After the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Green Bay Packers late Sunday afternoon, the Detroit Lions’ game against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday lost some of its significance when it comes to the NFC playoff rankings. Since the Vikings already have 14 wins, Detroit would have to beat Minnesota in Week 18 to win the division and clinch first place in the NFC, regardless of what happened in San Francisco.

For many Lions fans – 46 percent, according to our poll – this development meant Detroit should rest its starters to prepare them for the Week 18 grand finale and avoid injuries. And while coach Dan Campbell defiantly said earlier in the week that they would play anyone this week no matter what, the Lions head coach admitted after the game that he was struggling with concerns.

“I’m probably like all of you who were all here and woke up this morning at 2 o’clock or whatever, and yeah, it was on my mind,” Campbell said. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I thought about it leading up to the game, I thought about it last night. 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.”

Why did he owe it to the team? According to Campbell, he did not want to put his reserves in a difficult position. The Lions had been preparing for this game all week, thinking the one seeded player might be on the line. This meant leaving all the main reps to the starters.

“This (decision) wasn’t easy,” Campbell said. “There are a number of things that need to be decided. We don’t have the opportunity to prepare the other people because you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the first, second, third and red zones before the week starts.

“For example, (Hendon) Hooker doesn’t get those reps. These are (Jared) Goff’s representatives because we don’t know. This is just an example. So it’s not fair. I just don’t think it’s fair to use a guy who isn’t ready to play, especially a young player.

And then there’s the fact that Detroit can’t sit all. Detroit only has seven inactive spots allocated, and David Montgomery already took one. Furthermore, is it fair to use the reserves when the team is not supporting them with the best players they have?

“You can only sit six people. So who are these six? Who are the six?” Campbell continued. “And then the others who don’t, was it fair to them that we don’t use everything we have? We flew here, we prepared this way, we came out to win and this is ultimately the result. And yes, you keep your fingers crossed that no one gets hurt. It’s tough and we were lucky. We got out and now we can move on.”

The last point will be most important to people. Detroit escaped without any significant injuries, and that’s ultimately what’s most important. Still, I think Campbell’s insight is worth considering if Detroit ever finds itself in a similar situation in the future.