Detroit Lions use starters to outlast San Francisco 49ers - ESPN

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Should he? Or shouldn't he?

Entering the Monday Night Football showdown against the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell thought long and hard about whether he should rest or play the starters.

After careful consideration, he decided to go full throttle with his top guys in a rematch of the 2023 NFC Championship game as the Lions escaped Levi's Stadium with a 40-34 win over the San Francisco 49ers while avoiding any major injuries.

«Yeah, it was on my mind, and I thought a lot about it. I thought it leading up to the game, I thought about it last night,» Campbell said. «I told the staff, but I ended up settling on the right thing to do was to play these guys because we owed it to the team.

»It was just one of those positions we were in. It's hard to say who you're going to sit and it's not fair to ask guys to play that hadn't been prepared to play," he said. «So, yeah, that was tough, and I think the biggest thing is there were things we wanted to do better than we did last week and we did. We cleaned a lot of things up offensively.»

Campbell says they were playing to win, although the 49ers game didn't possess any playoff implications. However, their pride was on the line after blowing a 17-point halftime lead to the same team, on the same stage, last postseason to fall one game shy of reaching the Super Bowl.

That loss still stings for those who suffered defeat on that day.

«I really wanted that get back,» said Lions safety Kerby Joseph, who snagged two interceptions. «I feel like we came in here last year and they beat us, so I still had that chip on my shoulder from last year. „Like they say in the media, this game didn't really mean much, but this game meant a lot. I feel like