Christian McCaffery felt good physically. He’ll wait until he has a chance to watch some tape before deciding how good he looked in his season debut.
San Francisco’s star running back returned to the lineup after missing the first eight games of the season and rushed for 39 yards on 13 carries and caught six passes for 68 yards in the 49ers’ 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
“I’m just happy I’m here,” McCaffery said. “That was a long journey and a lot of long days, so it feels good to win and it feels good to just play in a football game again.”
Last season’s AP Offensive Player of the Year had been sidelined since early September due to Achilles tendinitis.
Sunday’s game, which gave the 49ers (5-4) consecutive victories for the first time this season, began with McCaffrey running for a 5-yard gain and ended with Jake Moody kicking a winning field goal as time expired.
“I try to feel emotions as they come,” McCaffrey said. “I don’t really play anything. I have my routine. It’s all about my body and making sure the warmup’s on point.
“I try to stay even-keeled and obviously there’s a lot of emotion when you play an NFL football game. So, I just try to let those come naturally. When you miss time due to something like that, nobody wants to be on the field more than me. Just to be out there again, to be honest with you, you really realize how much of a privilege it is to play football.”
Brock Purdy threw for 353 yards and two touchdowns. He set up one of those TDs with a lob up the right sideline to McCaffery that gained 30 yards.“I think he was awesome. … We had multiple plays with him out of the backfield that were some big plays throwing the ball,” Purdy said.
“Defenses have to scheme that up, they have to acknowledge him, which can open up some other guys,” the quarterback added. “More than anything just seeing how gritty and tough he is, we get behind him. He inspires us and keeps us going and lights that fire in the huddle. It’s huge having him in there.”
Shanahan was encouraged by what he saw, too.
“He came out great, which was huge,” the coach said. “We knew it was going to be tough to … load manage him, as everyone says in the media. I just say ‘not play him as much.’
“I thought we did that in the first half, in the second half it got away from us a little bit. We weren’t taking him out in the fourth and he didn’t need to be taken out. He’ll be pumped up and back next week.”
The 49ers rushed for 72 yards, with McCaffery’s 13 attempts the most on the team by far. Purdy had four carries, Deebo Samuel three and Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo one each.
McCaffrey was targeted seven times in the passing game, second most on the team behind wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who had 11 and finished with seven catches for 93 yards.
“I never go in expecting anything, but when my number is called I like to be out there,” McCaffrey said. “That’s the third time I’ve had pads on in eight weeks, so just getting back into the groove. … That was really good for me to do.
“I feel pretty good. I thought I was going to be a lot more sore, but we’ll see how I feel (Monday).”