NFL Week 16 reactions and overreactions

My weekly look at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL.

Let’s talk about some football.

1. The Pittsburgh Steelers playing better and beating the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins did not really surprise me. They typically play well against Baltimore (the end of the 2025 season and the 2025 playoffs being the noteworthy exception) and I am not convinced this Ravens team is particularly good. Winning that is something they needed to do. I know this Miami team is not particularly good. They should have won that game. But the Steelers beating the Detroit Lions? In Detroit? When the Lions had their backs against the wall and everything to play for?

Doing so without T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig, Isaac Seumalo, and their top-three left tackles? No DeShon Elliott? No James Pierre? Friends, that absolutely astonished me. Did not see that coming. No way. No how. I know the Lions had their own share of injury issues, but they were at home, had the fast track for their offense and had way more to play for in the game. The fact the Steelers won, no matter the manner, absolutely stunned me.

2. What really stunned me is the manner in which they did win.

Detroit is one of the best rushing teams in the league. Jahmyr Gibbs is a stud. The Steelers have been, to say the least, inconsistent when it comes to stopping the run. They have playmakers all over their offense. The Steelers had major absences on defense.

Then they just completely stuffed them. Detroit averaged less than two yards per carry for the game. If you take away the one 17-yard run by David Montgomery, the Lions averaged negative yards per rush outside of that. Derrick Harmon might be the guy. He changes everything for them against the run in every game he plays. The difference without him vs. with him against the run is insane.

They were able to take advantage of the Lions banged up offensive line and make things miserable for Lions quarterback Jared Goff for three-and-a-half quarters.

While I do not like how the Steelers were unable to finish that and gave up a lot of points in the second part of the fourth quarter, you had to assume that at some point the Lions offense would get something going. Especially as desperation kicked in. That is a good unit and they were basically playing for their season. They are going to make plays.

Even so, the Steelers defense made the stop it needed to make at the end. Credit to them.

3. Speaking of which….

The ending of that game was one of the wildest endings to a game that I have ever seen. Especially in the final minute.

I do not think you can quibble with this offensive pass interference calls if you are a Lions fan, especially after the Darnell Washington call in the end zone earlier in the game that took a touchdown off the board. Even if you conclude that was an OPI, the Lions were literally ripping DK Metcalf’s jersey which somehow got missed. If nothing else that is offsetting and a replay of the down. They were calling pass interference tight in that game. They were extremely consistent with it.

The aspect of that last play that still stuns me is the fact they did not rule Amon-Ra St. Brown’s forward progress stopped. Joey Porter and Jalen Ramsey pushed him five yards backwards after stopping him at the one-yard line. What are we even doing if that play is ruled still going? Because if one of those guys slams him to the ground at that point they are getting penalized.

Also, was there a whistle blown? Because I feel like every player on the field stopped at the same time and that is just …. weird.

In the end it did not matter. The correct call was made and the correct result happened. Just a wild ending to a wild game.

4. There were two plays in that game that obviously helped swing it in the Steelers favor. The first play is obviously Kenneth Gainwell’s touchdown just before the end of the first half. The Steelers needed points there, even with getting the ball back after halftime, and I would have just been happy with a field goal. The fact Gainwell was able to make the catch of the year, and the fact the play was correctly called to continue and not stopped, is huge. Game-changing play.

The other play that is not getting talked about at all — which is a testament to how crazy this game turned out to be — is Detroit’s decision to go for a fourth-and-goal from, like, the six-yard line, in the first half. They did not make it.

Had the Lions simply “taken the points” in that spot, they could have been in a position to win the game with a field goal at the end instead of having to score a touchdown.

I am not even necessarily saying it is the wrong decision. The Lions are aggressive in those moments and it does work for them a lot. It also burns them a lot. That might have been one of those instances. Going for it on fourth-and-goal from the one-or two-yard line? No problem. From any further than that, in that situation? That is a big risk. It is a potential game-changing play for one team pending the result.

Big credit to the Steelers defense, and Porter, for helping to make two big goal-line stands.

Porter, by the way, has been excellent the past few weeks after I called him unplayable. I missed on that one big time.

5. Aaron Rodgers being the Steelers quarterback did not excite me at the start of the season. He did not impress me through the first 12 weeks. Over the past three weeks he has impressed me. He is playing extremely well. Kudos to him for taking a chance at the end of the half on the Gainwell touchdown. It would have been easy to just take a 10-yard pass and set up a field goal. That might have been the higher percentage and smarter play. But he made the big play. If he plays like this, the Steelers have a chance.

They also have a chance if the offense continues to run through Jaylen Warren and Gainwell. They are the two best playmakers they have in both the running game and passing game. They were the MVPs on Sunday.

6. DK Metcalf has to be smarter. Everything I have learned about that Lions fan makes him seem like a giant asshole. Every video angle I have seen from the stands makes him seem insufferable. The Lions fans sitting in that area seemed over it. The type of fan you do not want sitting around you at a game. But DK Metcalf has to be smarter. You make $40 million a year.

You are the professional. You have to let security handle that, and if they do not, you take it up with the NFL. I know that is easy to say from a distance when you are not the one being heckled and yelled at, but you have to know there are cameras everywhere and anything like that is going to be seen.

The fact it was seen on the prime CBS national game of the week, and the fact it took over the broadcast for a stretch of time, only made it even more glaring. While I feel like that fan probably did need a good punch in the face, the NFL had to suspend Metcalf. It is on him that he is now out of the lineup. He just better hope these next two games do no matter.

Now for the rest of the NFL thoughts….