Christian McCaffrey follows his best rushing performance with a tough Seattle matchup
While Christian McCaffrey has been incredible this season, racking up 2,069 yards and 17 touchdowns on 399 total touches, his efficiency as a rusher had been relatively lackluster … up until the last two weeks. From Weeks 1-16, McCaffrey averaged just 3.6 yards per carry with a rushing long of 20 yards, an explosive run rate of 8.1% and a top speed of 15+ miles per hour on just 11.6% of his carries. Then, in Weeks 16 and 17, McCaffrey broke off rushes of 24 and 41 yards, boosted his explosive run rate to 13.6%, hit 15+ mph on 27.3% of his rushes and ended up averaging 5.8 yards per carry. His 140 rushing yards in Week 17 against Chicago and 117 rushing yards in Week 16 against Indy were his highest and third-highest marks on the season. And while the Bears rush defense is less than stout, the Colts currently rank third in overall defensive rushing efficiency according to NFL Pro, making CMC’s Monday night feat that much more impressive.
However, not even the Colts have been as stingy against the run as the Seahawks. Their defense ranks first in NFL Pro’s overall rushing efficiency, and specifically first on rushes outside the tackles and rushes under center — while San Francisco runs outside the tackles at the 11th-highest rate and under center at the fifth-highest rate (74.2% of rushes). In fact, Seattle is top 10 in every defensive rushing metric NFL Pro measures, outside of quarterback scrambles. They’ve allowed the fewest yards per carry (3.72) and the third-fewest rush yards per game (94.4) all season and have not surrendered a 100-yard game to a single running back in 2025.
These two teams met in the first game of the year and the Seahawks bottled McCaffrey up as a rusher, holding him to 69 yards on 22 carries (3.1 per carry) … though he scorched them as a receiver with nine catches for 73 yards. If CMC’s end of year surge as a rusher is enough to overcome the strong Seattle front, San Francisco will have an excellent shot at the “upset,” the NFC West title and the number one seed. If not, he may need to have another one-of-one CMC receiving day to elevate the Niners offense to a win.
