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49ers RB Christian McCaffrey Says He Wasn't Quite Himself vs. Bucs

He seemed tentative compared to the relentless rusher he was in the past.

Grant Cohn

Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prior to the game at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prior to the game at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
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Christian McCaffrey essentially played well against the Buccaneers on Sunday. But he didn't play like the Christian McCaffrey we've grown accustomed to watching.

He caught six passes, including a clutch 30-yarder in the fourth quarter. And he finished the game with a team-high 107 yards from scrimmage. So he showed glimpses of the player he was for the 49ers the past two seasons.

But he rushed for just 39 yards on 13 carries. That's a mere 3 yards per attempt. He seemed tentative compared to the relentless rusher he was in the past.

"That’s the third time I’ve had pads on in eight weeks so, just getting back into a groove," McCaffrey said after the game. "That was really good for me to do. I think there’s a couple of things that, maybe I didn’t feel like myself 100%, but that’s normal when you haven’t played in a long time, and I’ll learn and grow from those and keep trucking along."

McCaffrey looked healthy, but he didn't break tackles and make defenders miss the way he usually does. And that's OK for now. The most important thing is that he made it through the game without reinjuring his Achilles tendons.

But until he feels like himself, the 49ers would be wise to rotate him with Jordan Mason who carried the ball just once against the Buccaneers. The 49ers would be much more dangerous is both Mason and McCaffrey split carries the rest of the season.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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