The Detroit Lions could have rested their starters on Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers with the knowledge that it's a Week 18 tilt with the Minnesota Vikings that will determine the NFC North and the conference's top seed. The San Francisco 49ers, already eliminated from playoff contention, could have also played out the string.
Instead both teams—unironically here—played hard in an extremely competitive shootout with stars making big plays all night. Throw in some honest-to-goodness intrigue about how Dan Campbell would negotiate his depth chart and, boom, ESPN sent out word on Tuesday that the "meaningless' game was a beast ratings-wise.
