McCaffrey, Purdy and the need for healthy D-linemen

The question was whether having two legitimate MVP candidates on the same team, the San Francisco 49ers in this instance, would prove to be a negative. Not in games, but in voting for the award.

Whether the ballots for Brock Purdy would cancel those for Christian McCaffrey or vice versa. That was last week.

Now there’s a larger question. Can the 49ers slow the Baltimore running attack when the teams meet Sunday night in what could be labeled a holiday gift from the schedule makers.

Or after a look at the standings, maybe called a Super Bowl preview.

The Niners, with their 45-29 victory over the sad sack Arizona Cardinals,  have the best record in the NFC, 11-3. And the Ravens, 23-7 winners over the Jacksonville Jaguars, also are at 11-3, best in the AFC. 

So, yes those would seem to be the favorites for Super Bowl LVIII (58 for us uncivilized folk west of the Roman Empire), that game is on Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas.

But not so fast. There are several weeks to go in the regular season when noting what’s been happening too often, injuries might occur, and then playoffs. So nothing is certain.

Other than what transpired, the Niners, although winning, were unable to halt Arizona’s ground game as the Cardinals rushed for 234 yards — marking the most against SF this season.

The Niners were missing starting defensive tackles, Arik Armstead (foot, knee) and Javon Hargrave (hamstring).

And whether they’ll be back against Baltimore, which rushed for 251 yards against Jacksonville, becomes a large issue.

Shanahan on Monday was asked about the possibility of signing a quick fill-in, someone like Ndamukong Suh.

"Not yet," Shanahan said. "I mean, I'm not ruling out anything. We have guys on our practice squad, as you guys see, that we used last week. But that stuff, we also aren't exactly sure when Hargrave and Armstead are coming back. We do know they have chances this week, so there's a lot of variables that are playing together that we'll be discussing here the rest of the day, and tomorrow. And even if we don't make a move in any area, that'll probably be continuing throughout the year."

If the defense is troubling, the offense is reaffirming. The MVP mentions had their usual spectacular games, despite taking hits that forced them to be examined by medical staff or trainers. McCaffrey was out for four plays. Then Purdy, the quarterback phenom, missed two plays.

Some gasp from Niners personnel but that was about all. McCaffrey, who was diagnosed with a stinger in his leg, rushed for 115 yards and a touchdown and caught five passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns.

Purdy, returning to the suburbs of Phoenix where he went to high school, completed 16 of 25 for 242 yards and four touchdowns. 

Magnanimously he also tossed in the thought of McCaffrey as the MVP.

Because of those two, other Niners on offense tend not to be appreciated. One, of course, would be Deebo Samuel who had four receptions for 48 yards, and 2 TDs.

McCaffrey became only the fourth player in NFL history with at least four seasons of 1,000 yards rushing, and 500 yards receiving. His NFL high of  20 touchdowns moved a bit closer to the franchise season record of 23 that was set in 1987 by, who else — Jerry Rice, now occasionally doing TV commercials for a South Bay insurance firm.

First he grabbed footballs. Now he tries to grab clients.

49ers, a new red (jersied) machine

The label was used originally back in the 1970s for the baseball team from Cincinnati. So pardon a bit of plagiarism for choosing to call the 49ers, in their home uniforms, the Big Red Jersied Machine.

We’re talking pro football. We’re talking big gains (the first play of the game was Christian McCaffrey sprinting 72 yards). We’re talking timely defense. We’re talking another five-game win streak. 

We’re talking a 28-16 victory over the Seattle Seahawks Sunday that elevated the Niners into a tie for the best record in the NFL. We’re talking about a coach, Kyle Shanahan, who was pleased but as every coach until the season ends, seeking improvement.

We’re talking a next game against the Arizona Cardinals, who at 3-10, are as bad as the 10-3 Niners are good. We’re talking a roster of  players who on offense remind us of the 1980s, the Montana, Craig, Rice, Clark, Young group about which John Madden in his role as TV an analyst would say again and again, “too many weapons.”

On this 2023 Niners team the offensive weapons include the almost-impossible-to-bring-down Deebo Samuel (two TDs Sunday), McCaffrey (145 yards rushing and one TD), and George Kittle (one TD).

And, oh yeah, we’re talking about the biggest surprise maybe ever, that quarterback guy Brock Purdy, who Sunday completed 19 passes in 27 attempts for 368 yards and two TDs.

The Purdy legend has been told many times but not enough for the 49ers Faithful, the last player picked in the draft — what were those scouts and assistant coaches looking for anyway? — who may be heading from the infamous Mr. Irrelevant to a more classy title, Most Valuable Player.

Another individual of value is Shanahan, whose decisions on personnel and game plans have been virtually unpredictable and eminently successful.

No, not every move works, but he has shown to be adaptable.

If something doesn’t work, then he’s very willing to try something else, although it’s hard to believe he would be willing to try a different quarterback.

“So many guys made big plays out of little plays,” a perfect summation of the reason the Niners kept getting into the end zone and when for a few moments they fell behind early in the second quarter, getting in front once more.

Shanahan’s specialty is offense — like the days of Bill Walsh. You almost can see the wheels turning in his brain, coming up with plays — but he well understands defense triumphs.  

Once more there will be a reference to the late John McKay, who went from a national championship at USC to become the first coach of the expansion Tampa Bay Bucs.  

“You win on defense,” said McKay. “If the other team doesn’t score you’ll never get worse than a 0-0 tie.”

The other team in this case, the Seahawks, did score against the Niners, but just enough to make the game interesting. Seattle had just 324 yards in offense, compared to 527.

And the linebacker Fred Warner had an interception, his fourth of his career, equaling the team record held by Keena Turner.

Big red machine, indeed.

McCaffrey trade that worked for Niners

SANTA CLARA — This is the trade that worked. This is the trade that might get the 49ers to the Super Bowl. This is the trade that brought them Christian McCaffrey. 

All spring we kept being reminded about the bad deal that brought quarterback Trey Lance, who turned out not to be the man the Niners hoped he would be.

Well, McCaffrey, the Stanford guy (as is his dad), is exactly what the 49ers hoped he would be. And more.  

So, let’s hear about the good deal — the great deal — the one that brought them the marvelous runner and receiver. And what a game he had Sunday, picking up yards, picking up records and helping San Francisco pick up another win, this one 35-16 over the Arizona Cardinals. 

McCaffrey scored four touchdowns, with three of those coming in the first half. In the process, McCaffrey extended his team streak of games scoring a touchdown to 13, one more than the record of 12 set by Jerry Rice in 1987.

It was a year ago, October 2022, when Niners coach Kyle Shanahan was able to acquire the running back he knew the Niners needed to balance their defense.

And that McCaffrey, looking to expand his horizons and his performance, sought a change.

He mentioned, while still with the Carolina Panthers, the team that drafted him, that he would like to play with the Big City Guys as if there was much difference between where an NFL franchise is located. It’s the people who run the team and play for the team who count.

Small town or Gotham, you want great players and winners. McCaffrey, who rushed 20 times for 106 yards and caught seven passes for 71 yards, unquestionably is one of those.

“It’s a normal thing for him to score a touchdown in 13 consecutive games,”  said Kyle Juszczyk, the Niners fullback who blocks for McCaffrey. “That’s insane. It’s just come to be expected. He executes everything so well.”

Juszczyk is a prime blocker for McCaffrey, and as you know a Harvard grad. Maybe he’s the only one who would use “insane” in a football context.  

What McCaffrey said about what certainly was a historic afternoon at Levi’s Stadium was very little. He preferred to talk about teammates, especially quarterback Brock Purdy. 

“I think you can go down the list of what makes a quarterback good and he checks every box. Then he has all the intangibles that would be phenomenal. He brings a kind of swagger and energy every day that is fun to be around.  He’s quiet but very confident and he expresses that in the way he plays. It’s just awesome to have him in the huddle.”

The same is true for McCaffrey, out of the huddle and into the end zone.

Niners up against expectations — theirs and ours

Sure it could have been better. But that shows what the 49ers are up against, their own expectations as well as ours. And, oh yes, the opposing team.

Which Thursday evening in the haze and mirth of Levi’s Stadium was the New York Giants, who were, dare we say, resilient and for a few moments effective.

But they never really had a chance of winning, meaning the Niners, now 3-0 and getting things together if perhaps a trifle slow, never had a chance of losing.

In the end, it was San Francisco, 30-12, and a Sunday after a breather they’ll be 4-0 because next on the list is the semi-hopeless Arizona Cardinals, who several days ago couldn’t even hold a large lead over the Giants.

True, there are upsets in the NFL — that  “any given Sunday concept” —  but no way were the Cardinals going to win at Levi’s. So there you have it, Niners against the Cowboys for the autumn version of the annual NFC title game.

Getting ahead of ourselves? Why not, in the NFC, and maybe the entire NFL the Cowboys, who overwhelmed the very same Giants 40-0 two weeks ago, and the Niners, are both the class and power of pro football. 

Niner quarterback Brock Purdy wasn’t perfect in the game. 

“He missed on a few throws early,” conceded head coach Kyle Shanahan. 

However, Purdy is perfect in regular season games as a starter, 13-0.

Defense won the game for San Francisco, as it usually does. The Niners had the ball 39 minutes out of the allotted 60. Small wonder then the Niners outgained New York, 441 yards to 150.

That’s not competition, that’s a joke.

Yes, D is what makes the Niners go, or more correctly keep the other team from going. But Thursday San Francisco offered plenty of offense. Deebo Samuel was running and catching along with Christian McCaffrey

On the telecast Al Michaels, recalling the line probably first used by the late John Madden about the Team of the ‘80s, Niners champions, told us “Too many weapons.”

Not that the weapons couldn’t be silenced. Three times San Francisco had a drive finish with a field goal by Jake Moody.

Thursday NFL football is on the NFL Network, and with Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit doing their best to keep us attentive there was a prehistoric video of Madden using the Telestrator for the first time.

Electronics have become a massive part of pro football. However, they can’t compete with winning.  Ask the 49ers.

McCaffrey: ‘Just trying to master my craft’

And oh yeah, Jimmy Garoppolo had an excellent game too. Not that you noticed. Which was understandable, since he was playing on the same 49ers team as Christian McCaffrey.

McCaffrey is the guy who told us Sunday, after the Niners beat their patsies, the Los Angeles Lambs, 31-14, “I’m just trying to master my craft.”

What craft is that, carving sculptures like Michelangelo?

He seems already to have mastered the art of football. Or is that becoming only the third NFL player in the last 60 years or so to run for a touchdown, catch a pass for a touchdown and throw a pass for a touchdown in the same game merely pedestrian?

Jimmy G? He was 21 of 25 for 235 yards and two touchdowns. This was the same Niners team that a week earlier was embarrassed and overwhelmed.

Of course, they were playing the Kansas City Chiefs.

The constant advice in sports is never get too depressed after a defeat or too excited after a victory. For the moment. you are permitted to ignore the advice and instead consider the words of the Fox announcing crew, who said San Francisco once more is a Super Bowl possibility.

McCaffrey, the Stanford kid (well, he’s 26 now), spent five seasons with the Carolina Panthers. He was in great demand by other teams, including the Niners and Rams. And for the cost of a bag of beans — well, three high draft picks — the Niners got him.

On Sunday, the 49ers were without their main offensive threat, Deebo Samuel, who was injured. The 49ers have a bye next week, and when Samuel returns, he will make McCaffrey better — as McCaffrey will make Samuel better.

As McCaffrey in a way also made the already strong Niner defense (excluding the KC debacle) better because the other team won’t have the ball if the Niners have it.

“I think there’s still so much more left for me to learn,” McCaffrey said. “I’m excited to continue to grow and get better with this team and with the offense … I think there’s still a lot of meat on the bone that I left out there.”

After the win, the Niners only have a 4-4 record and are not even first in NFC West (Seattle is). But the Niners had numerous players who missed games (and practice) because of injuries. Most will be well in a month.

They’ll also have McCaffrey, as much for the way he has lifted the squad mentally as he has physically. Against the Rams, he rushed for 94 yards and had another 55 yards as a receiver. There are no statistics to rank degrees of optimism.

McCaffrey was measured in responding to questions about the remarkable achievement, accomplished previously only by LaDainian Tomlinson and Walter Payton.

However, Garoppolo said what others surely must have been thinking, that was some performance.

Especially for someone trying to master his craft.

McCaffrey trade means the future is now for the Niners

First question: Do the 49ers have any draft picks in the next century or so? Second question: Who cares? As a football coach named George Allen used to tell us so often, the words became the title of his autobiography: the future is now.

There’s little doubt that the San Francisco 49ers are a better team than they were two days ago when wisely they embraced the opportunity to grab running back Christian McCaffrey, who leads in all sorts of stats and whom they hope will lead them to a championship.

The NFL is a league of missed chances and second guesses, so when the time arises, if it ever does, you better take advantage. The Niners did exactly that.

This is the way you have to think when giving up draft picks for real live people: One guy has been out there doing what you’re only believing some other guy might do or never do.

So let’s go forth, real live people.

True, it’s going to be boring around the Niners for the next few drafts. The picks they didn’t swap for Trey Lance, they swapped for McCaffrey.

Indeed, McCaffrey’s pro career since he came out of Stanford has been beset by injuries. All the more reason in the big picture to make a deal for him now.

As the Niners have been reminded this season, NFL players get hurt virtually every play. If you have more than a few talented healthy ones, it makes sense to add another who is quite talented and not infrequently quite healthy.

This is sports, right? It’s a form of entertainment. It isn’t that the Niners haven’t been at least mildly entertaining (and more than mildly frustrating), winning three of their first six games.

It’s that’s the acquisition makes them must-see stuff, right up with those Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots. Plus there’s the backstory for a team wanting to be the front-runner. In 2017, drafting third overall, the Niners could have chosen McCaffrey. And didn’t.

General manager John Lynch, a Stanford guy himself, made the ultimate decision on trading three high draft picks for a 26-year-old running back. But Kyle Shanahan, the Niners’ head coach, and surely a few others in the organization had opinions.

On Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, the 49ers play the Kansas City Chiefs, the team that beat the Niners two and a half years ago in Super Bowl LIV.

Whether McCaffrey, so quickly after joining the Niners, gets into this game is problematic, but he’ll be getting into other games and perhaps getting San Francisco into another Super Bowl.

Lynch called the trade a gamble, if a well thought-out one. Isn’t every play a gamble, the offense trying to outsmart the defense, which in turn is trying to outsmart the offense?

For certain, with McCaffrey running and receiving, the Niners’ offense will be more productive, giving a balance to a team whose strength has been on defense.

Perfection is rare in pro football, where are there are too many moving parts and bizarre bounces. The game essentially is one of persistence and survival.

Often it’s a case of hanging in until somebody makes the big play. That somebody might be Christian McCaffrey.

We’ll find out soon enough.

S.F. Examiner: Christian has believers on both sidelines of 119th Big Game

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Christian McCaffrey got his million yards — well, OK it was only 284, but it seemed like a million — and the Big Game remained in Stanford’s possession. But let’s not forget that for the first time in five years Cal had a lead, if a short-lived one.

Early on, the Golden Bears were in front, 10-7. Very early on. Otherwise, when the 119th Big Game came to a thudding conclusion Saturday evening, it was Stanford in front, 45-31, a record-tying seventh-straight win for the Cardinal.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): Christian McCaffrey leads Stanford’s Rose Bowl rout of Iowa

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — Using the multiple skills of record-breaking sophomore halfback Christian McCaffrey to the maximum, Stanford ruined both Iowa and any sense of a competitive game with a 45-16 win in the 102nd Rose Bowl yesterday.

McCaffrey ran for 172 yards, caught four passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, returned a punt for 63 yards and a touchdown and returned a kickoff 28 yards. He set a game mark of 368 yards of total offense, 22 more than Wisconsin’s Jared Abbredaris had against Oregon in the 2012 Rose Bowl.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Kevin Hogan rallies Stanford to winning field goal in final 30 seconds

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

STANFORD, Calif. — Thirty seconds was all that stood between Notre Dame and a chance for the postseason playoff. The Irish had scored the go-ahead touchdown with only a half-minute left to play, and with seemingly half the crowd at sold-out Stanford Stadium cheering for the Irish, the game seemed to be theirs.

But the Cardinal, behind senior quarterback Kevin Hogan and with the aid of a key facemask penalty, used that half-minute to drive from its own 27 to the Irish 8-yard line, and Conrad Ukropina kicked a 45-yard field goal as time expired to give Stanford a 38-36 victory Saturday night.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

‘Little miscues,’ McCaffrey decide the Big Game

By Art Spander

STANFORD, Calif. — One of the stars almost certainly is done. Jared Goff has one more year of eligibility, but the thinking is he’ll leave Cal, enter the NFL draft and be selected very high and thus become very rich. The other star, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, is not going anywhere, except through the other team’s defense.

As Saturday night he went through the Cal defense. For 389 yards, rushing, receiving and on kickoff returns.  Dashing, rumbling, bashing, bouncing, scoring. “He’s a physical runner,” said Cal coach Sonny Dykes, in affirmation. “That’s not hard to see.”

What Dykes and everyone else at Stanford Stadium for the 118^th Big Game saw were bravura performances by Goff, the junior, who threw 54 times, completing 37 for 286 yards and two touchdowns, and McCaffrey, the sophomore, who leads the nation in all-purpose offense. What they also saw was another Stanford victory, defeating the Golden Bears, 35-22, the sixth in a row for the Cardinal in what loosely might be termed a rivalry.

“I have not seen anybody like this kid,” Stanford coach David Shaw said of McCaffrey.

It was a bit better of a game than the last few of these. Cal only trailed 21-16 with some five minutes to go in the third quarter. Still, Stanford wasn’t going to lose, not the way it was tackling, or failing to tackle, or being penalized.

Stanford (9-2) is the better team, which meant if the Bears were going to win they had to be effective and alert. Which they weren’t. “Penalties killed us,” said Dykes of drives that got to to the two and the eight and the 11 and got nothing more than field goals. And that sloppy defense was no less critical.

That’s bully-ball played by Stanford, blockers crushing defenders so the running back or the returner — McCaffrey in most of the cases — often was unhindered. That 98-yard kickoff return for a TD by McCaffrey just before halftime, and just after a Cal field goal, was perfect. If anybody touched McCaffrey it was one of his teammates in the end zone, joyfully offering congratulations.

“I thought that was a momentum-breaker,” said McCaffrey. The Bears had moved to within 14-6 and, whoosh, it was 21-6. “We tried to tackle him,” said Dykes, in his third year as Cal coach. “We got guys in position. We just couldn’t tackle.”

This was the sort of game that would confuse those obsessed with statistics. Cal had 495 yards total offense to Stanford’s 356. Cal had the ball 31 minutes, 16 seconds to Stanford’s 28:44. But Stanford kept Cal from touchdowns — more on that later — and Cal couldn’t stop Stanford.

Maybe when the ball was inside the Stanford 10, or just outside, the Bears should have gone for the end zone on fourth down. Settling for three points when you’re behind is not very advantageous.

“If we had scored on third down,” said Goff, who just missed on a couple of those chances, “we wouldn’t have to ask about going for field goals.”

Or as Dykes glumly confirmed, after Cal dropped to 6-5, “Dropped the ball the first series, missed a pass when Kenny (Lawler) was open in the end zone. Just little miscues. That was kind of the difference for us.”

Little miscues in the Big Game, which because of a TV delay — the Arkansas game preceded it on ESPN — began at 7:41 p.m. PST, the latest ever for a Cal-Stanford meeting. It ended before 11, which isn’t bad, if you’re fortunate to live in the Pacific time zone.

Not that people in New York or Philly have much interest in anything west of the Sierra Nevada, other than the Warriors.

The Cal-Stanford series has been very streaky of late. Before the current stretch of six in a row by Stanford, it was Cal taking seven out of eight.

Before they left the pre-game locker room, the Bears heard Dykes tell them, “Do whatever it takes to make tonight a special night.” What it took was the kind of sharp play, especially on defense, that Cal still seems incapable of executing.

“When you have almost 500 yards of offense against a good defense,” said Dykes, “it’s a little bit frustrating when you score 22 points and don’t win the game. But as I said, penalties really, really hurt us.”

So did Christian McCaffrey, and he’ll be back, whether Jared Goff will or not.