Game of inches is a cliché, but it's the only way to describe the ending to the Steelers' 24-20 win over the Chargers Monday night, featuring a wild fourth quarter and a stunner of an ending.

Todd Haley took tons of heat over the past 10 days for not feeding Le'Veon Bell the ball late in the game against the Ravens. He'll get plenty of credit for getting Bell the ball on the final play against the Chargers and propelling Pittsburgh to a victory.

With 5 seconds left on the clock and one timeout remaining, Haley dialed up a play featuring Michael Vick lined up to the right at wide receiver and Bell behind the center. Bell took a direct snap, ran left and fought his way into the end zone as time expired.

Barely, too. In the photo below (via Twitter), Bell's knee was only slightly above the ground when he pushed the ball across the plane of the end zone.

Bell said afterwards the Steelers "knew we were going for it" the whole time.

Mike Tomlin agreed.

"We gotta run the football, man; we got Le'Veon Bell," Tomlin said after the game. "We had an opportunity to win the game. We're on the road in a hostile environment. We gotta play to win and that's what we did."

What it probably boils down to? The Steelers used Vick in short-yardage situations to the distress of Steelers fans and pretty much everyone, really. The team practiced/implemented the Bell wildcat play for use in short-yardage situations moving forward with Roethlisberger out.

Haley was smart enough to dial it up.

More takeaways from an insane finish Monday night:

2. Operator error: It'll go unnoticed because the Steelers scored and won the game, but they lost nearly 20 seconds in terms of clock time after the clock operator failed to stop the clock after the kickoff.

After Josh Lambo blasted a 54-yard field goal, he kicked off for a touchback with 2:56 left in the game. The clock continued to roll -- it shouldn't -- and the Steelers snapped the ball with 2:36 left in the game.

If anyone should be mad about this, it's the Chargers, who could've had more time on the clock to try and steal a victory.

3. Gates breaking records: Antonio Gates returned from a four-game suspension on Monday night and it was clear he wanted to send a message. The ageless wonder caught a pair of touchdowns from Philip Rivers, the first of which gave him 100 TDs for his career.

His second moved him into seventh all-time in NFL touchdown receptions and gave the Bolts a lead the defense couldn't hold for long. 

Seventy-three of those came from Rivers, 23 from Drew Brees, two from LaDainian Tomlinson and a pair from Doug Flutie as well.

We're apparently not supposed to call people "first-ballot Hall of Famers" until they actually become one. But Gates is one of those rare talents who breaks the mold of what we're supposed to do. 

4. Philip Rivers' offensive line is depressing: For what feels like the 50th consecutive season, Rivers' offensive line is letting him down. There's more talent this year, but everyone is injured. At this point, he's probably had more combinations of offensive linemen this year than he has had children.

Even dealing with the pressure, he still slings dimes. Watch the three dudes bearing down on him during the second touchdown to Gates.

"Oh look: three dudes coming to kill me. NBD, just gonna drop this rainbow into the back of the end zone."

5. Also depressing: His other teammates. Two of them, specifically, on a pick-six by the Steelers defense that gave Pittsburgh its only early points of the night in a mostly slow, sloppy game.

Malcom Floyd ran a sloppy route leading to the interception itself and it made Rivers MAD.

If Floyd flattens out his route, he doesn't get undercut and the Steelers don't intercept the ball. Rivers could also be a little miffed at Trevor Robinson, who gave tackling Antwon Blake a good job, good effort attempt.

Blake ended up having to cut back across the field meaning Robinson could've potentially prevented the score. Film study should be fun for him this week.

6. Vick is washed up: You might look at the box score and conclude Michael Vick's still got something left in the tank. Don't.

Vick threw a very nice 72-yard touchdown pass to Markus Wheaton and he led a game-winning drive.

But he didn't do anything all night to justify the Steelers having faith in him. Take out the one long touchdown throw and Vick finished 12 of 25 for 131 yards and a pick. Under 50 percent completions and 5.24 yards per attempt?

Probably why the Steelers were so conservative. It apparently took Ben Roethlisberger calling plays to get Vick to take a shot deep.

Whatever. The play worked. Ben just needs to focus on getting back on the field. The Steelers need him badly for the offense to start rolling again.

7. Credit the defense: The Steelers defense wasn't some Steel Curtain redux or anything, but it played much better than we've seen recently.

Pittsburgh snuffed out the Chargers running game, limiting Melvin Gordon and Danny Woodhead to 59 rushing yards and 2.7 yards per carry.

The Chargers put up some pretty big passing stats (20 first downs, 354 yards) but Rivers was sacked twice, under fire the entire game and the pick-six makes up for a lot of mistakes.

8. Playoff race: It's never too early to start talking playoffs. And this was a HUGE win for the Steelers in terms of helping their playoff chances. They lost a game at home they should've won last week against the Ravens but made up for it with this victory.

Pittsburgh is 3-2 and sitting tied for the second AFC wild card and just a half game back of the Jets for the first spot. The Ravens are finished at 1-4, the AFC South is garbage and they've got the tiebreaker over the Chargers with the Raiders (2-3) also on the schedule. Weather the storm over the next three weeks, get Roethlisberger back and this is a playoff team.

The Chargers are in much bigger trouble. There are wins left on the schedule but 2-4 feels likely with a trip to Green Bay coming next on a short week. The Raiders, Ravens, Bears, Chiefs and Jaguars follow, giving San Diego a chance to get hot and get back in the race. They need to, since two games against the Broncos late and three of four on the road to close loom.

9. Home-road game: The Steelers travel really well but Monday night was a laugher for the Chargers. The stands were SLAMMED with Steelers fans, all waving Terrible Towels and loudly cheering every positive Pittsburgh play.

"How about the support we had in that building tonight?" Tomlin asked.

Not a great look in a prime-time game for the Chargers, a team desperately trying to stop its franchise from moving to Los Angeles.