SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Should he? Or shouldn’t he?

Ahead of 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 start.

After careful consideration, he decided to go full throttle with his best guys in the rematch of the 2023 NFC Championship Game, as the Lions left Levi’s Stadium with a 40-34 victory over the San Francisco 49ers while avoiding major injuries.

“Yes, it crossed my mind and I thought about it a lot. I thought about it leading up to the game, I thought about it last night,” Campbell said. “I told the staff, but in the end I came to the conclusion that playing against these guys was the right thing to do because we owe it to the team.”

“It was just one of those positions we sat in. It’s hard to say who you’re going to sit on and it’s not fair to ask guys to play who weren’t prepared,” he said. “So, yeah, that was tough, and I think the most important thing is that there were things we wanted to do better than last week, and we did that. We cleaned up a lot of things offensively.”

Campbell says they played to win even though the 49ers game had no playoff implications. However, their pride was at stake after they blew a 17-point halftime lead against the same team in the same stretch last postseason and were one game away from reaching the Super Bowl.

This loss still hurts for those who suffered defeat that day.

“I really wanted to get that back,” said Lions safety Kerby Joseph, who grabbed two interceptions. “I feel like we came here last year and they beat us, so I still had that chip on my shoulder from last year.” As they say in the media, that game didn’t really mean much, but this one did Game meant a lot. I feel like we were so close and didn’t get it done, so the feeling is just to come back here to San Francisco and come back and get a win. I know we started slow defensively, but we managed to finish the game.”

Lions quarterback Jared Goff agreed.

And upon his return home to California, he threw for 303 yards and completed 26 of 34 passes with three touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Campbell made it clear that the starters would be playing, so Goff came in with the mindset to compete, saying he finished sitting out “pretty early in the week.” With his three passing touchdowns in the seventh game this season, Matthew Stafford (2011) also scored the most touchdowns in a season in Lions history.

“I’m sure it’s tough for him, but I think it’s the only option we know,” Goff said of Campbell, who plays in the starting lineup. “It’s just about finding a way to win and win against the team we played in San Francisco. That’s how our season ended last year, and there were a lot of people on this team who were there last year who wanted to get back in. Even though it was meaningless in many ways for them and for us, they were also proud. They also tried to beat us and it was a fun game.

Detroit now prepares to face the Minnesota Vikings at home this Sunday night on a short week, with the NFC North Division title and No. 1 seed in the NFC on the line for a chance at a first-round bye and having a home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

For Campbell, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he’s preparing his boys for, as Detroit is one of five teams that have never been ranked No. 1 since seeding began in 1975, along with the Cardinals, Texans, Buccaneers, and Jets.

“That’s what you’re in it for, man. At the end of the day, this is it,” Campbell said. “I mean, you couldn’t write a better scenario. You couldn’t have imagined that. The fact that both teams are 14-2 and going for the division and 1st place. It just doesn’t get any better than this. It’s like it’s a fairy tale. And it speaks for itself.