{"id":39973,"date":"2025-12-18T14:32:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39973"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:32:45","slug":"breaking-can-detroit-lions-keep-season-alive-with-win-vs-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39973","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING : Can Detroit Lions Keep Season Alive with Win vs. Steelers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure data-player-type=\"mini\"><\/figure>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_109,w_4551,h_2559\/c_fill,w_2160,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Fall_lions%2F01kcrp3anr3zrkbxj5h7.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">On Sunday, the Detroit Lions will kick off their most critical stretch of the 2025 season. They&#8217;re set to battle with Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first of three games that are all virtual must-win contests. Kickoff for the Week 16 affair is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. (EST) at Ford Field.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\">Per Next Gen Stats, the Lions\u2019 playoff odds will drop to a dismal 19 percent with a loss to the Steelers. Meanwhile, the odds of Dan Campbell&#8217;s squad making the playoffs will increase to 55 percent with a win.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\">Just like Detroit, Pittsburgh finds itself at 8-6. However, the Mike Tomlin-led team, in what is a weak AFC North, stands atop the division and has won two straight games.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\">Its most recent win came on Monday night, as it disposed of the Miami Dolphins, 28-15. Rodgers was nearly perfect in the winning effort, completing 23-of-27 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. D.K. Metcalf was on the receiving end of one of those touchdowns, and led the way for the Steelers with 55 receiving yards.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\">Metcalf has also been Rodgers\u2019 No. 1 target all season long, and leads all Pittsburgh receivers with 808 yards and six touchdowns. He&#8217;ll certainly be a tough cover for Detroit&#8217;s banged-up secondary, which is expected to be down both of its starting safeties once again (Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">Meanwhile, Kenneth Gainwell, who is coming off an 80-yard rushing effort against Miami, has put together a solid season in his debut campaign with Pittsburgh. The former Eagles back has accumulated a career-best 451 yards on 93 carries, good for an average of 4.8 yards per rush attempt. That average, a career-best mark for Gainwell, leads all Steelers backs this season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\">Then, on defense, Pittsburgh is led by EDGE T.J. Watt, who missed Monday&#8217;s contest with Miami with a partially collapsed lung. The All-Pro defender, who has amassed a team-best seven sacks this season, was listed as a non-participant on the Steelers\u2019 injury report Wednesday. If he\u2019s unable to go Sunday, it\u2019d be a big loss for Pittsburgh\u2019s pass-rush against Detroit signal-caller Jared Goff.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">Goff &amp; Co., coming off a 41-34 defeat at the hands of the L.A. Rams in Week 15, accumulated 396 total yards of offense. Goff threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns, with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams accounting for 298 of those yards and all three of the touchdowns. St. Brown, a two-time All-Pro selection, led the way for Detroit with 164 receiving yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">The Lions should have a solid chance of replicating at least some of that success through the air against the Steelers. Through the first 15 weeks of the season, Pittsburgh has allowed the sixth-most passing yards (3,394).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\">With all of that said, I believe Detroit should be able to capture the Week 16 victory. At this present juncture, I\u2019ll give Campbell &amp; Co. a 56 percent chance to secure the much-needed win.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-12\"><\/h2>\n<figure><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Examining the odds the Lions have to beat Pittsburgh in Week 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING : Can Detroit Lions Keep Season Alive with Win vs. Steelers? - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39973\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING : Can Detroit Lions Keep Season Alive with Win vs. Steelers? 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