Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
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Last week at Arizona, McCaffrey ripped off a 76-yard touchdown run – the longest of his career. He didn’t have that kind of room to run free on this particular Sunday in Houston.
The Texans and their disruptive front line headlined by star defensive end J.J. Watt didn’t allow a run longer than 13 yards. There was a lot of carnage between the tackles.
“That was like a war inside,” left guard Greg Van Roten said. “Those guys are big and hard to move. Every yard that we earned today was tough.”
As McCaffrey said afterward, some games are going to be like that. In some games, 4- and 5-yard runs are big plays. This was one of those games.
“Find a hole, put your head down, get what you can,” McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey kept hammering away to put the Panthers in manageable down and distance situations throughout the game. They hitched their wagon to No. 22.
“He was running his ass off,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “It wasn’t chunk plays, but it was efficient. He was breaking tackles, finishing runs, just staying after it. It was a workmanlike day.
“He carried us.”
He’s built to carry them if that is what’s required.
“The guy maximizes every bit of free time he has as far as recovery to get his body right,” Van Roten said of McCaffrey. “He takes a beating, but he always pops himself up. I love blocking for him.”
And it wouldn’t be a proper Panthers game without McCaffrey doing something spectacular. His 8-yard catch on 3rd-and-7, the one where he tipped the ball to himself twice with his left hand and slid for first-down yardage, was unreal.