DETROIT — The lowly Detroit Lions scored first against the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers and outscored them in the fourth quarter.

In between, Ben Roethlisberger threw a season-high three touchdowns, Rashard Mendenhall ran for a score and James Harrison had three sacks to help the Steelers hold off the Lions 28-20 Sunday.

"Would we like to blow teams out? Of course," Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward said. "But when teams are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, the defending champions, they're going to give their best."

Detroit (1-4) has been good enough to win only once this season, a year after having the NFL's first 0-16 season, but it was competitive with Pittsburgh (3-2) following a rout at Chicago.

"The bottom line in this business is winning," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "Last week, we never gave ourselves a chance to do that, which is why I was so disappointed. This week, we did give ourselves a chance, and that's an improvement."

The Steelers hope to find a way to get better in the fourth quarter after giving up late scores to lose leads at Cincinnati and Chicago.

"When they had some life, that's when we need to turn it up offensively and put our foot down on their throat and not let up," Roethlisberger said. "We need to really put the nail in the coffin when it comes down to it."

The Steelers' faithful helped them avoid losing another game in the fourth quarter.

On the road.

Detroit had the ball at its 29 with 3:07 left and two timeouts with a chance to send the game into overtime.

Thousands of black-and-gold clad fans chanted "DE-FENSE!" and twirled Terrible Towels to help Pittsburgh keep Detroit out of the end zone.

"At the end, it might have seemed like a Pittsburgh crowd, but I thought for most of the game, our crowd was loud and behind us," Schwartz said. "It might have hurt us a little right at the end."

Daunte Culpepper led the Lions to the Pittsburgh 21 before he was sacked on three straight plays, leading to him heaving one last shot toward the end zone that was knocked down by cornerback Ike Taylor. Pittsburgh had four sacks on the drive, finishing with seven.

The game drew 59,333 fans and at least half looked and sounded like they were rooting for the visitors.

"It was spectacular to stand on the visiting sideline and see the fan support that we had today in this building," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said.

Pittsburgh has sold out 283 straight home games, leading to throngs of its fans making the 4Z\x-hour drive to Detroit to take advantage of plenty of seats being available at the venue where the franchise won the Super Bowl in 2006.

"It brought back a lot of memories," Ward said. "We had just as many fans as we did that time."

Roethlisberger was 23 of 30 for 277 yards with TD passes to Ward, Mike Wallace and Heath Miller. One poorly thrown deep out was intercepted by William James and returned 38 yards for a score in the second quarter.

"I don't feel like I'm playing well," Roethlisberger said. "I'm disappointed in my performance."

Culpepper played in place of No. 1 overall draft pick Matthew Stafford (right knee), and was 23 for 37 for 282 yards with a TD and an interception.

"I don't accept moral victories," Culpepper said. "You do have to look at the positives from every game, but you have to look just as hard as the negatives. We just didn't do enough to win."

Notes: Roethlisberger got a scare during the game when he was hit low and late, drawing a penalty. "I felt my knee go," he said. "I'm glad there was no weight on it."ctive.