Anyone who has paid any attention at all to Dan Campbell's coaching style knew that his starters would be out there for a full 60 minutes on Monday night as the Detroit Lions tried to maintain momentum heading into a colossal Week 18 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings that will decide both the NFC North and the NFC's top seed. Yet his decision to play the first unit sparked a conversation pregame that spilled over to the broadcast to the point where we all discovered just how many times (and ways) it can be said that a football team sustaining another injury would be bad.
The Lions succeeded in their mission to bring everybody (and everything) to a rematch of last year's NFC Championship, scoring 27 second-half points to outlast the San Francisco 49ers, 40-34, in a MNF showcase. Campbell's gamble paid off as no impactful Detroit player got hurt—save for Jahmyr Gibbs sustaining a facial laceration—and he's doing just fine as evidenced by a game-sealing 30-yard touchdown scamper.
