Todd Bowles: You Can’t Stop Christian McCaffrey, You Can Only Contain Him
October 11th, 2025
The key to 49ers offense.
Last week when the 49ers beat the Rams in overtime in Los Angeles, San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey didn’t go crazy, but he did just enough to do damage.
McCaffrey had 57 yards rushing and no touchdowns. But it was through the air that McCaffrey hurt the Rams. He had 82 yards receiving and a score.
And that’s what has Bucs coach Todd Bowles worried about tomorrow’s game with the 49ers.
Bowles believes McCaffrey’s YAC (yards after catch) is his true weapon. Asked how to stop McCaffrey, Bowles said you don’t, but you hope to contain him.
“I have not seen anybody stop him,” Bowles said. “You hope slow him down — you can limit the YAC, after the catch, those are the big things for him.
“He is very tough to bring down in the open field, so one guy probably is not going do it more often than not. You have a lot of guys around to the ball.”
What worries Joe is the Bucs aren’t exactly the best tackling team in the open field.
And the thing is, if the Bucs focus too much on McCaffrey, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan will scheme to spread the ball around and perhaps catch the Bucs napping.