a good football team — they were close. Real close. About as close as us and the Bears. Too close. I think that’s gonna be the way it is in the National Football League. There are no chumps in this league. We’ve got to play and play well to get this next win because we’re gonna get their best game. No doubt in my mind."
The Steelers know that they haven't exactly been playing well enough to take a win against any team for granted. After all, their five wins this season have all come by an average of five points. And to this point, despite being 5-3, they've been outscored, 169-161.
"We’re not exactly the best team in football right now. We’ve got a winning record, but if you ask most of the guys, I think, in this building would tell you we’ve got a long way to go," Roethlisberger admitted. "I know Coach will pull all his nameless gray faces, all these different things, but honestly, they’re an NFL team that’s gonna come in here and want to beat us. We want to beat them. I don’t look at the records or worry about who they are. They’re trying to get a win. So are we."
That will be a little more difficult without Roethlisberger, who has taken every snap at quarterback this season for the Steelers.
The Lions are in a bit of a rebuild -- one they've been in for seemingly the past couple of decades. First-year head coach Dan Campbell has brought a toughness to the team. But after trading longtime quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Rams for Jared Goff and several draft picks, the Lions signaled a real desire to stop spinning their wheels and try to build a winner.
In that regard, they want to become more like the Steelers. The Steelers haven't had a losing season since 2003. The Lions have had just four winning records in that same period.
And Campbell appreciates what the Steelers do.
"Pressure," Campbell said when asked what he expects out of the Steelers. "I’ll tell you what, nobody has done it like they have for as long as they have in a very similar system. They built a culture and they play relentless defense. They find a way to get turnovers. They have a bully mentality. Look, we’ve got our hands full, but it’s why you play the game. We’re not going out there to just get punched in the face either, but we have to know what we’re getting ready to walk into, which I think we’re all very aware of. But, it’s tough and this team’s built off defense and they run it on offense."
If the Steelers have any questions about what it's like to be on the other side of this, they need only walk across the locker room and talk to linebacker Joe Schobert.
Schobert, acquired via a trade with the Jaguars in the preseason, was a rookie for the Browns in 2016 when they went 1-15. He made the Pro Bowl in 2016 when the Browns went 0-16. And the 2020 Jaguars went 1-15, as well, winning their first game but then losing 15-straight.
Schobert understands the hunger surrounding a team searching for its first win or just a win to break a long losing streak.
"The more the losses stack up, the more you want to win your first game of the season," Schobert said. "Every week, especially coming off a bye, they're going to give it their best shot. You saw it against the Rams, a lot of punt fakes, an onside attempt, pulling out all of the stops. I would expect nothing less, trying to win a football game by any means necessary.
"If you just look at records, 0-8 versus 5-3, the Steelers should win the game. But anybody can win in any given week. Everybody has really good players. Being in the NFL is not like college football. ... You've got to bring it. You don't want to be the first team to lose to a team like the Lions. They're going to be coming for it."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Who: Steelers (5-3) vs. Lions (0-8)
• When: 1:02 p.m., Sunday
• Where: Heinz Field
• Forecast: 36°, 4% rain, 11 mph wind
• TV: WPGH, FOX (National)
• Radio: 102.5 WDVE, ESPN Pittsburgh
• Streaming: Steelers Nation Radio
• Satellite: Sirius XM 230, online 826
• Media notes: Steelers | Lions
THE INJURY REPORT
Steelers: WR Chase Claypool (toe, out); QB Ben Roethlisberger (COVID, out)
Lions: PK Austin Seibert (hip, out), RB Jamaal Williams (thigh, out), LB Austin Bryant (shoulder, questionable), OT Taylor Decker (finger, questionable)
THE KEY VARIABLE
The offense of the Lions isn't all that hard to figure out. Tight end T.J. Hockenson is the team's leading receiver with 48 receptions for 448 yards. Running back D'Andre Swift is second with 47 catches for 415 yards. He also has 289 rushing yards, second to Jamaal Williams, who has 312 yards rushing.
But Hockenson and Swift are the main cogs. Hockenson has been targeted 64 times in the passing game. Swift has drawn 57 targets in addition to his team-high 90 carries.
It does not, however, add up to an offense that is all that explosive. The Lions are averaging just 9.7 yards per reception. Only the Dolphins, who average 9.3 yards per catch, are worse.
But the Steelers are cognizant that the Lions, with a running back and tight end leading the offense in touches, will challenge them, particularly inside linebackers Devin Bush and Schobert.
"That's usually where the game is played for linebackers, the running backs/tight end matchups," Schobert said. "You gotta be on your 'A' game. They're obviously two talented players."
Despite not exactly throwing the ball down the field a lot, the Lions have turned the ball over 11 times, six on interceptions and five on fumbles.
Goff has been responsible for many of those. Goff has thrown six interceptions and lost three of the seven fumbles he's put on the ground.
Goff's seven fumbles are second in the league to the Bears' Justin Fields. The difference is that Goff has been sacked 22 times and has just 13 rushing attempts, meaning his seven fumbles have come on just 35 opportunities to do so. Fields has been sacked 29 times and has 53 rushing attempts.
Meet T.J. Watt, who is second in the NFL this season with three forced fumbles and has 20 since coming to the NFL in 2017, the most over that period. Watt has 11.5 sacks this season in just seven games, putting him a half-sack behind NFL leader Myles Garrett, who has 13 sacks in nine games.
"His get off is as good as anyone in the league I think," Goff said. "Obviously, he’s special physically with what he can do, his speed, his strength. He can play coverage as well. He’s got decent hands for a guy who’s a rusher. So yeah, he’s as good as it gets.”
The Lions will likely get left tackle Taylor Decker back from injured reserve after he missed the first half of the season with a finger injury that required surgery. He's questionable for the game but practiced fully all this week. That means Penei Sewell, the team's top draft pick, will shift over to right tackle after playing the first eight games on the left side.
Sewell struggled at right tackle in the preseason. And this will make the second consecutive week that Watt will face a rookie. He recorded three sacks last week against the Bears and rookie Larry Borom.
The difference is that Borom was a fourth-round draft pick. Sewell was the seventh-overall pick in the draft.
"They’ve got a quality tackle tandem that's going to be challenging for us from an edge pressure perspective with our outside linebackers a big component of play," Tomlin said. "I know they're excited about getting him back."
THE HISTORY LESSON
The Lions have been, well, not competitive on a consistent basis for a number of years. In fact, they are the antithesis of the Steelers in that regard.
In fact, the Lions haven't beaten the Steelers in Pittsburgh since 1955 and have only come close a couple of times. It is one of those occasions at which we will look today.
The Steelers in 1992 were 6-3 heading into a Nov. 15 game against the Lions at Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers also were coming off a hard-fought 28-20 loss to the Bills on the road when the 2-7 Lions rolled into town.
Much like this current Steelers team, the 1992 squad was a group that wanted to run the ball and win with defense. Thus, it played a lot of close games. And this game would be closer than most.
The Steelers jumped out to a 7-0 lead on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Neil O'Donnell to Ernie Mills in the first quarter. They then drove deep into Detroit territory in the second quarter, only to get stopped, forcing a 20-yard field goal from Gary Anderson for a 10-0 lead.
Detroit, however, pulled within three points at the half as Erik Kramer, subbing for injured starter Rodney Peete connected with Willie Green on a 73-yard touchdown to give the visitors some life.
The score stayed at 10-7 through three quarters, before Barry Sanders scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter to give the Lions a 14-10 lead.
With O'Donnell injured, the Steelers went to Bubby Brister at quarterback. But it was their defense that won the game.
With Detroit in possession of the ball, Rod Woodson sacked Kramer and stripped him of the ball. Carnell Lake scooped it up and returned it to the Detroit 3. Brister then tossed a 1-yard touchdown pass to third-string tight end Tim Jorden to put the Steelers ahead for good, 17-14.
The Steelers had a tough day on special teams, as holder/punter Mark Royal bobbled two snaps on field goal attempts, leading to a pair of misses by Anderson.
But the Lions were equally troubled by miscues, as Sanders lost a fumble inside the Pittsburgh 5, while Kramer threw two interceptions and also fumbled.
Kramer threw for 304 yards, while Sanders rushed for 94 yards on 21 attempts as the Lions, who had 376 yards but turned the ball over six times.
O'Donnell threw for 182 yards, while Brister had just 15. But Barry Foster gained 106 yards on 25 carries and caught five passes for another 52 yards in the win as the Steelers improved to 7-3 in a game that probably shouldn't have been as close as it was.
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Pat Freiermuth catches a touchdown pass two weeks ago against the Browns.
THE MAIN MATCHUP
It's not often a rookie makes a huge impact on offense for the Steelers, though it has happened. But to have two rookies being two of the main cogs in the offense -- behind an offensive line that includes two rookies -- is a rarity.
Six of the Steelers' last seven touchdowns have been scored by running back Najee Harris and tight end Pat Freiermuth, the team's top two picks in this year's draft.
The Lions are well aware of the talented young duo.
"Najee is a really good back. He’s a big back," Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. "Once he gets his shoulders turned down hill he’s hard to stop, so we’ve got to make sure we can get that guy going east to west as much as possible, and you see a lot in the red zone. Then, they’ve got a tight end (Freiermuth) that they drafted out of Penn State, he is showing up. He’s shown he’s a good player.
"So, those are some things – are some guys that we’ve got to really try to focus on and not let those guys beat us and force somebody else to try to beat us."
With at least 75 scrimmage yards and a touchdown Harris will become the sixth rookie to accomplish the feat in six consecutive games since 1950. The others are Eric Dickerson (10), Fred Taylor (8), Alvin Kamara, Franco Harris and Gayle Sayers (6).
The Lions have allowed 16 touchdowns (10 rushing, six receiving) to opposing running backs this season -- in eight games. The Lions also allow 134.5 rushing yards per game.
But he's hardly the only rookie threat. Freiermuth leads all rookie tight ends with four touchdown catches, three of which have come in the past two games. In the three games since the Steelers lost JuJu Smith-Schuster for the remainder of the season Oct. 10 against the Broncos, Freiermuth has caught 16 passes for 145 yards and three scores.
With Chase Claypool out for this game with a toe injury, the Steelers might lean even more on Freiermuth as a secondary option to No. 1 receiver Diontae Johnson.
Harris and Freiermuth have combined to account for 40 percent of the Steelers' 2,693 total yards this season, the highest percentage for any two non-quarterback rookies in the NFL this season. And their roles just continue to grow.
"He’s doing a tremendous job," offensive coordinator Matt Canada said of Freiermuth. "You look at what he’s done coming in here as a rookie and the plays he’s making. But the trust and the connection he and Ben have got to so quickly, which takes time. That’s not minimizing, like, oh, it just happened. Both of those guys have worked really hard to get that to happen, so I give them both a lot of credit for that. But yeah, he’s made a lot of plays."
The Steelers will be relying on Rudolph, who threw for 315 yards and two touchdowns in his only start in 2020, to get those rookies the football. But they also have faith in the fourth-year backup.
Because Roethlisberger doesn't typically practice on Wednesdays, Rudolph gets more first-team snaps than the average backup. This week, Roethlisberger also sat out Thursday practices as well because of a shoulder issue.
"We have a lot of faith in Mason," Tomlin said recently.
THE TEN DATA POINTS
• With another 1.5 sacks, Watt will join Reggie White as the only players in NFL history to record at least 13 sacks in four consecutive seasons.
• Seven of Roethlisberger's 10 touchdown passes this season have come in the red zone. Six have come inside the 10.
• The Lions allow 6.2 yards per play. Only the Chiefs and Ravens (6.3) are worse.
• The Lions allow a score on 51.8 percent of the possessions against them, the highest-percentage in the NFL.
• Joe Haden's 153 pass defenses -- four this season -- lead the NFL since 2010 and are the most of any active player in the NFL.
• Roethlisberger enters this game 31 completions behind Philip Rivers (5,277) for fifth place on the NFL's all-time list. He passed Rivers last week for sixth place on the all-time pass attempts list and now has 8,137.
• Roethlisberger has now been sacked 534 times in his career, moving him one past Tom Brady for the most in NFL history. Roethlisberger has been sacked 18 times this season, Brady 12.
• The Steelers are averaging 20.1 points per game, 23rd in the league. The Lions average 16.8 points per game, 29th. Since scoring 33 points in Week 1, the Lions haven't reached 20 points in their past seven games, averaging 15.2 points over that span.
• The Lions allow 30.5 points per game, second-most in the NFL. The Steelers are giving up 21.1 points per game, which is tied with the Seahawks for eighth-fewest.
• Opposing wide receivers are averaging 15.3 yards per catch against the Lions, the highest in the NFL.
THE FANTASY CORNER
My lineup posted 112.50 points last week and once again missed finishing in the money. I'm struggling here. We'll change things up a little this week in hopes of finishing in the money. As I did last year, I'm going to build a fantasy lineup using Draft Kings and a $50,000 salary cap.
Quarterback: Russell Wilson, Seahawks ($6,700) -- Wilson is coming off IR to start this one. Could there be some rust? Perhaps. But I'm going to let Russ cook..
Running back: Dalvin Cook, Vikings ($8,000), Mark Ingram, Saints ($4,500) -- Cook faces the Chargers, who don't even seemingly try to stop the running game. And even if the Vikings get behind, he should catch passes. Ingram steps in for Alvin Kamara, who is out this week.
Wide receiver: Hunter Renfrow, Raiders ($5,100), DK Metcalf, Seahawks, ($6,800), Brandon Aiyuk, 49ers, ($4,700) -- This is part of my new philosophy. I'm not paying big money for wide receivers any more. Renfroe faces the Chiefs and should have a good game out of the slot. Metcalf is undervalued after playing without Wilson for a month. Aiyuk has come on the past couple of weeks. And with Deebo Samuel on the other side of him, he doesn't get a ton of attention.
Tight end: Darren Waller, Broncos ($6,300) -- The other part of my new plan. I'll go for a high-end tight end each week because stars such as Waller are simply way better than trying to guess who will have a big week from the low-end guys.
Flex: Javonte Williams, Broncos ($5,000) -- Williams leads the NFL with 33 missed tackles forced. I loved him coming out in this draft and he's coming off his first 100-yard game.
Defense: Browns ($2,900) -- The Browns should get some pressure on young Mac Jones. And the Patriots are missing their top running backs. First team to 17 wins.
