Christian McCaffrey can do a great many things with the football in his hands. The San Francisco 49ers’ running back can do even more things, the NFL has found out, when operating in Kyle Shanahan’s system.
In an interesting NFL twist, the 12-5 49ers are visiting Lincoln financial Field to play the 11-6 Eagles in the Wild Card round of the playoffs on Sunday at 4:25 p.m.
If McCaffrey is not contained, it can be a Buddy Ryan postseason mud bath with an early Eagles exit from the playoffs. Shanahan won 12 games this season without major players George Kittle, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, and first-round pick Mykel Williams for portions or all this season, because the Niners’ coach was able to make the offense go—and at the heart of that is McCaffrey, who has rushed for 1,202 yards on 311 carries this season, and caught 102 passes on 129 targets for 924 yards, and 17 total touchdowns.
Shanahan likes to move McCaffrey around a lot, particularly in motion to create matchup problems on linebackers. But in Zack Baun, Nakobe Dean and Jihaad Campbell, the Eagles have the linebackers that can run with him.
When asked about the challenges San Francisco’s offense presents, Eagles’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said, “Lots of them, they have a really good scheme, it’s all packaged together very nicely, they give you a lot of good motions. Everything they do is with a purpose, and they do a really good job of it. Obviously, [Brock] Purdy operates it very well, McCaffrey is an elite back, they have a good group of receivers, Kittle at tight end. I mean they had a run where they were the hottest offense in the league for six, seven weeks in a row.”
San Francisco runs a rare two-back package in today’s NFL, with McCaffrey paired with bulldozer Kyle Juszczyk, though Fangio feels he can play that package with any of his defensive groupings.
The problems McCaffrey poses is his versatility, as both a runner and receiver. Fangio said it makes him a constant threat, because the Niners scheme for him in the passing game.
“You play an offense this good and this diverse, it’s a big game for everybody, all 11 gotta be cooking,” Fangio said. “I do expect Nakobe to play.”
Fangio hinted he would temper the pressure, considering the amount of motion San Francisco runs. The Niners run varieties of motion, different types of motion, Fangio said, although Fangio has had good success facing Shanahan’s offenses.
In four games Shanahan has faced Fangio, Shanahan’s offense has averaged 10.25 points a game, not scoring more than 15 points.
McCaffrey has faced the Eagles three times, where his teams have two of three. He has rushed for 130 yards on 28 carries, averaging 4.64 a carry, and he’s 19 passes for 147 yards, averaging 43.3 yards receiving a game with a total of two touchdowns. He has rushed for over 100 yards in four games this year, though is coming off a season-low 23 yards on eight carries in Seattle’s 13-3 win over the Niners in Week 18.
