Christian McCaffrey was the best player on the field for the 49ers on Sunday, so you can see why San Francisco fans were a little sensitive about his late-game usage.
Fans and journalists alike openly questioned head coach Kyle Shanahan’s decision to keep McCaffrey on the field during the game’s final drive with over three minutes left, despite the fact that the 49ers were up 31-14. These takes were likely inflamed by a scarred fanbase that has seen top tier players continuously go down with injuries during the Shanahan era.
Murph & Mac asked Shanahan about the decision when he joined KNBR Tuesday morning. He said it was a no-brainer to keep McCaffrey in considering Shanahan has seen larger leads blown in a shorter period of time.
“Look at our Detroit game from Week 1 last year,” Shanahan said. “It was 41-17 with 1:58 left. On the last play of the game it was 41-33 and Detroit had the ball on the 20-yard line going for a touchdown to send it to overtime. So to start sitting there worrying about all of our guys and what’s going on when it’s a 17-point game with six minutes to go is not a good omen.
“It’s not what you do to the football gods. You don’t start worrying about the wrong stuff when there’s plenty of time left in the game.”
Shanahan is probably also still scarred by the Falcons’ now infamous loss in the Super Bowl when they were up 28-3 at halftime, when Shanahan was Atlanta’s offensive coordinator. When that happens to you, the better safe than sorry approach takes precedent.
That said, it doesn’t seem crazy to give those late game carries to Jeff Wilson Jr., considering the 49ers were basically just trying to run out the clock. Wilson has fumbled twice this season, however, and that may have also been part of the consideration.
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Murph & Mac weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.