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DETROIT — Golden Tate is a go for the Detroit Lions tonight as they face the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night football at Ford Field.

Tate banged up his shoulder two weeks ago in the loss at New Orleans. He had limited practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and was listed as questionable for tonight’s game on Friday’s injury report.

Wide receiver Jace Billingsley will be active for the first time in his career.

Defensive end Ezekiel Ansah (knee) is active after being listed as questionable.  Ansah was limited in practice all week

Linebacker Paul Worrilow (knee) is out for his third straight game. He was listed as questionable and had full practices on Thursday and Friday.

Other Detroit inactives who are not injured: Running back Zach Zenner, running back Tion Green and cornerback Teez Tabor

Wide receiver Kenny Golladay (hamstring), tackle Greg Robinson (ankle) and tackle Emmett Cleary (ankle) were ruled out on Friday.

Lions punter Sam Martin makes his first start this season after missing all of training camp and the season with a non-football related ankle injury.

Steelers inactives: QB Joshua Dobbs, DE Stephon Tuitt, T Marcus Gilbert, TE Vance McDonald, WR Martavis Bryant, T Jerald Hawkins and CB Brian Allen.

Pittsburgh has won eight of the last nine matchups and four straight.

The Lions are 3-0 coming off the bye week with Jim Caldwell as coach and have won the last five coming off the bye.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off two straight wins. They have the NFL’s second-best defense and the offense is generated by two guys who are tough to stop — running back Le’Veon Bell and wide receiver Antonio Brown.

A win on Sunday night for the Detroit Lions, who have lost two consecutive games, is a tall order, but not impossible.

Under Jim Caldwell, the Lions are 3-0 coming off bye weeks. They’re rested and ready now. They needed the week off to heal and to take a good look at the first six weeks.

“Just based off the trend of the last few years I’ve been here and Coach Caldwell it seems like we always trend up in the second half of the season and that’s the plan,’’ wide receiver Golden Tate said. “We’re going to start playing our best football real soon and maintain that week in and week out. This division is wide open and there’s a lot of season left. That’s what we’re eyeing right now taking our division, one game at a time.’’

The Vikings (5-2) are atop the NFC North, with the Packers at 4-3, the Lions at 3-3 and the Bears in the basement at 3-4.

Five things to watch in the Lions-Steelers match-up on Sunday night:

1. The consensus seems to be that Steelers’ running back Le’Veon Bell is unlike any other. “I’ve been trying to see if I could remember someone that has a running style like his, and I cannot. I cannot place a guy that has the ability he has. He’s very patient with exception of vision, and he can start and stop, and hit it into third and fourth gear in a hurry. He’s an unusual guy, really. I mean just pretty special,’’ coach Jim Caldwell said. Bell has 313 rushing yards in the past two games. (Ameer Abdullah has 342 for the season.) The Lions’ rush defense has been erratic in the first six games. They held the Panthers’ offense to 28 rushing yards one week and then the next allowed the Saints to run for 193 yards.

2. Antonio Brown is among the NFL’s elite wide receivers, leading the NFL in receiving yards with 765. Tackling him after he catches the ball is as important as the coverage. “It always is. We want to limit — we know people in this league, we have good players, and they’re going to catch the ball, and the quarterback is going to make really good throws and our job is, as defenders is OK, hey they’ve made that part of the play, let’s not let him get any extra. So, that’s going to be extremely important,’’ Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. “Tackling, angles, pursuit, are going to be extremely important this week and not just with him, but — It’s always important, but especially with a guy like him in the open field who is dangerous, same thing with the running back (Bell).”

3. Matthew Stafford must have his best game. For him to accomplish that, he must get protection from the line, tight ends, backs, whoever, to stay upright and get the ball down the field. He’s been sacked 17 times in the last three games. “My job is to go back there and trust (the offensive line) every time. As a quarterback, that’s what you’re ingrained to do. I can be better in getting the ball out a little bit quicker and helping everybody out, but for those guys I think it’s just reps together are important, and they do everything they can whoever’s in there every week to try and get as many as they can,’’ Stafford said.

4. The wide receivers have to get open so Stafford can get them the ball. This is another reason the quarterback has been sacked so often. Sometimes he has nowhere to go with the ball.

5. Try something different with the run game because it has to be more effective. Along with Abdullah, perhaps it’d be wise to get Theo Riddick and Zach Zenner more involved. Zenner seems to be the best bet when it comes to short-yardage situations. Riddick has been pretty much a non-factor so far with 39 rushing yards and 180 receiving yards and a touchdown. Don’t be surprised to see Abdullah and Riddick on the field together more often.

PREDICTION: Steelers 27, Lions 20. Pittsburgh’s defense will be too much for Detroit’s offense.

 

The Detroit Lions offense was a disappointment in the first six games. Plain and simple.

Injuries played a role along the offensive line but that is not the only reason the offense has not found a consistent rhythm.

The offense is ranked 26th in the NFL, averaging just 298 yards per game.

After a bye week, a little reflection and much needed rest for the players, the offense will be tested big-time by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night. The Steelers’ defense ranks second in the NFL overall and first against the pass.

There’s no head-hanging among the Lions, just a renewed determination.

“I don’t know all the stats and stuff but we have potential to be a whole lot better than we are right now. Yeah, I see us being a much bigger part of our team winning ball games as we move forward,’’ Offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “The goal here is to win. I think we’ve won three and lost three. We’re not as successful offensively helping our team win as I and we would like us to be at this moment, and I do see us improving, and really becoming a big factor in that thing.”

Five thoughts about the offensive woes and how to fix them.

1. Cooter said he learned a “bunch” through self-scouting. “It’s good to have time to sort of spend diving deep on what we’ve done this year, what we’ve done well, what we need to do better, and hopefully improve those things and maybe throw away some of the stuff we don’t do as well,’’ Cooter said. “Throw away is probably a little bit strong, but you see certain things that maybe aren’t working great and you maybe push them to the back for a little while. Doesn’t mean they don’t come back up one of these days. But yeah, sometimes when a certain things not working and you figure out there’s maybe a reason for that with our guys, or our scheme, or our people or whatever. Sometimes a play is just not very hot, so you shove it away for a couple of weeks and maybe bring it back down the road.”

2. Matthew Stafford, who has been sacked 17 times in the last three games, needs to step up too. It would be easier if he had better protection but the Lions have to make it work with the personnel that they have. Stafford said his play was like the team’s a little up and down. “I wish it was probably a little bit more consistent like everybody does in this league. You wish you’d go out every week and play great and an extremely high level, and don’t make mistakes. But they happen, and we got to learn from them and make sure they don’t happen again,’’ Stafford said. So far he’s completed 60.4 percent of his passes for 1,428 yards, thrown a dozen touchdown passes and four interceptions.

3. Cooter is not concerned that the offense is too predictable. “We’re aware of tendencies. Sometimes it’s best to run a certain play a certain way and that’s the best way to run it. We’ve looked at all the alternatives, let’s run that play this way. Maybe it’s in the shotgun or whatever. Defenses know that as well. You might set some tendencies,’’ Cooter said. “Sometimes you have to counteract those tendencies. Sometimes you go, ‘Boy, let’s just let our guys do what’s the absolute best thing to do.’ So, sometimes you set tendencies. You got to have the ability to counteract those things as you see fit. I don’t think it’s exactly a 50/50 thing and I know it’s not 100/0 thing, and so you just kind of go out there and try to play your best game and sometimes switch things up.”

4. The run game — or lack of it — continues to be an issue. “I think we have a good running game but we have a lot of negative to no yardage runs. but we’ll also have a 60-yarder and so statistically you look at that average is OK but it could be a lot better,’’ wide receiver Golden Tate said. “I want to see every time we put the ball in the running back’s hands in the backfield we get three (yards). That’s the goal when you’re doing that it makes it tough on the defense to know if you’re going to pass or throw, it makes it more manageable on third down. I think those are all huge points to be a successful offense.’’ The Lions average 84 rushing yards a game which ranks 26th in the NFL. Ameer Abdullah leads with 342 rushing yards and Stafford is the second leading rusher with 57 yards.

— They are confident but know there is work to be done. “Just really knowing the personality that this offense has and seeing the trend in the past, just keep working, we know that we can do it, we know we have the personnel to do it, we just need to have all 11 men on each play to be on the same page,’’ Tate said. “As we’ve seen may many times in the past if one guy doesn’t do his job correctly that can mess up the whole play it’s not on Jim Bob by any means it’s a collective effort.’’