Dan Campbell understands that the Detroit Lions will face a struggle in stopping the San Francisco 49ers’ offense this weekend, and he will have to make some tough decisions.
The 49ers have risen to the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC thanks to a balanced offense, and Campbell spoke this week about what the team needs do to stop running back Christian McCaffrey in Sunday’s conference championship game. The Lions have struggled on defense at times throughout the regular season, and Campbell believes they must be at their best if they are to reach the Super Bowl.
Lions Worried About Christian McCaffrey
The 27-year-old McCaffrey had a career-best season for the 49ers, rushing for a league-leading 1,459 yards with 14 touchdowns and adding 564 receiving yards with seven touchdowns. His 2,023 all-purpose yards and 21 total touchdowns also led the NFL.
Campbell said his team will need to focus on stopping the All-Pro running back, but knows that the 49ers and coach Kyle Shanahan can find other ways to burn their defense.
“Stop the run. Still the run,” Campbell said, via SI.com. “You got to stop the run, because if you don’t, they’ll rush for 250 on you and then they won’t even worry about passing.”
“Everything has to start there. And yes, that’s what Shanahan does an unbelievable job of — he’s going to work one side and make you overreact. And then he counters off of it and then play passes off of it and it works the middle of the field,” Campbell continued. “So, you got your hands full in both regards, you know?”
The Lions will be facing McCaffrey at full health. Though some concerns were raised when the broadcast of San Francisco’s divisional-round win over the Green Bay Packers showed McCaffrey having his quad worked on by trainers, Shanahan said this week that there are no injury concerns.
“No, I heard about that on the TV [broadcast] because some of my family members asked me about it,” Shanahan told Pro Football Talk. “But that is what Christian has always done for me. He’s always working on his body and such. I was not told anything about his quad.
Kyle Shanahan Prepared for Disruptive Defense
Shanahan shared some praise for the Lions’ defense this week, saying they play better than their ranking might imply.
“They play with their defense. They make some plays,” Shanahan said, via SI.com. “Their whole defense, you see in numbers, and you see 31st I think in the pass game. But then when you watch the tape you kind of realize how they are. They’re aggressive in what they do. They mix everything up, which makes them susceptible to big plays.”
The 49ers coach stated that Detroit’s aggressive strategy frequently results in turnovers and damaging plays for their opponents.
“I believe they are leading the league in turnovers over the previous five games… “They’re a team that is very aggressive in what they do, so you’ll have to hit or miss,” Shanahan said. “But I believe they cause more bad plays than anyone else in the NFL. I believe it ranked fourth overall for the year. “They are directly related to that.”
