Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers talked about “belief” after the Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins on “Monday Night Football” to improve to 8-6 on the year.

It’s a heckuvalot easier to believe in this team now. On Sunday, they beat the Detroit Lions on the road 29-24. That’s a team that was also 8-6 and was 15-2 a season ago.

Should you believe that this club is finally going to win a playoff game at this point? Eh, not yet. But at least you can believe that it might be competitive in one for the first time since 2017.

So, as Festivus is about to arrive on Tuesday, let’s get the pole out of the crawl space, dispose of that “distracting” tinsel, and celebrate the fact that the Lions avoided converting a Festivus miracle at the end of the game.

Here are our weekly “Feats of Strength” and “Airing of Grievances.”

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Golly gee, Kenny G!: Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell made what may have been the NFL’s catch of the year at the end of the second quarter.

With 17 seconds left before halftime, quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a bomb to Gainwell. Detroit linebacker Alex Anzalone interfered with him. On the way down to the ground, Gainwell somehow kept his arm under the football.

It bounced up and Gainwell secured it, stood up and managed to run into the end zone when he realized he hadn’t been touched.

That was a 45-yard touchdown.

Gainwell ended up with 128 yards from scrimmage. Rodgers was very good as well, going 27 of 41 for 266 yards and a touchdown.

Goal-line stand 1: The Lions got to the Steelers’ 4-yard line on a drive that ended up lasting 7 minutes, 14 seconds.

But it stalled at that point. Derrick Harmon stuffed a run by Jahmyr Gibbs for just 1 yard on first down.

Then Jack Sawyer made two excellent plays. The rookie linebacker came untouched into the Lions’ backfield and hit Gibbs for a 3-yard loss. He followed that up by scraping down the line of scrimmage to tackle Amon-Ra St. Brown on a tricky pitch play from Jared Goff that fooled some other players on the field. It only ended up gaining 3 yards.

When Detroit went for it on fourth down, Joey Porter Jr. hung with his coverage and broke up a pass to finish off the goal-line stand.

That allowed the Steelers to carry a 3-0 lead into the second quarter.

Goal-line stand 2: The Steelers got way too soft on defense way too early. They allowed two fourth-quarter touchdown drives against a Detroit offense that had nothing going on throughout the first three quarters.

Another Detroit advance after a Chris Boswell field-goal miss had the game in the balance with less than a minute to go.

Down 29-24 and needing a touchdown, the Detroit offense snapped the ball eight times from within the 15-yard line in the final 48 seconds. It didn’t score.

Well actually it did. Twice.

However, both TDs were called back on offensive pass interference penalties — including one that nullified one of the wildest plays you’ve ever seen.

Credit the Steelers for forcing two incompletions in the end zone — one in particular was a tough PBU from Chuck Clark (who had his hands on three other passes earlier in the day). They also managed to keep St. Brown out of the end zone, forcing him to lateral the ball on that crazy game-ending play that killed out the clock so that the penalty could end the game.

Run-game gains: At kickoff, the Steelers had the 30th-ranked rushing offense in the NFL at 92.5 yards per game. Detroit began the day as the NFL’s fifth-best rushing team at 131.1. Gibbs was tied for seventh in the league at 1,100 yards.

Yet the Steelers were dominant in the rushing department. They outrushed the Lions, 230-15. Arthur Smith’s offense put up 8.5 yards per carry.

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The biggest runs came from Jaylen Warren. He had two 45-yard gallops in the fourth quarter.

Warren finished with 143 rushing yards. Gainwell had 50.

On the other side of the ball, Teryl Austin’s defense only allowed 1.3 yards per rush. The Steelers took advantage of a banged-up Detroit offensive line and made the Lions’ offense one dimensional. Like Sawyer, Alex Highsmith made some good plays on the edge, totaling six tackles, two for a loss, and two QB hits.

The Steelers didn’t allow a first down in the second half until there was less than 12 minutes left in the game.

Trending upward: As was the case Monday night against Miami, the Steelers once again made progress in some areas that have been problematic during the season.

• They won the time of possession battle 34:06 to 25:54.

• They were better on third downs, converting eight in 16 tries, whereas the Lions were 6 for 15. The Steelers also converted both of their fourth downs. The Lions were 1 for 2, plus the end-of-game penalty on fourth down.

• The Steelers also outsnapped the the Lions, 70-69, and were significantly ahead in that category before the fourth quarter started.

• The yardage differential was 481-361 Steelers.

• They also hit three explosive scoring plays of 45 yards.

Statistically, the Steelers have been deficient in all those areas throughout the year. Over the last seven days, they’ve made great progress in two games.

AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

Undisciplined: DK Metcalf may get himself suspended or at least substantially fined for going over to the stands and taking a swipe at a fan.

If Metcalf gets himself sidelined as a result of that action, it will be a huge loss heading into a divisional game against Cleveland.

Metcalf also had a drop and an offensive pass interference penalty on the same drive not long after that sideline exchange took place.

Furthermore, earlier in the game, defensive lineman Yahya Black was captured on camera extending his middle finger after a play.

Costly mistake: The Steelers continued their momentum coming out of halftime after Gainwell’s great touchdown grab by marching deep into Detroit territory.

But on a second down from the 9-yard line, Darnell Washington fumbled.

That snuffed out what had been a nine-play, 65-yard effort when the Steelers had the ball for more than four minutes.

Compounding the aggravation was that Rodgers tried rushing the team to the line of scrimmage to get a snap off before replay was engaged, but the Steelers couldn’t get lined up in time and a challenge was initiated.

Kyle Dugger bailed out Washington, though. He sacked Jared Goff in the end zone for a safety on the ensuing Detroit possession to give the Steelers a 12-10 lead.

Red zone woes: As CBS indicated with a graphic in the third quarter, the Steelers entered this contest as the NFL’s best road red zone team at 77%.

But on the very next sequence, the Steelers flamed out deep on Detroit’s side of the field again, settling for a Boswell field goal to end a 17-play, 64-yard drive.

The Steelers held the ball for 9:44 and snapped the ball nine times after reaching the 20-yard line but couldn’t score a touchdown.

Two of those plays resulted in offensive penalties. One was against Washington for offensive pass interference. That eliminated a touchdown catch by Metcalf.

Boswell ended the drive by kicking a field goal to make the score 15-10 on the first snap of the fourth quarter.

However, up 29-24 with roughly two minutes left, he also missed a 37-yard field goal on a drive that died on Detroit’s 18 and kept the Steelers in danger of losing.

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