The Pittsburgh Steelers had to sweat it out until the final whistle. Then they still had to anxiously wait for a few more minutes.
The Steelers stopped the Lions on the final play of the game to hang on for a 29-24 victory on Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit. The Steelers (9-6) won their third straight game and retained sole possession of first place in the AFC North.
The Steelers set an NFL record with their 22 consecutive non-losing seasons. The Dallas Cowboys had 21 in a row from 1965-85.
The Lions appeared to score the winning touchdown on the final play of the game. On fourth-and-goal from the Steelers’ 9, Amon-Ra St. Brown caught a Jared Goff pass at the 2. St. Brown lateraled to Goff as he was being tackled, and the quarterback got into the end zone. However, after a conference by the officials, St. Brown was penalized for pass interference, negating the TD and ending the game.
Jaylen Warren rushed for a career-high 143 on 14 carries for the Steelers and scored two touchdowns on a pair of 45-yard runs. That came after Warren had just 81 rushing yards combined in the previous three games.
Warren’s second score came with 6:41 remaining and extended the Steelers’ lead to 29-17. The Lions (8-7) made it a five-point game on Goff’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Jahmyr Gibbs with 4:11 left, but the Steelers held on after the normally reliable Chris Boswell missed a field goal attempt from 37 yards. It was just his fourth miss in 27 tries this season.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers passed for 267 yards and one touchdown, a 45-yard play on which Kenneth Gainwell made a circus catch. Gainwell was knocked to the ground by linebacker Alex Anzalone, but was still able to make the catch at the 13, then got up and reached the end zone with two seconds left in the second quarter to tie the score at 10-all.
Gainwell had 128 total yards, catching five passes for 78 yards and rushing for 50 yards on nine carries as the Steelers had a season-high 494 yards.
Goff passed for 364 yards and three touchdowns, and Gibbs had 10 receptions for 66 yards. Gibbs entered the game with 1,100 yards rushing but was limited to 2 yards on seven carries.
Kyle Dugger sacked Goff in the end zone in the third quarter for a safety and tied Patrick Queen with a team-high seven tackles. Keeanu Benton had a strip sack, and Cameron Heyward also had a sack.
The Steelers visit the Cleveland Browns (3-12) next Sunday.