Christian McCaffrey’s season debut helped make the San Francisco 49ers’ offense look much more like it did last year, compared to the up-and-down performance in the first part of this season.
McCaffrey’s return opened up more space in the passing game for other playmakers, leading to bigger plays and more yards after the catch than the 49ers had been able to produce during the first two months of the season.
“The better the player is, the more space it helps for other people,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “If it isn’t helping other people, then it’s the more space that player has. So, the more great players you can have out there, the better looks everyone’s going to have.”
The Niners (5-4) are hoping McCaffrey’s impact will continue this week when they host the Seattle Seahawks (4-5) on Sunday, in an important NFC West matchup.
In their last game, Tampa Bay focused on stopping the run and held McCaffrey to 39 yards on 13 carries. But McCaffrey still managed to add 68 yards through the air, and quarterback Brock Purdy was able to take advantage of the good matchups in the passing game, leading to a 23-20 win.
San Francisco posted a season-high 172 yards after the catch, a big improvement after ranking near the bottom in that category while McCaffrey was sidelined for the first eight games due to Achilles tendinitis.
The 49ers also had their best game of the season in terms of pass plays, with five completions of at least 30 yards. Those long passes were spread out among five different players, making it harder for defenses to focus on just one threat.
This creates a tougher challenge for Seattle’s defense than the one they faced last month when they struggled to slow down the 49ers. In a 36-24 loss at home in Week 6, the Seahawks allowed 483 yards and 7.3 yards per play, marking their sixth consecutive loss to the Niners in this rivalry.
“I think you’re probably more likely to get Christian in funkier spots that they normally didn’t do with the other running backs or really any other running back in the league,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald.
“So those are things you have to account for in every situation. They do a great job of making sure everybody knows all the different spots and they don’t lose timing or anything like that.”
