Dan Campbell knows the Detroit Lions will have a hard time stopping the San Francisco 49ers on offense this weekend and will have some tough decisions to make.
The 49ers have moved into first overall in the NFC with a balanced offense, and this week Campbell talked about what the team needs to do to get Christian McCaffrey back for Sunday’s championship game. The Lions struggled at times on defense during the regular season, and Campbell said they will have to be at their best to reach the Super Bowl.
Lions are concerned about Christian McCaffrey.
McCaffrey, 27, had the best season of his career with the 49ers, rushing for a league-leading 1,459 yards with 14 touchdowns and adding 564 receiving yards with seven touchdowns -hate. His 2,023 all-purpose yards and 21 total touchdowns also led the NFL.Campbell said his team will have to focus on stopping the All-Pro running back, but he knows the 49ers and coach Kyle Shanahan can find other ways to torch the defense. “Stop running. He’s still on the run,”
Campbell said, via SI.com. “You have to stop running, because if you don’t, they’ll charge you $250 and you won’t even think about passing.”
“It all has to start from there. Yeah, that’s Shanahan’s great skill. He can work one side and outplay you. Then he makes it count, the play moves away from him and he works in midfield. “Campbell continued: – So you’re involved on both fronts.
The Lions will face McCaffrey at full health. There was some concern when McCaffrey was shown working with a trainer during a broadcast of San Francisco’s divisional-round win over the Green Bay Packers, but Shanahan said this week there were no injury concerns.
“No, I heard about it on [broadcast] TV because some of my family asked about it,” Shanahan said, via Pro Football Talk . “But that’s exactly what Christian does to me. He always works with his body and objects. He didn’t tell me anything about his quad.”
