Christian McCaffrey had a big game in Week 9 against the New York Giants. McCaffrey had 28 carries for 106 yards and five catches for 67 yards. He had both a rushing and a receiving touchdown for the 16th time in his career, an NFL regular-season record. (Marshall Faulk also has 16 such games if we include the postseason.)
McCaffrey also comes nowhere near the top games in DYAR this week. The reason? Opponent adjustments. The Giants’ defense has been very, very bad against opposing running backs.
McCaffrey would be tied with Chris Rodriguez Jr. for the best running back game without the opponent adjustments. With them, he goes from 48 YAR to 4 DYAR and ranks 27th among backs!
Is this the biggest gap in history between DYAR and YAR for a running back? Nope, not even close. The biggest gap in a game actually was last year. In Week 9, Alvin Kamara had 29 carries for 155 yards against the Carolina Panthers. He also had six catches for 60 yards. The Panthers run defense was so horrendous last year that this game goes from 58 YAR to -13 DYAR when we apply opponent adjustments.
The other games with really huge opponent adjustments took place in the 20th century. For example, Christian Okoye had a game against the 1989 Dolphins that went from 39 YAR to -27 DYAR, while Ricky Williams had a game against the 1999 Browns that went from 11 YAR to -54 DYAR.
Here’s a look at the best and worst games of Week 9 by DYAR.