Ahead of Monday Night’s NFC Championship game rematch, the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions are eager to meet again. The 49ers are cemented as the NFC West last-place team, their worst finish since 2020. Meanwhile, the Lions are 13-2 and vying for the number one seed in the NFC.
The Week 17 matchup is rather meaningless to the 49ers. They are simply playing for pride with two games remaining in the season. By winning, they hurt their draft stock but get to play spoiler. By losing, San Francisco inches closer to a top-ten pick. Losing is a no-harm, no-foul scenario.
The Lions currently sit half a game behind the Vikings for the number one seed. By beating San Francisco, they would set up a winner-take-all Week 18 for the NFC North and the NFC’s top seed.
Despite 2024 being a tale of two seasons for each team, it has not stopped the trash talk.
49ers and Lions Trash Talk
With a playoff spot already clinched, it was unsure whether the Lions would play all their starters on Monday.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell shut down any conversation about resting players.
“I’ll make this easy for everybody, that way, all the critics can jump out and start attacking, but that way, you don’t have to debate them anymore.”
Campbell also guaranteed a win while adding fuel to a potentially growing rivalry.
“We’re bringing everything we got to this game, and we are playing. I don’t care what it looks like. Where it’s at and who’s this, who’s that. We’re going out to play and win this game, out on the West Coast. So there you go.”
In an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Greg Papa, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan made the team’s intentions clear despite their last-place record.
“We all know the history from last year. So, that’s going to be fun for both of us to go through that, but nothing would be better than upsetting them and ruining their chance at the one seed and having a game that we can be proud of.”
While the two head coaches exchanged mindsets leading up to Monday’s showdown, 49ers’ tight end George Kittle sent a clear message to the Lions.
George Kittle’s Message to the Lions
“We’re all very aware that they think they gave us one last year. And I think they are going to do everything they can to beat us by 30 points. And it’s our job to not let them do that. I fully expect us to win. I go into every single game expecting to win a football game. If you go in expecting to lose, I think you are going to lose. No matter what. I think it’s going to be a really fun game on Monday Night Football.”
George Kittle is 33 yards away from securing the fourth 1,000-yard season of his career. He is also 86 yards away from passing the second-highest receiving yard mark of his eight-year career.
The San Francisco 49ers host the Detroit Lions in the team’s final primetime game of the 2024 regular season. San Francisco will look to improve to 7-9 and play spoiler to the Lions NFC North aspirations.
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