What Christian McCaffrey's Presence Does To A Defense

[Saca312]

Christian McCaffrey had 15 touches, but not many yards to show for it. On paper, he didn't seem to be much of a factor, as the 49ers successfully shut down the hyped up rookie. However, he's already helped show a glimpse of just where this offense can be.

The 49ers understood CMC was a threat. And that opened up a lot of opportunities.

Check out the Shepard touchdown. The Panthers are in a 3x1 formation, which they seemed to be using a lot when their CMC plays didn't work. The 49ers are playing half zone and half man with a single high safety in the back. 

The play is actually pretty good. The Panthers have Olsen and CMC draw out the three defenders playing zone, the two outside receivers on the right draw away the two other man defenders, while Russell Shepard cuts across the middle and draws the single high safety.

The result? Shepard takes that easy match-up the play presented, and finds himself in the endzone.

A pretty good playcall showing understanding of the match-up issues Christian McCaffrey brings, and how much he affects the defense. Although most of Shula's playcalls were terrible this game (too much force feeding CMC, and a lot of weird, dumb stuff), he showed some bright spots. Hopefully this week serves as a lesson and doesn't continue in the future.

Expect a lot more creative ways to get our guys open in the future with CMC's presence.

 

[Kevin Greene]

That was a good play, don't agree the 49ers shut him down successfully though. 85 combined yards rushing/receiving. and as you said nice decoy. 2 real nice punt returns called back on stupid penalties. 7 yards a touch, is that bad?

The fumble though, we can't have that ish. Looked like he had it wrapped up but nope.

[Saca312]

22 minutes ago, Kevin Greene said:

The fumble though, we can't have that ish. Looked like he had it wrapped up but nope.

Christian McCaffrey rarely fumbled in college, so that fumble looks to be the exception rather than the norm. Nevertheless, I expect that to be worked on and never to be seen much on the field again.

 

[saints4lifeagain]

Looked pretty scatback-esque to me. Not bad, aside from the fumble, but nothing special. I've heard the decoy stuff a million times during Reggies tenure.

[csx]

He will have to do more, and I expect him to, in order to keep being respected like that. We were targeting him quite a bit when he was on the field so if we keyed in on that they certainly did as well.

[Saca312]

28 minutes ago, saints4lifeagain said:

Looked pretty scatback-esque to me. Not bad, aside from the fumble, but nothing special. I've heard the decoy stuff a million times during Reggies tenure.

The gameplan Shula had was terrible. Completely hampered what CMC could've done by making him the sole focus rather than spread the ball around. 49ers knew that the ball was going to CMC. Panthers didn't even reveal much at all.

I have a feeling the Panthers came in not showing their full deck of cards. Expect that to happen around week 3 or 4 where we see this offense's full potential.

[PantherGuy]

41 minutes ago, Saca312 said:

Christian McCaffrey rarely fumbled in college, so that fumble looks to be the exception rather than the norm. Nevertheless, I expect that to be worked on and never to be seen much on the field again.

 

Agreed, it seemed a bit like Kareem Hunt. Defense's aggressiveness could be a bit of a surprise, so you get popped once a little too hard and then you adjust.

[tiger7_88]

57 minutes ago, saints4lifeagain said:

Looked pretty scatback-esque to me. Not bad, aside from the fumble, but nothing special. I've heard the decoy stuff a million times during Reggies tenure.

Scatbacks run between the tackles for around 6 yards a pop at the end of the game when trying to run the clock out?

Interdasting concept.  Tell me more. 

[saints4lifeagain]

28 minutes ago, Saca312 said:

The gameplan Shula had was terrible. Completely hampered what CMC could've done by making him the sole focus rather than spread the ball around. 49ers knew that the ball was going to CMC. Panthers didn't even reveal much at all.

I have a feeling the Panthers came in not showing their full deck of cards. Expect that to happen around week 3 or 4 where we see this offense's full potential.

I mean, he got 18 touches, 2 less than Stewart. I didn't find it was all that centered around CMC. He just seemed to be the only guy Cam could hit consistsently today. He looked about like what I expected. Pretty hard to catch 1 on 1 in space. The problem is, NFL speed is different than college and the pursuit gets there a lot quicker after you make a guy miss. 

6 minutes ago, tiger7_88 said:

Scatbacks run between the tackles for around 6 yards a pop at the end of the game when trying to run the clock out?

Interdasting concept.  Tell me more. 

He averaged 3.6 a carry. He had a couple nice runs at the end of the game against a defeated defense. Before the drive had carried 10 times for 27 yards. 

Him having 2 nice runs at the end of the game doesn't change that he's a scatback.

[shaqattaq]

2 hours ago, Saca312 said:

The gameplan Shula had was terrible. Completely hampered what CMC could've done by making him the sole focus rather than spread the ball around. 49ers knew that the ball was going to CMC. Panthers didn't even reveal much at all.

I have a feeling the Panthers came in not showing their full deck of cards. Expect that to happen around week 3 or 4 where we see this offense's full potential.

I agree. We'll see more as we need to. I like that Stew got into the passing game. Hell, just about everyone got a few chances to catch a pass.

[Saca312]

A more in depth look coming out tomorrow with even more examples of CMC's impact.

[Jakob]

It's nearly 1 AM on the East Coast and we have a Saints fan (on a Panthers message board) trying to discredit CMC's first NFL game.  Is this all Saints fans have to live for?

 

[Kevin Greene]

1 minute ago, Jakob said:

It's nearly 1 AM on the East Coast and we have a Saints fan (on a Panthers message board) trying to discredit CMC's first NFL game.  Is this all Saints fans have to live for?

 

Wants him to be Reggie Bush so bad.

[Saca312]

1 minute ago, Jakob said:

It's nearly 1 AM on the East Coast and we have a Saints fan (on a Panthers message board) trying to discredit CMC's first NFL game.  Is this all Saints fans have to live for?

 

To be fair he's probably the more classy Saints fan on this board. He's tolerable.

But yeah his CMC comments make me laugh. Sure, CMC had mistakes and he's a rookie. But to say he's a scatback is pretty laughable.