Whether Seahawks contain McCaffrey or not makes no difference

McCaffrey has his ups and downs as well

In their four losses, he had 187 yards on 43 carries, a 4.35 average. Exclude the outlier of the Redskins game, and his average jumps to 4.77 yards. There simply isn’t much of a correlation between McCaffrey’s effort and team success. 14 catches for 102 yards against the Atlanta Falcons resulted in a loss. 138 total yards and three touchdowns against the Steelers resulted in a loss, as the Panthers were blown out. In four of Carolina’s six wins, he’s been held under 100 total yards. As McCaffrey goes, the Panthers go…wherever.

Can the Seahawks contain Christian McCaffrey? Of course they can; they’re the only team to hold Aaron Jones to less than five yards per carry, and it was 3.64 yards at that. Jones did have 63 yards through the air, though. Seattle held Kerryon Johnson to his lowest rushing total by far, just 22 yards. Like Jones, Johnson had his best game as a receiver though with 69 yards. In both cases, the Hawks prevailed.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see McCaffrey have a similar game. That’s sort of his thing, after all. He has four games this year with more yards through the air than on the ground. Melvin Gordon is the only other back in the group that has more than one game with more receiving yards than rushing.  I can easily see the Seahawks hold McCaffrey to less than 50 yards rushing, but give up 70 plus through the air. And as they did against Aaron Jones and Kerryon Johnson, I see Seattle coming out on top.