Sports
Christian McCaffrey comes up big against his former team on off night for QB Brock Purdy
Christian McCaffrey ran amok against the Carolina Panthers as the San Francisco 49ers improved to 8-4 – but insisted there was no added motivation against his former team.
McCaffrey provided the offense on a night to forget for 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, finishing with 142 scrimmage yards on 31 touches and a touchdown as San Francisco won 20-9.
The running back left Carolina for the 49ers three years ago and dismissed the suggestion he had an extra incentive to perform after lining up against the team that drafted him for the first time.
He said: “When it comes to playing in the league, you have to approach each week as similar as possible, stay in your routine. You can’t get too far outside of what’s normal for you, so I try to do that. Obviously when you see familiar faces, it’s always good to see them before the game and after the game. But that’s a completely new team than when I was there, so it’s really just business once the ball is snapped.”
Wayward Purdy thankful to McCaffrey
Purdy was relieved McCaffrey came up big after throwing three first-half interceptions.
“The way that he prepares every single week, he’s always on one,” Purdy said of his team-mate. “He’s always on top of his stuff and the details and stuff and his mindset – he wants to go out and he’s ready to humble somebody. That’s Christian.”
Purdy looked good last week against Arizona after returning from a toe injury but he struggled here, particularly in the first half.
Of his three interceptions, he said: “Honestly the decisions of going to those spots, I was fine with, it was just the execution of throwing a better ball.
“My read just took me to where I threw the ball. From what I saw up on the big screen, I thought the guys were there. I just missed the throws, to be honest. So got to go back and watch the film and actually see what happened.”
He did improve as the game went on, adding: “Mentally as a quarterback, you want to play aggressive. You want to take what the defense gives you but when you turn the ball over, really three drives in a row, it’s like ‘All right’, you feel it. You feel a bit of pressure and stuff, but I mean, this is why we’re put in this position. I can handle this. As a quarterback, you can’t lose confidence in yourself. You can’t shrivel back and then all of a sudden take a bunch of checkdowns.”
Brown provides the D
Ji’Ayir Brown was the defensive star for the 49ers with a pair of interceptions and five tackles.
“I love this group, man,” he said. “A bunch of young guys – hungry, passionate, want to be great. Want to be put in a situation to be great. Every last one of those guys wants to be great, man, and they just want to contribute to a win as much as they can. And when you have a young group like that that’s hungry and passionate, you can be an unstoppable defense.”
