Christian McCaffrey came back and somehow the 49ers offense became worse.
In two games with McCaffrey, the 49ers have scored just 40 points.
This shouldn’t happen. The offense was doing well enough before McCaffrey returned. It scored 36 points against the Seahawks four weeks ago. And the running game was good. Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo had emerged as an elite running-back tandem. Mason is one of the hardest runners in the NFL and Guerendo is one of the fastest. They compliment each other. And they’re young and fresh.
Adding McCaffrey to Mason and Guerendo only should make the 49ers offense better. But instead of using all three running backs, the 49ers have used mainly McCaffrey, who’s clearly not 100 percent himself yet after missing most of the offseason and half of the season with bilateral Achilles’ tendonitis.
And so, instead of having an explosive tandem of running backs, the 49ers have one bellcow who’s desperately trying to regain his burst. Through two games, McCaffrey is averaging just 3.7 yards per carry — his lowest average since his rookie season.
And yet he’s still playing 91 percent of the 49ers’ offensive snaps. Kyle Shanahan clearly feels McCaffrey’s presence on the field improves the offense, particularly the passing game, because he’s such a tough matchup.
But for the time being, McCaffrey is hurting the running game. The 49ers need to redistribute some of his carries to Mason and Guerendo to balance out the offense. And if Shanahan doesn’t want to take McCaffrey off the field, he can play him and Mason at the same time. That would be more dangerous than playing a sixth offensive lineman, which is what the 49ers did at times during their loss to the Seahawks.
Time to show some new wrinkles.
