Post-Detroit thoughts

This was the kind of win we've been waiting  for out of these Steelers in 2013. Backs against the wall - as it has been the past month-and-a-half, working against a team that looked superior on paper, the Steelers came out and dominated the second half.

Did I write dominated? Yep.

Even if Jim Schwartz doesn't inexplicably try a fake field goal and fail, the Lions were having issues stopping the Steelers from driving the length of the field. The Steelers went through a little bit of a lull at times. But so did the Lions early in the third quarter.

And when they did drive to the Pittsburgh 10, Schwartz knew he couldn't settle for a field goal. He saw that his defense was having issues stopping the Steelers and that Matthew Stafford was starting to see more pressure thanks mostly to Jason Worilds.

Worilds had four QB hits and a sack subbing on the left side for LaMarr Woodley.

Jarvis Jones had a couple of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage in the second half as well.

It all added up to a second half in which Stafford, who was 16 of 30 for 327 and two touchdowns in the first half, most of which came in an impressive second quarter, saw those numbers change considerably in the second half.

Stafford was just 3 of 16 for 35 and one interception after the intermission.

The Steelers defensive backs insist they didn't change anything in the second half, they only did a better job of disguising what they were doing pre-snap.

Ike Taylor was still matched up on Calvin Johnson for the most part, but didn't allow a single reception.

There was one little nugget from Ryan Clark, however, on how things changed. According to Clark, the Lions dipped into their playbook to try to run some of the same plays in the second half that had worked in the first half.

You know what they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

@ Ben Roethlisberger threw four touchdown passes in this one, but could have had six or seven. In fact, he probably should have had that many.

Le'Veon Bell, Heath Miller and Antonio Brown had drops in the end zone - though the Steelers did score their go-ahead TD after Brown's drop.

Roethlisberger also overthrew a wide open David Paulson in the back of the end zone before the Steelers kicked another field goal.

The Steelers scored 37 points, yet still only rushed for 40 yards. They also left another 12 points on the field with the dropped passes and overthrow.

@ Only five teams in the AFC currently have winning records.

The Steelers, at 4-6, are currently one game out of the sixth and final wildcard spot and play many of the teams they are tied with or chasing down the stretch.

And when you look at the race for that final spot, the Steelers might be playing the best football right now, having  won four of six.

The others? The 5-5 Jets and Dolphins, and 4-6 Browns, Ravens and Chargers.

One of those six teams is going to be in the playoffs. The bet here is that it's the Steelers, who have home games remaining against Cleveland, Miami and Cincinnati, and road games at Baltimore, Green Bay and Cleveland this week.

Wins in five of those games will all-but guarantee a playoff spot. Wins in four of them, with the right combination, could also get the Steelers in at 8-8.

They already hold a tiebreaker over the Jets, who can't win two games in a row, and one win over Baltimore.

And it says here that if the Steelers find a way to get in, they'll be a dangerous out. To get to 9-7, they would have had to have strung together a 9-3 finish after their 0-4 start.

In fact, I'll got out on a limb and predict that the two wildcards this season will win in the first round of the AFC playoffs over Indianapolis and Cincinnati, both of which are likely to win their divisions.

The only way that changes is if the Steelers somehow overcome the Bengals to win the division, which is also a possibility. The Bengals are winning some games right now in spite of themselves. Andy Dalton has really taken a step backward as a quarterback.

Roethlisberger is starting to heat up and I liked offensive coordinator Todd Haley's decision to allow the team to use the hurry-up today as its main offensive package.

I also liked how the Steelers kept trying to score once they got the ball back with just over three minutes to play up 30-27.

The safe thing to do would have been to try to run the ball three times, force Detroit to use up its timeouts, and kick a field goal.

Instead, the Steelers put the Lions away.

@ The Steelers should give serious consideration to keeping Jason Worilds at the end of this season and playing him at outside linebacker with LaMarr Woodley, with Jarvis Jones sliding to the inside.

Jones is a natural in zone coverage over  the middle and could really be a force in the middle teamed with Lawrence Timmons on blitzes.

@ The Steelers are now averaging 24.8 points per game over their past seven games. That coincides with having both Heath Miller and Le'Veon Bell in the starting lineup.

That total, over the course of the season, would rank the Steelers 12th in scoring in the league right now. That's not great, but it's also not bad.