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Head Coach Jim Schwartz had a much different reaction to this week’s 28-20 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers than the one he had a week ago at Chicago.

“We didn’t always play smart in this game. We didn’t always play good in this game, but there’s one thing you can say is this team battled,” said Schwartz in his opening statement.

The Detroit Lions weren’t favored to win this game against the Super Bowl Champion Steelers, but they didn’t play that way. They jumped out to a three-point lead in the first quarter – the first points scored on Pittsburgh in the first quarter all season – and hung in there despite missing numerous players due to injury.

“We came into the game a little bit shorthanded, got shorthanded early in the game with some injuries, (and) had a lot of guys jumble through,” said Schwartz.

“There were a lot of chances in this game that we might have – I don’t want to say quit – but it (could) have gone a little different way. (But) the players fought through it and had a chance at the end.”

Detroit entered the game without starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, starting defensive linemen Sammie Hill and Dewayne White, starting tackle Gosder Cherilus and safety Ko Simpson, who was in the starting lineup last week at Chicago.

Then relatively early in the game, the Lions lost wide receiver Calvin Johnson, tight end Casey FitzSimmons, defensive end Jason Hunter and cornerback Eric King.

With all of the personnel missing – particularly the offensive players that got hurt against Pittsburgh – it was tough for Detroit to run a number of packages.

“In situations like that we’ve gone to two tight ends and played a lot of our three wide receiver personnel plays out of that,” said Schwartz. “We got out of that package early, but Derrick (Williams) stepped up and made some plays. Dennis Northcutt stepped up and made some plays.”

Schwartz isn’t using the injuries as an excuse – he cited too many penalties and poor decisions in certain situations as downsides to the game – but they were definitely a hindrance.

Still, players stepped up and turned in solid performances. Northcutt led the team with five catches for 70 yards including a 25-yard touchdown that put the Lions within eight in the game’s final five minutes and Williams finished the game with two catches for 37 yards.

“Any good football team has to deal with that,” said Northcutt of losing Johnson early. “If one man goes down and you can’t adapt then you’re going to hurt as a football team. I think the coaches did a great job with bringing in backups in here, and putting guys that could fill in the spots.

“I want to be the kind of guy that: if the guy in front of me go down, coaches won’t have to sweat it; they know that I understand what’s going on and I can go out there and make plays as well.”

While Schwartz didn’t want to declare any moral victories, he was proud of his team nonetheless. Players fought throughout the game, coming out at the end bruised and battered, but – unfortunately – didn’t have a win to show for it.

One player who obviously put it all out there was Kevin Smith, who fought for every yard he earned against one of the toughest defenses in the league. He finished the game with 20 carries for 53 yards and three catches for 42 yards.

“I mean, it’s tough when you lose a game,” said Culpepper. “I don’t care what happens when you lose. It’s tough to take positives but you’ve got to. We’ll look at the film and evaluate it, and see from that. But in my opinion, we left a lot of plays on the field, and we can do a lot better.”

In his first regular season start of 2009, Culpepper completed 23-of-37 for 282 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The tough number of the day was seven sacks for 57 yards, including three consecutive sacks that happened on Detroit’s final drive of the game.

At that point, the Lions had pulled within eight and the defense had held Pittsburgh three-and-out.

“They brought a blitz we had made a big play on earlier,” said Schwartz of that final drive. “Derrick Williams made a play down the sideline that won the same blitz and we had recognized it, got rid of the ball, and made a big play against it.

“They brought it a couple more times; we didn’t recognize it and ended up taking those sacks. In that situation where you got it right there, we’ve got to be able to throw that ball away, protect that, whatever we’ve got to do to avoid a sack right there. We can’t give up a sack like that because that took us out of the chance that we had at the end of the game.”

There are some positives to take out of this performance, but they don’t bring a lot of warm feelings for the players and coaches.

Even though the Lions fought back and had a chance to win at the end, the bottom line is that they didn’t.

“We had some mistakes, we were able to overcome them at times, we battled at the end,” said Schwartz. “You take different lessons from all of those things, but the bottom line is that we have to find a way to pull that game out."