Christian McCaffrey vindicates Kyle Shanahan's praise with another historic game for the 49ers
Kyle Shanahan said last week that Christian McCaffrey was deserving of consideration for the MVP award. By the end of the San Francisco 49ers' rout of the Philadelphia Eagles, he had plenty of people agreeing with him. After the 49ers failed to get anything going in the first quarter of the rematch of last year's […]
Kyle Shanahan said last week that Christian McCaffrey was deserving of consideration for the MVP award. By the end of the San Francisco 49ers' rout of the Philadelphia Eagles, he had plenty of people agreeing with him.
After the 49ers failed to get anything going in the first quarter of the rematch of last year's NFC Championship Game, McCaffrey once again enjoyed a huge game as the Niners fired on all cylinders thereafter, scoring touchdowns on six straight drives in a 42-19 rout, moving them within one game of the Eagles in the race for the NFC's one seed.
McCaffrey scored the second of those touchdowns to put the 49ers up 14-6. It was his 12th rushing score of the season, a 49ers' franchise record, and saw him become part of an exclusive club by reaching 50 rushing touchdowns and 27 receiving touchdowns for his career.
He joined Marshall Faulk and Lenny Moore as the only other players in NFL history to score at least 50 touchdowns on the ground and 25 as a receiver. Both Faulk and Moore are in the Hall of Fame.
With 93 yards on the ground as part of an effort that saw him rack up 133 yards from scrimmage, McCaffrey became the first 49ers running back since Frank Gore in 2014 to record 1,000 yards on the ground in a single season.
McCaffrey had 1,139 yards rushing last season, but 393 of them came for the Carolina Panthers before his midseason trade to the 49ers.
The do-it-all back will not be thinking about milestones, but he is now just 539 yards away from joining Gore, Garrison Hearst and Roger Craig and becoming only the fourth 49er to reach 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a single campaign.
Gore was the last 49er to achieve that feat in 2006.
McCaffrey, however, looks primed to replicate him for a team that could end up with the best record in the NFL. If that comes to pass, Shanahan might find some MVP voters concurring with his assessment in a year in which there is arguably no standout quarterback candidate for the award.
