Last Thursday, the 49ers’ assistant head coach, Anthony Lynn, asked Christian McCaffrey, the Niners’ new running back: “Can you throw? Ever thrown a pass in a game?”
It had been four years, but yes, McCaffrey had done it. Late in the 2018 season, against New Orleans, he took a handoff from Cam Newton, the New Orleans defense surrounded him, and he lofted a spiral 17 yards downfield to tight end Chris Manhertz, all alone. Touchdown.
“I sent them the video of the play,” McCaffrey said.
This play:
QB22 to Chris Manhertz 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Slb5CTFeAt
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) December 18, 2018
“I wanted to make sure they knew I could throw,” he said, laughing, over the phone from the Niners’ locker room at SoFi Stadium Sunday night. You could tell from his voice that he was pretty proud of it. “As soon as they asked, I figured it might be something for Sunday.”
Yes, it just might be something for Sunday. By the time McCaffrey got to practice Friday, a halfback-option throw was in the gameplan—a backward pass from Jimmy Garoppolo to the right side, McCaffrey taking a couple of jab-steps like he was running a wheel-route, hoping to draw in the defense, just like he had in 2018 in Carolina. Then, if it worked and the defense got sucked in, wideout Brandon Aiyuk would have a clear path to the end zone. And the career running back, they all hoped, would be able to loft it over coverage.
“We repped it a couple of times in practice, then in the [Saturday] walk-through,” McCaffrey told me.
“Was Aiyuk open when you repped it?” I said.
“He was open every time,” McCaffrey said.
“So you knew it’d be called,” I said. “What were you thinking when the play got called, and you’re there in the huddle?”
McCaffrey said: “Let it rip. Let it rip, you know? It’s there. The play’s there. You just gotta make it.”
History’s written by the winners. In sports, history is made by the winners, and for the third time in 10 months, San Francisco, with a new star, is writing football history against the Super Bowl champions.
“I’ve got to ask,” I said to McCaffrey amid the din of the locker room, “did you know you’re only the fourth player since the 1970 merger who has thrown a TD pass, caught a TD pass and run for a TD?”
“I found out today,” he said. “It feels good. Really good. It’s a cool stat, but there’s a bigger stat.
“The win.
“To be able to go into a winning locker room, with great players, on a new team with so many guys who can make plays, it’s just exciting.”
He’s another one. Shanahan thought just what any football coach would think about a great back with the ball on the flank—he’ll draw a lot of attention, and maybe a good wide receiver could leak out and assuming McCaffrey wouldn’t get tight, he’d be able to hit Aiyuk for an easy touchdown. So the halfback-option play got practiced, and the Niners warmed up before Sunday’s game at SoFi.
“I threw a little before the game,” McCaffrey said, “but I didn’t want to make it too obvious.”
Five plays into the second quarter, down 7-0, Shanahan called it. “My arm was loose,” McCaffrey said. “I just thought, if BA is open by a step, let it rip. I knew when the corner came up a little [and Aiyuk had a step on two safeties], he was gonna make the catch if I put it out there. That’s not an easy catch. He had to turn his shoulder for the ball, and he made me look really good.”
The reality is it was a very good throw, a spiral floating 34 yards in the air to Aiyuk, who caught it in stride at the two- and scored easily. That tied it. McCaffrey’s nine-yard TD catch, on a play where he was a Jimmy Garoppolo afterthought late in the third, gave San Francisco the lead for good, 17-14. And he powered into the end zone early in the fourth from one yard out, bulling into 287-pound defensive tackle Marquise Copeland, giving the Niners a 24-14 lead and essentially ending it.
The Niners, 4-4, trail surprising Seattle (5-3) by a game. The Rams, 3-4, will have an uphill fight in the division, particularly after a second division loss to the Niners. It wasn’t lost on McCaffrey when he took the field at SoFi Sunday that he very well could have been suiting up for the home Rams had the trade gone down differently. Even the son of a well-traveled former NFL receiver wasn’t altogether ready for the uncertainty of a trade.
“This has been such a weird two weeks,” he said. “I grew up in the business so I understand it’s a business but you don’t really know how to act until you experience the actual event. I didn’t think about where I’d go till I got the call from [Carolina GM] Scott Fitterer.
“It was weird. I practiced that Thursday, went to meetings that Thursday, went home, and [Fitterer] called, and the next day, early, I was on a flight and practiced with the 49ers Friday. It’s a crazy league. But I loved the 49ers run game. I knew that’s where God wanted me to go and now I’m happy to be here.”
On a couple of plays Sunday, McCaffrey stood outside the celebratory group of players while they got all happy. It’s like he wasn’t really in the club yet, and he was still learning who everyone was and making sure he didn’t overstep his bounds. But players accept great players. McCaffrey is one of those.
“I can’t even put into words how happy I am,” he said. “It’s a crazy journey in the NFL. You see this stuff happen and you never think it’ll happen to you. But it has. I’m glad it did.” Niners are too.
Read more in Peter King’s full Football Morning in America column
