SANTA CLARA — Christian McCaffrey is good to go for the 49ers’ playoff opener Saturday at Levi’s Stadium.
After missing the Niners’ Week 18 game with a calf strain and resting during the team’s first-round playoff bye, the running back is practicing in full.
That rest is going to prove valuable, because if Kyle Shanahan has his way, the 49ers are going to be riding their running back to a Super Bowl win.
This 49ers team is the best in Shanahan’s time as head coach — it lacks a clear weakness.
But there’s little question who the best player on the team was this season: McCaffrey.
The running back touched the ball an NFL-leading 339 times this past season, for an NFL-leading 2,023 yards, and a league-leading 21 touchdowns.
So yeah, he’s pretty good.
And while his teammates are excellent, too, Shanahan has shown that his preference is to keep the ball on the ground in the playoffs, if he can.
There’s an old Woody Hayes saying: Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two are bad.
The message is unmistakable — if you can run the ball, run the ball. Playoff football is played in nasty elements with an oblong ball. Why leave anything to chance?
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In the playoffs after the 2019 season, Shanahan would have made Hayes proud: The Niners ran the ball 89 times in their two NFC games.
Now, part of that was a lack of trust in the quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo. But it was also a plan of attack towards the weakness of the opposing defenses. The tactic unquestionably worked.
But last season, the tactic was mitigated. McCaffrey only touched the ball 33 times in the Niners’ first two playoff games because the opposition was daring rookie quarterback Brock Purdy to throw the ball. Shanahan let him, all the way until the quarterback’s elbow exploded.
After Purdy’s comeback 2023 season, though, I doubt any opposing defense will be dumb enough to try that let-Brock-pass tactic again — the 49ers were the top passing team in the NFL, almost doubling the Expected Points Added per play (0.32) of the second-best team in the league, Dallas (0.18).
But it should be noted that with McCaffrey in the backfield, the 49ers were the only team in the NFL to produce a positive EPA per play on rushes (advanced stats hate running the football, a knock on their credibility to be sure).
The Niners’ first opponent this postseason, the Packers, have a run defense that’s less than playoff-worthy.
The Packers allowed 2,181 rushing yards this season — one of the NFL’s worst marks. They’re ranked in the bottom half of the league in Pro Football Focus run defense rating, and their collective tackling is even worse.
The 2019 NFC title game was long ago, but McCaffrey could have a Raheem Mostert moment (220 rushing yards, four touchdowns) on Saturday.
“Raheem had a great one,” McCaffrey told reporters Wednesday. “A lot of things change in (four) years. We’re going to have to bring it every single snap, every single play and see what happens.”
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Shanahan can be criticized for using McCaffrey as if there was no tomorrow all season.
Now it’s the playoffs, and there is, in fact, no tomorrow guaranteed.
Yeah, Shanahan will put the game on the shoulders of his best player, if he can.
“I think he’s geared up and ready to go,” Shanahan said of McCaffrey. “Same way he was last year. Probably the same way he was in his playoff game when he was five years old too, or scrimmage that week. Christian’s always the same. He’s always waiting for that moment. He’s been waiting for this moment for a while.”
There aren’t many players good enough to carry a team through the postseason. And while McCaffrey doesn’t have to do that — the Niners have ample quality around him — that doesn’t mean that he won’t do it anyway.
He’s just that good.
And this is that moment for McCaffrey.
Rested and ready, he can take the 49ers to the Super Bowl in the next two weeks, take another week off, and win the ultimate prize.
For a player who deserves MVP votes this season, but won’t win the award, a playoff run for the ages and the Lombardi Trophy would resonate much longer.
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