Kyle Shanahan Hopes 49ers’ Efforts Keep Christian McCffrey’s TD Streak ‘Didn’t Offend’ Doug Pederson Too Much

The 49ers made a clear effort to get Christian McCaffrey a late touchdown when the game was out of reach on Sunday.

The San Francisco 49ers had already steamrolled the Jacksonville Jaguars by the time the fourth-quarter rolled around Sunday, getting out to a 34-3 lead late in the game and effectively putting it on ice.

But on a day where Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, and Kyle Juszczyk all scored touchdowns, All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey was held out of the end-zone for the first time in 18 games, snapping his 17-game touchdown streak that was one game shy of officially holding sole possession of the all-time record. 

The 49ers did their best to make it happen, though, with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan making a point to give his star running back four touches within the 10-yard line in the last 10 minutes of the game, electing to go for it on fourth-down instead of kicking a field goal to take a 37-3 lead.

"18 games in a row is a big record. If we had a chance to do it, I was going to try to do it for him. It's a little nerve-racking. Last thing I want to do is get him hurt, but it was big-time for Elijah [Mitchell] to run the ball like that to get us down there," Shanahan said. "Brock and I think Ronnie [Bell] made a huge third down throw, I believe, that gave us a chance, and once we got close, we told him to stay loose because we were going to try. We got close. Wish we could have done it for him, but I think that was a pretty big accomplishment to do it for 17 games straight."

Shanahan said he told Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson about the decision after the game.

"Yeah, he said he knew. Right when I saw him, I was like, hey, I hope you know why we were trying to do that, and he was very well aware. He said they were talking about it. Hopefully it didn't offend him too much," Shanahan said.