No Christian McCaffrey, no problem: 49ers blast Jets behind fill-in RB Jordan Mason

The San Francisco 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey to see what a supercharged sports car looked like in Kyle Shanahan’s offense. The results have been great.

But the hallmark of Shanahan’s offense, going back to Kyle’s dad Mike and his days with the Denver Broncos, has been taking running backs nobody else wanted and having a ton of success with them. Backs like Jordan Mason.

With McCaffrey a surprise inactive on Monday night with a calf injury and Eli Mitchell on injured reserve, it was Mason’s chance to take on a huge role. And against one of the NFL’s best defenses, the undrafted free agent had the best game of his career in his first NFL start.

Mason had 147 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries as the 49ers rolled to a surprisingly easy 32-19 win over the New York Jets on Monday night.

Mason didn’t carry the 49ers, of course. Deebo Samuel Sr. split backfield duties and had a touchdown. George Kittle made plays. Brock Purdy started slow but got hot as he settled in. Purdy hit fullback Kyle Juszczyk for a 34-yard catch that set up a Mason touchdown early in the third quarter that effectively took the Jets out of the game. The 49ers’ defense is one of the best in the NFL and it showed. But Mason lived out what every backup dreams of, getting his chance and shining when the spotlight was on him.

Curiously, Mason told ESPN’s Lisa Salters in a postgame interview he found out he’d start “maybe Friday, Friday night, something like that.” If true, he certainly had more time to get ready than scrambling fantasy football managers who had McCaffrey in their lineups.

“I never told Jordan he was going to start,” Shanahan told reporters postgame. “I told him he had to be ready a bunch. That might’ve been [running backs coach] Bobby [Turner Jr.] or somebody trying to pump him up. I knew he was going to have to play a lot. I told him it wasn’t going to be like usual. … But he didn’t know for sure he was doing that until today.”

The 49ers’ offense looked as good as ever,…

Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/no-christian-mccaffrey-no-problem-49ers-blast-jets-behind-fill-in-rb-jordan-mason-030844266.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-10 03:08:44

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