Can 49ers, Christian McCaffrey unleash running game against Rams?
SANTA CLARA — It was Oct. 30, 2022 and 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan had his first chance to unleash his new toy on the Los Angeles Rams.
Christian McCaffrey arrived by trade 10 days earlier for a handful of draft picks, none in the first round. The Rams, coached by Shanahan’s longtime friendly rival Sean McVay, had also tried to trade with Carolina to get McCaffrey. Los Angeles had already outfoxed the 49ers in 2021 by trading for Matthew Stafford, who was also on Shanahan’s radar.
“We heard they were in it, yeah,” Shanahan said Tuesday. “You hear a lot of things when you’re dealing with trades. I guess it was true, but glad he ended up here.”
With McCaffrey getting some work with no practice in a home loss to Kansas City, Shanahan got his chance to turn a 31-14 win over the Rams at SoFi Stadium into a McCaffrey tour de force.
Trailing 7-0, McCaffrey threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Aiyuk on a halfback option — the second of his career, having thrown a 50-yard score for Carolina in 2018. A 9-yard touchdown pass from Jimmy Garoppolo to McCaffrey gave the 49ers a 17-14 lead, and a 1-yard plunge put the 49ers in charge 24-14.
The days of Shanahan being a running back-by-committee devotee were over. McCaffrey rushed for 94 yards on 18 carries and caught eight passes for 55 yards. It was the beginning of a 10-game winning streak that turned the 49ers from a 3-4 team into a division winner at 13-4.
“It was definitely a blur of a week, and good to get a full week after I first got here for the Chiefs game,” McCaffrey said. “I just remember it was a great feeling, a great winning locker room. And we had a bye after that too, so I could kind of get my bearings.”
McCaffrey is getting as much work as ever. His 100 touches (31 receptions, 69 rushes) lead the NFL. But he has no run longer than 15 yards, no rushing touchdowns and is averaging 3.3 yards per carry. The 49ers as a team have yet to score on the ground.
“If you score a lot of points and they’re all passing, I don’t care,” Shanahan said. “If you score a lot of points and they’re all rushing, I don’t care. I just want to score points.”
When the 49ers (3-1) visit the Rams (3-1) Thursday night in an NFC West showdown at SoFi Stadium, the hope is McCaffrey and the running game can regain their bearings on runs from scrimmage. McCaffrey, healthy after having his season derailed by Achilles tendinitis and a PCL sprain in 2024, remains upbeat and unconcerned.
“I’ve had stretches in the run game where I’ve had 34, then 40, then 38 (yards) and it feels like you can’t run the ball,” McCaffrey said. “But the reality isn’t always the truth. Sometimes you’re one guy off, you’re an arm tackle away from breaking a couple of long ones, and then it happens and you have big games. You can’t predict it’s going to be one way or the other. Treat it as one play at a time.”
Shanahan has said opponents are playing “two-shell” defenses with deep safeties that enable corners to play up tight and defend the run aggressively. It restricts running room in the middle, but the 49ers at their best have successfully attacked such defenses in the past.
McCaffrey isn’t the only quality back in search of room to run. Saquon Barkley of Philadelphia, who succeeded McCaffrey as last season’s NFL Offensive Player of the Year, has 237 yards on 77 carries, a 3.3-yard average. Josh Jacobs of Green Bay has an NFL-high 80 carries for just 266 yards, a 3.3-yard average.
“Generally it’s been one guy off here, one there. Miscommunication on who’s coming off a backer,” right tackle Colton McKivitz said. “It’s little things. Finishing blocks. You’re seeing it with the Eagles, too. They’re saying the same thing. Eventually it’s going to break. Hopefully it’s Thursday.”
McCaffrey includes himself in the run game critique.
“Every runner is going to say the same thing,” McCaffrey said. “I can do better. We can all be better.”
In theory, all that’s missing for McCaffrey is a few gash plays for bigger yardage and things would look much different.
“You’ve got to break some big ones,” Shanahan said. “But it’s no one quick thing. It’s still everyone going to work. Eleven guys blocking, 11 guys getting after it and doing better on other downs also.”
While the 49ers have done some good things on defense under coordinator Robert Saleh, the dearth of interceptions (they don’t have any) and issues rushing the passer without Nick Bosa are serious problems.
A running game, with the 49ers controlling the line of scrimmage and the clock, could help as a band-aid. It would also ease the pressure off quarterback Mac Jones, who will start his third game this season in relief of Brock Purdy.
“We’re skilled at running the football,” general manager John Lynch said on KNBR-680. “We coach it well. We typically execute it well. We have one of the best players in football as our No. 1 running back in Christian. There’s some schematic things that are kind of bottling us up. And we have to find a way through that. Too many 2-, 3- and 4-yard gains that used to be 5, 6 and 7.
“It’s too important to our DNA and we’ve got to get better at it.”