Christian McCaffrey caught a touchdown pass from Mac Jones, rushed for another score and the San Francisco 49ers got back on track by running all over the New York Giants on the way to a 34-24 victory. McCaffrey accounted for 173 scrimmage yards — 106 on the ground on his 28 carries and 67 receiving on five catches Sunday. Many of the 49ers fans in attendance chanted “CMC! CMC!” after he got into the end zone past the midway point of the fourth quarter. The Giants lost their third game in a row to drop to 2-7.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Christian McCaffrey caught a touchdown pass from Mac Jones, rushed for another score and the San Francisco 49ers got back on track by running all over the New York Giants on the way to a 34-24 victory on Sunday.
McCaffrey accounted for 173 scrimmage yards — 106 on the ground on his 28 carries and 67 receiving on five catches. Many of the 49ers fans in attendance chanted “CMC! CMC!” after he got into the end zone past the midway point of the fourth quarter.
A week after a franchise-low 10 rushing attempts, Kyle Shanahan’s team ran the ball 39 times for 159 yards, including Brian Robinson Jr.’s 18-yard touchdown that sent a lot of the Giants crowd to the exits.
Jones completed his first 14 passes on the way to finishing 19 of 24 for 235 yards and TD passes to McCaffrey and Jauan Jennings. Jones bounced back from a fumble forced by Brian Burns and caught by Abdul Carter to improve to 5-2 as a starter this season.
Pounding the ball against the Giants with not much resistance and plenty of missed tackles, the 49ers (6-3) quickly moved past a clunker of a loss at Houston, even without starting quarterback Brock Purdy for a fifth consecutive game. Robinson — who torched the Giants (2-7) during his first three NFL seasons with Washington — averaged 10.6 yards a carry to show it was not just McCaffrey having success on the ground.
San Francisco's defense bounced back from allowing a touchdown on its opponent's opening drive for the first time this year. The pass rush that has struggled got going as Clelin Ferrell and Sam Okuayinonu each sacked Jaxson Dart, whose TD run and pass to Gunner Olszewski came in garbage time when the result had already been determined.
Dart was 24 of 33 for 191 yards with the TD passes to Theo Johnson and Olszewski. Johnson and Wan'Dale Robinson each had a drop on third down that cut short a couple of promising drives.
Combine those with blunders on defense and special teams and New York has lost three in a row, giving up at least 33 points in each of those games.
Avoiding what would have been their first back-to-back losses this season, the Niners are in the thick of the race for first place in the NFC West.
49ers: DL Mykel Williams received medical attention and limped off the field with four minutes left. … Purdy was inactive after being listed as questionable.
Giants: C John Michael Schmitz left with a left shin injury in the third quarter and did not return. … ILB Darius Muasau injured an ankle in the second. … WR Beaux Collins was quickly ruled out in the second half with a neck injury. … CBs Paulson Adebo (knee) and Cor'Dale Flott (concussion) and S Jevon Holland (knee) were inactive, along with TE Daniel Bellinger (neck) and RT Jermaine Eluemunor (pectoral muscle).
49ers: Host the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday.
Giants: Visit the Chicago Bears next Sunday.
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