Pittsburgh Steelers Week 16 Recap: Heart Attack Ending

For any Steelers fan watching their week 16 defeat of the Detroit Lions 29-24, the last minute of the game was heart wrenching, and the drama was enough to make Black and Gold hearts stop beating. The final minutes of the game did not reflect how well the Steelers played up to that point.

Pittsburgh’s defense was on point all game and Aaron Rodgers and the offense played an excellent game for the third straight week. For Pittsburgh, the offensive highlight of the day was Jaylen Warren who ran through the Detroit defense for a 45-yard touchdown romp not once but twice. It was certainly a career day for the Steelers’ primary back finishing with 143 yards rushing.

The game came down to the final 10 seconds. A rare miss on a field goal attempt by Chris Boswell gave the ball back to Detroit with little time left on the game clock. Had Boswell made the kick it would have forced the Lions to score a touchdown and get a two-point conversion just to tie the game. Instead, Jared Goff drove his offense downfield with only 10 seconds remaining and Detroit with a first and goal.

Then as Aaron Rodgers phrase it following the final gun, it was “chaos.” Goff completed a pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown who was fighting to get into the end zone and as he was being tackled, he pitched the ball back to Goff who ran in for a touchdown. Game over, right? Steelers lose right? WRONG. Before Brown made his reception, he pushed off on the Steelers defender and was immediately flagged for offensive pass interference.

What made the play chaos is the fact that the referees took around five minutes to sort out the ruling. What sent the Lions faithful into a frenzy was that when the announcement was made, the ref first said, “the ruling on the field stands…it is a Detroit touchdown.” Thinking they just won the game, Detroit fans went nuts…for about a second. Right after declaring that, the ref further pointed out because of Brown’s OPI it negated the touchdown and because it was an offensive penalty, he announced that the clock time gets wiped out with the penalty and it’s “game over.”

No matter what, we Steelers fans will take it. Coupled with the Baltimore Ravens loss to New England, Pittsburgh’s next game in Cleveland will clinch the AFC North Division title with a Steelers victory. Baltimore’s only shot at winning the division title is to win their next two and Pittsburgh lose their final two games with the finale coming against those same Ravens.

As many now know, the Pittsburgh/Detroit game was marred by an incident by DK Metcalf. It had nothing to do with the game, but the Steelers stud receiver was caught on camera approaching a Lions fan in his seat and after a short discussion, Metcalf threw a punch at the man. The NFL wasted no time suspending Metcalf for the final two games of the season and rightfully so. Metcalf should have restrained himself from the words the man uttered to him that obviously set Metcalf off.

What was said to Metcalf remains mystery. The man claims he only called DK by his real name which is DeKalin Zecharius Metcalf. Now come on man…if that is really what the man said to DK then he obviously went and looked it up first because no one would have known that unless you did the research. What Metcalf is accusing the man of, and former NFL player and podcaster Chad Johnson is backing him up on is that the man used a racial slur (the “N” word) and called Metcalf’s mother an equally bad word (the “C” word).

If Metcalf’s version is correct then you can’t blame him for losing his cool but still, a pro athlete needs to ignore such idiotic things like this that comes from someone we can easily call a loser for doing such a thing if in fact he did. But the man has reportedly retained a lawyer so Metcalf has bitten off more than he can chew and is paying a heavy price for it.

There are just two games remaining in the 2025 season and as the Baltimore Ravens visit the Green Bay Packers in week 17, a Pack victory secures the AFC North Division title for Pittsburgh. That’s the easy way to win it. With a Baltimore victory, Pittsburgh only needs to defeat the Cleveland Browns on the road to make their way to a third straight playoff appearance. This time however, Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback and not Russell Wilson or Mason Rudolph, both of whom were behind center in the last two postseason losses.

Looking back at the victory over Detroit, the Lions final stats came mostly in the late third quarter and fourth quarter comeback. In the end both teams had 23 first downs but the Steelers finished with 481 total offensive yards where Detroit had a final 361 mark. The penalties were out of control, 15 between the two teams and Pittsburgh had eight of those for 89 yards in losses.

Pittsburgh nearly blew the game on penalties first a defensive pass interference call on Kyle Dugger and then another 15 yards for tripping on Alex Highsmith who for some unknown reason stuck his leg out and tripped a Lion but Highsmith knew immediately he made a bad mistake. Detroit not only had that final touchdown wiped out but another one with 25 seconds left taken off the board on yet another OPI this one on Isaac TeSlaa.

Pittsburgh’s defense was outstanding again. With T.J. Watt still sidelined with his punctured lung recovery, rookie Jack Sawyer stepped in and #33 played hard. Five tackles, three of them solo. One tackle for a loss and two quarterback hits. When drafted I knew this kid was everything Steeler. He is going to be one of the great ones. The defense sacked Jared Goff three times and because of the run defense he had to throw the ball up 54 times completing 34 of them and he did throw for 364 yards.

Detroit managed just 15 yards rushing. Not so for the Steelers. Jaylen Warren not only had those two rushes for 90 yards, but he also ran for an additional 53 yards. Kenneth Gainwell continues to get better each game. On this day 50 yards rushing on just nine carries for a per carry average of 5.6. Arthur Smith’s game plan was excellent. A mix of passing and running worked beautifully. Using tight end Jonnu Smith on two running attempts resulted in an additional 28 yards rushing so the Steelers finished with a total of 230 yards on the ground and a per carry average of 8.5.

Aaron Rodgers had his third straight solid game and passed for 266 yards against Detroit missing on just 14 of 41 passes with a respectable 92.1 quarterback rating. There were no interceptions and he was sacked just twice. Darnell Washington did make one costly fumble, but he continued to develop as a dangerous weapon. Three receptions 36 yards and showed he is a hard man to tackle. Scott Miller came up big with three catches for 19 yards at a time when his receptions were crucial.

Despite his off the field issue DK Metcalf made four catches for 42 yards, and the leading receiver was someone mentioned above, Kenneth Gainwell who had 78 yards on five receptions. He also made an incredible touchdown run when he caught an Aaron Rodgers pass falling to the ground and realizing he was untouched, so he got up and ran to the end zone.

On defense everyone came to play for Pittsburgh. Kyle Dugger was the leading tackler with one of the three sacks. Patrick Queen was on his game again. Alex Highsmith is always a dangerous weapon. Cameron Heyward continues to be an ageless wonder. The list goes on and on. Rookie number one draft pick Derrick Harmon is everything the Steelers had hoped for in improving the rush defense. With Harmon on the field the Steelers defense has yielded 87.9 yards per game to opponents. Without him? 165.6. End of story.

As the season draws to a close the drama surrounding the ensuing playoff run is becoming a clearer picture. The Steelers appear now that they will be a part of that and where they end up could determine Mike Tomlin’s future and if this goes all the way to the Super Bowl everyone will wonder if Aaron Rodgers comes back again or lives up to his word that this is in fact his final season of professional football.