It’s another week in which San Francisco 49ers’ running back Christian McCaffrey has earned honors for a dominant performance. McCaffrey was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his 200-yard game from scrimmage in the team’s 20-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 7.

The All-Pro back led the offensive attack for the Niners with 24 carries for 129 rush yards and two touchdowns alongside seven receptions on eight targets for 72 yards. The 201 total yards for McCaffrey made it his first 200-yard game in a San Francisco uniform, and the first by a 49ers’ player since Raheem Mostert hit that mark in 2020.

According to the San Francisco team website, McCaffrey made NFL history against the Falcons as the first running back to record 50-or-more receiving yards in each of the first seven games of a season, and also the first running back to record that yardage in seven consecutive games since he himself accomplished that as a Carolina Panther in 2019.

It was the first 100-yard rush game for McCaffrey this season, one that unsurprisingly coincided with tight end George Kittle’s return, and it was great to see a return to the rush attack that fuels this Niners’ squad.

Overall, San Francisco recorded 151 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 1.4 yards per contact on each carry; that’s a marked change from the five games without Kittle in the lineup.

But, while Kittle had a lot to do with McCaffrey’s stellar ground game on Sunday night, he really served to lift up one of the most important players to this team this season.

This Niners team has continued to lose star power by the week, and McCaffrey has been one of if not the sole consistent producer on offense. There’s just no world where San Francisco sits at 5-2 without what he’s done all season.

It was just mostly as the leading receiver up until this point. Against Atlanta, McCaffrey showed off the ground game to match. And that’ll be a necessary element of this offense for success this season with the defensive injuries.

Should San Francisco be adept at controlling the clock and time of possession with a balanced rush attack, that takes a ton of pressure off the next men up on defense, ones who could use any help possible. That aid has certainly arrived in the form of McCaffrey.

That type of performance builds team-wide confidence, and a ground game brings grit – the 49ers will need every bit of that against the Houston Texans’ defensive front.