SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Roughly 30 minutes after scoring two touchdowns and moving into second place all-time with a touchdown streak of 16 consecutive games, San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey was fuming.
In the bowels of US Bank Stadium, McCaffrey gritted his teeth and stepped to the podium in an understandably foul mood after his team’s 22-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 23. Talk of records, touchdowns and statistical milestones were the furthest thing from his mind as he used every question as an opportunity to blame himself for a first-quarter fumble he believed cost the Niners the game.
The moment was quintessential McCaffrey, full of the accountability and competitive fire the 49ers hoped they were getting when they traded second-, third-, and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth-round choice in 2024 to the Carolina Panthers for him on Oct. 20, 2022. But there was something a little different about McCaffrey in that moment: anger.
“There are not a lot of guys who are as hard on themselves as he is,” tight end George Kittle said. “You see him make a mistake and he’s very upset about it. And not like emotionally upset. It’s like, ‘I need to be better than that and my expectations for myself are way too high for that’. And you never see him make the same mistake twice … Christian is an elite player.”
McCaffrey rarely shows disgust in…
