The Pittsburgh Steelers were able to avoid losing yet another game during the fourth quarter, with help from their fans on the road.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had three passes for touchdowns, his season high, in the first three quarters, and the Steelers defense was good enough during the fourth quarter to hold the Detroit Lions off on Sunday to win 28-20.

Detroit had the football on their 29 yard line with three minutes to play and two timeouts with a chance for sending the game to overtime versus the Super Bowl champs.

Thousands of Steeler fans dressed in black and gold twirled Terrible Towels and chanted DE-FENSE, helping to keep Detroit from crossing the goal line.

LaMarr Woodley, Steelers linebacker, who got his first sack of the season with 1 1/2 on the last drive for Detroit said, that worked for us. Their offensive linemen weren’t able to hear their snap count, so they were just watching the ball like us.

James Harrison, Steelers linebacker, had three sacks which matched his season total. He also forced a fumble, delighting the Steeler fans at Ford Field. Pittsburgh ended up with seven sacks for the game. The crowd of 59,333 sounded and looked like at least half were rooting for the visiting team.

Mike Tomlin, head coach for Pittsburgh said, it was awesome how they traveled. It is just spectacular standing on the visitors sideline and to see all of the fan support we got today here.

The Steelers have sold out 283 games in a row at home, which led scores of their fans to make the 4 1/2 hour drive up to Detroit where they could take advantage of lots of available seats in the stadium where Pittsburgh won the 2006 Super Bowl.

Hines Ward, who had a touchdown reception said, it brought a lot of memories back. We had as many fans here today as we did then.

The Steelers (3-2) for the very first time all season won a road game, after blowing leads in the fourth quarter in Chicago and Cincinnati, and won back to back games.

Woodley say, we will get rolling. Next week Cleveland is coming to town.

Mid first quarter the rushing touchdown from Rashard Mendenhall gave the Steelers the lead in the game. The third touchdown pass from Roethlisberger gave them a 15 point lead with six minutes to go in the third quarter.

Detroit (1-4) was able to rally on the 25 yard touchdown pass from Daunte Culpepper to Dennis Northcutt, pulling the Lions to within eight points with 4:57 minutes left to play. They drove to Pittsburgh’s 21 yard line, but then were pushed back to midfield with three sacks. Culpepper was then forced to heave a pass up which Ike Taylor, cornerback, knocked down at the goal line.

Jim Schwartz, Detroit’s head coach said, we didn’t play smart always in the game. We didn’t play well always, but I am proud of how we battled the entire game. We could have given in in a couple places but didn’t.

Roethlisberger went 23 for 30 for a total of 277 yards and had touchdown passes to Heath Miller, Mike Wallace and Ward. He had one interception during the second quarter to William James who returned the ball 38 yards and scored.

On the Steeler’s next drive, Roethlisberger made up for it, connecting on a 17 yard pass with Ward, giving the Steelers a lead of 21-13.

Roethlisberger said, I don’t feel that I am playing well. I am disappointed with how I have performed.

Culpepper, who was filling in for Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, who was out with an injured right knee went 23 for 37 for a total of 282 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

Culpepper said, I still think this is a good ball club, but a good ball club looks at situations like this and uses it to find ways to start winning these types of games. That’s what we need to do.

Notes
Calvin Johnson, Lions wide receiver left during the first quarter with an injured right knee. Pittsburgh Safety Troy Polamalu (injured left knee) and running back Willie Parker (injured left toe) were not active for the game. Lions linebacker Larry Foote, who was a Steeler during his first seven years, chatted and hugged his former teammates after the game in the locker room. Ward said, we still do love Foote. He is still a part of us. Roethlisberger said that he was excited about his upcoming appearance on The Jay Leno Show from home via satellite.