Read & React 👀 How Christian McCaffrey has put himself in the MVP conversation | NFL Live

Read & React 👀 How Christian McCaffrey has put himself in the MVP conversation | NFL Live

How about Christian McCaffrey and the 49ers? A rash of injuries for this team as we know, but McAffrey is healthy and willing this team to wins like he does when he’s at his best. Two touchdowns for him yesterday. He was just all over the game. George KD was back as well. And although George KD didn’t catch a pass last night, his impact was felt in the ground game. In 26 rushes this season with KD on the field, Christian McCaffrey is averaging nearly six yards per carry. and he’s averaging nearly three times as many yards before contact per rush than when KD was out. Dan, what did you think about McCaffry’s usage last night? Yeah, firmly in the MVP conversation as of last night. McCaffrey, that play right there, he runs a seam from an offset position. I think he’s probably the only back in the world that can do it. The way that they designed their checkdown game, the way that they designed their screen game around him, I know you guys, we were talking about it last night. At some point they just decided in the fourth quarter, we got the best player on the field. Let’s allow him to take over that football game. They’re one of the reasons why this team is where it is is because of the versatility and the impact of Christian McCaffrey. He absolutely is squarely in the MVP conversation now. Well said. Another update from that game. New on NFL Live from Adam Sheper. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris told reporters that quarterback Michael Penn has a bone bruise in his foot that now will leave him daytoday. So something to monitor there. We’ll keep an eye on that. On a less positive note than what we saw from CMC, Tua Tongabiloa continues to struggle. He threw three interceptions in yesterday’s game and the conversations swirl about Mike McDaniel’s job. Tua took ownership after the game for the way he’s handled himself both on and off the field saying he has to be better. But new on NFL Live, head coach Mike McDaniel addressed the media just a little while ago. Here’s what he had to say. Yeah, he’s going to take the snaps this week and he’s going to um be our starter this week. And uh my expectation is that uh we don’t um throw 10 picks. Uh it will be competitive this week and at the end of the week, I’ll I’ll uh let you guys know who the backup is in the hopes that that somebody grabs and takes. There’s not going to be words that are gonna uh satisfy both the team, organization, fan base. Words are at this point like um you know, I would love to put a muzzle on like we need to we need to fix things and fast. RC, what do you make of what’s going on in Miami right now? This doesn’t get better. We’ve seen the best of Tua Tango Baloa. We’ve seen the best of the Miami Dolphins under the Mike McDaniel regime. When you look at this season, it’s trending to be worse and worse each and every week. We’ve watched Tua Takabaloa have these extreme highs when Mike McDaniel was acquired. And since then, we’ve seen a regression in his play. When you watch this team play on Sunday in Cleveland, this was not a team that seemed prepared, ready to execute, or had the effort of a winner. How about these Chiefs? Okay, Rasheed Rice returning from his suspension as he gets ready to go. First quarter, no score. The Chiefs here first and goal and Rice goes in motion, takes the flip from Patrick Mahomes and he scores. Mina, too easy. I mean, they were already efficient. Now you add Rasheed Rice. He’s so good after the catch. Chiefs go up 7 nothing. Second quarter, Chiefs now lead 14 to nothing. Second and 10 for Momes. Fires back the no look pass for a first down. Dan, pretty impressive. I saw it the same way as you. They’re on the same page already. I love it, Dan. Uh Mahomes hitting Rice one more time for a touchdown. Mina, the Chiefs lead 21 nothing. Yeah, Dan talked about the connection. He sees the one-on- ones for Rice. He knows he can hit him in the back shoulder. He’ll come down with it for the touchdown. There he goes again, drifting around and finds Xavier Worthy for the first down. And this is when you’re thinking, I know it’s against a depleted Raiders team, but they look like once again a Super Bowl favorite, these Chiefs. Later in the drive, Chiefs with second and two from the Raiders 7. Isaiah Pacheco running seven yardds into the end zone for the touchdown. Chiefs score a touchdown on each of their first four drives going to win 31 to nothing. The final score was 31 nothing, but may have been even more lopsided than that. The Chiefs had as many first downs, 30, as the Raiders ran plays on offense. It’s the second time since 1950. A team’s done that. The other came in 1999 with the Browns in their first game back after a threeseason absence. The 30 plays, second fewest by any team since 1950. I was looking at our friend Daniel Jeremiah. He put something on Twitter where he said he was watching all of the offensive possessions for the Raiders and it took him 4 minutes and 44 seconds to watch the entire thing. Dan, that Chief’s offense though is finally at full strength. How much better are they now than they were what we saw week one? Yeah, I owe a public apology to Xavier Worthy and Rashid Rice. I didn’t know these guys would make that much of an impact. I knew they were very good players. Um I would tell you the Chiefs in the matter of three weeks and really getting those guys back healthy and then schematically adding some things have gone from a below average offense to a top five offense and really two critical areas that we constantly talk about. Number one, third downs. Before these guys came back over the last three weeks, they were 15th. Now they’re third in the NFL in third down conversions. If you look at the second blank or the second space red zone, I mean, they were again very average in the red zone. Now they’re top six in the NFL. And so watching the way that like in those situations how creative Andy Reid and Matt Naggie are again, it reaffirms like the impact of having one the speed and then two the ability to just have a get the ball in his hands type of guy with Rishi Rice. I was blown away by how good he looked yesterday. This offense is I’ve been I feel like I’ve been saying it for a couple weeks now. It’s the best offense we’ve seen in Kansas City for at least two seasons. Yeah, I agree. Um, you know, with Andy Reid, I have a kind of a rule of thumb. You know, he’s in his bag when the screen game is clicking in Kansas City, which has been the case for many years, and it was clicking. Uh, we talked about Rasheed Rice, Xavier Worthy, but another element to the passing game that I think is really important has been the emergence of Rashard Smith, the young running back again on those screens. They threw him four, three popped off for big gains. Some of that was the execution of the blocking, the offensive line, and also skilled players. Taekquin Thornton, I thought, had a really nice block. But I think they figured out that Smith, in addition to Rice, because of his vision as a ball carrier with the ball in his hands, is able to turn what should be six, seven yards into nine plus. You saw that multiple times in this game. Yeah, Andy Reid, uh, first shutout win, 427 career regular season games as a head coach. Go ahead, Dan. Yeah, it’s almost like right now they don’t major in anything. They don’t have to. They’ve got minors in a lot. And then Enk, you know what stood out with Rasheed back is like you saw multiple plays where Kelsey on one side, Rashi on the other side, and then T Patrick is like, “Okay, where do I want to start with my eyes or where do I want to start with my read?” I feel like he balances their offense versus zone defenses. Mina, how have the Colts been able to get their offense to play at this level so quickly? I mean, a lot of it because of that guy, Jonathan Taylor. It kind of reminds you of the Eagles last year. Ror, what do you what happens when you take an offensive line that’s blocking its butts off and then you have the back who’s having a career here. He honestly belongs in MVP conversations. But Dan, I think this might be my favorite play action passing attack to watch in the NFL right now because of the design and the commitment to selling run. Both of the Chuck gains to Tyler Warren. You saw him showing blocking because he is a good blocker and it’s important that he’s a his ability to block in line is why he’s able to get so open. The Chargers defense has been very good at defending play action, but because of uh Indianapolis’s commitment to selling it, because of the way they sequence their runs to set up plays like the ones both to Warren, they’re wide open and it happens over and over every game. 11 for 13 for 147 yards out of play action in this one. That’s just a normal statline for Indianapolis now. Hm. Yeah, I would tell you that Indianapolis is as schematically well coached as any team in the NFL. And you see it on both sides of the football. Like offensively, take simple and make it creative. Okay, this is going to be sprint, right? They start in 4x one. They motion out of the 4-1, get back to the 4×1. Then they show like four things at once. Downhill run to Jonathan Taylor. Slice action by the backside guy. The outside receiver is going to fake like he’s going to pin the inside defender down. This is just sprint right to an offense, but it looks like four or five different plays before the snap and then post snap it’s just an easy dump off. This is a beautiful design. Okay, this is basically out going to be outside zone motion. Warren Taylor’s in the slot then Taylor comes in motion. We’re going to hand the ball off to him running full speed. This is outside zone to the bottom of the screen. You have two blockers on the front side and then you could also shovel pass it to Warren. We’re just reading that inside defender. He gets hung up. It’s a foot race to the pylon. Simple plays that they’re just making look creative. This is nuts. Okay, all these people up at the line of scrimmage. Ball is going to get snapped. They’re going to double team two different guys, both Keenan Allen and Lad Manki while also playing single coverage inside out and twisting the inside of their defensive line for a sack. The next defensive line clip I have not seen in the NFL in four or five years. Pay close attention to the interior parts of this defensive line when it comes to run game. We get a stunt. Watch this defensive tackle go behind the defensive end stunt. This is intentional. That’s outrageous to me when it comes to being willing to do that. That is so unique to Indianapolis. Schematically, I think they’re as well coached as anybody in the NFL. Really quick, De’or Buckner has been good like his entire NFL career and every year in Indianapolis, but the things that Luan Rumo is doing up front, some of the games that Dan is highlighting are bringing out another level in his play. He was unblockable in this game, he was unbelievable. Huge part of why that defense was able to hold up. It’s making me think you you think about these coaches that were head coaches that didn’t work out or defensive coordinators other places and they’ve gone to new spots. I mean, uh, Robert Salah comes to mind and Louis Aruma, what they’re doing at these other teams has really been impressive. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

NFL Live’s Laura Rutledge, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky discuss some of the biggest storylines in the league following Sunday’s slate of games.

0:00 Christian McCaffrey & the 49ers
1:29 Dolphins fall to 1-6
3:05 Rashee Rice’s return for Chiefs
7:14 Colts’ offense

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