San Francisco, CA
McCaffrey sits, Mason stars for dominant 49ers
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For the past two-plus seasons, Jordan Mason has always looked the part of a starting running back. He just hadn’t been able to play it until Monday night.
The wait might have been longer than Mason wanted and come about under less-than-ideal circumstances — replacing an injured Christian McCaffrey — but it was clear in the season opener that Mason was more than ready for the job, as he and the Niners battered the New York Jets on the ground in a 32-19 victory.
“I’ve been working all of training camp for this moment, and I’m blessed to be able to get to play today and show it,” Mason said.
By the time Mason was done, he’d set career highs with 28 carries for 147 yards. He added a rushing score and caught a pass for 5 more yards. After the win, some were left wondering when the Niners knew McCaffrey would be out and Mason would be in.
In an on-field interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters, Mason suggested he found out “maybe Friday night” that he could be in line for the start. Coach Kyle Shanahan offered that no decision was made on Friday and nothing was decided until Monday.
Regardless, Mason’s start came as a surprise after McCaffrey was announced as an inactive 90 minutes before Monday night’s game at Levi’s Stadium because of lingering calf and Achilles injuries. During the week, McCaffrey participated in all four Niners practices on a limited basis and was officially listed as questionable on Saturday’s final injury report.
Despite all that, the expectation for McCaffrey was that he would be ready to roll. McCaffrey said Friday afternoon he had no doubts he would play against the Jets and expressed hope he’d be in line for his usual heavy workload.
After the game, Shanahan said that “it was a little too much today” for McCaffrey to be able to play, noting that San Francisco “thought it was going to be smart to keep him out.” Shanahan added that McCaffrey did not have a setback in practice.
“It was on and off throughout the week,” Shanahan said. “He was able to practice throughout the week, just it was always bothering him to a degree. Sometimes it goes away. Sometimes it comes back. Today, it was bothering him a little too much where he didn’t feel good about it.”
McCaffrey’s injury combined with the season-ending hamstring injury to Elijah Mitchell in training camp opened the door for Mason to ascend the depth chart, an opportunity he quickly claimed with a strong camp that likely would have boosted him past Mitchell anyway.
Mason’s training camp performance left the Niners confident that he was ready to step in and produce despite never having more than 11 carries, 69 yards or 27 offensive snaps in an NFL game before Monday night.
His 28 carries were the most in a regular season game by a Niner since Shanahan took over in 2017 and the most in a 49ers season opener in franchise history. His 147 were the fourth-most rushing yards in a season opener by an undrafted player all time and the second most by an undrafted player on Monday Night Football.
That production was no surprise to those in the Niners locker room who have seen Mason develop from 2022 undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech into a player who averaged 5.6 yards per carry in his previous 33 NFL games.
“Every time he touched the ball, in my recollection, he looked like that,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “He looked like that tonight. … I’m sure he’s grown up over the last couple years, but it’s not like I could see a glaring hole and he matured. He came in pretty mature and he was always ready for his opportunity. Even being third, fourth back, he was always ready and he came in, closed a lot of games for us and ran tough and he earned everybody’s respect.”
Many of Mason’s teammates, including receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. and fullback Kyle Juszczyk said they found out Friday that Mason would be starting for McCaffrey. Shanahan said he and other coaches had told Mason throughout the week that he might have a bigger role and to be ready for it but he didn’t tell him he was starting for sure until Monday afternoon.
“We found out he wasn’t playing today and we don’t know how he’s going to feel tomorrow or the next day,” Shanahan said. “I thought he was playing this whole week until today.”
Depending on how the rest of this week goes for McCaffrey, there might be no such mystery as the Niners prepare for a trip to play the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. San Francisco’s next two games are on artificial surface, which could be a deterrent to having McCaffrey return right away.
Shanahan said it’s too early to make any declarations on that now as McCaffrey will again be monitored as the week goes on.
“I’ll ask the player how he’s feeling,” Shanahan said. “If they feel good and they’re ready to go, they’re ready to go. If they say I feel good on grass but not on turf, that’s usually a way of saying that you don’t really feel that good. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. See the next day and we’ll see how he feels on Sunday.”
And if the Niners have to go back to Mason, there will be no hesitation given what he did Monday night.
“I thought he runs like he always does,” Shanahan said. “When you get him the ball, he breaks tackles usually gets more than we block for. When we had the good lanes, he always hit them and we got a bunch, but JP was awesome today.”
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
One of San Francisco’s busiest freeways remained shut down Saturday, creating major traffic delays and dampening business for some local restaurants and shops.
All eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 just before the Bay Bridge are closed as crews work around the clock to rehabilitate the roadway. The 55-hour shutdown, which began on Friday night, is scheduled to last until Monday morning in time for the commute.
The closure has forced drivers onto detour routes, leading to heavy congestion for those trying to reach the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley.
The impact is being felt beyond the roadways.
At MoMo’s, a restaurant across from Oracle Park, staff found business noticeably slower.
“A little bit more mellow than usual. We usually see a little bit more foot traffic, a little bit more people on Saturdays,” said Daniel Bermudez, executive chef at MoMo’s.
Bermudez believes the freeway closure may be discouraging visitors from coming into the city this weekend, despite favorable weather.
“The weather is beautiful today. It’s nice and sunny. So we have plenty of tables outside,” he said.
With the San Francisco Giants playing an away game, the restaurant had hoped fans would still gather to watch, but turnout during game time remained light.
“This is kind of like our off-season Saturday. A lot slower than our baseball weekend,” said Casandra Alarcon, general manager at MoMo’s.
Other small businesses in the Mission Bay and South of Market neighborhoods reported similar trends, saying most of their customers are regulars who live nearby rather than visitors.
“A little bit slower for sure. Before, we had tourists come and walk to the baseball park,” said Ajaree Safron, manager at Brickhouse Cafe & Bar.
Caltrans has shut down eastbound lanes between 17th and 4th streets to repave the 71-year-old roadway. The goal is to extend the life of the Bayshore Freeway by another decade.
City and transportation officials said the timing of the closure was intentional, noting fewer major events scheduled in San Francisco this weekend, aside from the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Westbound lanes remain open, and officials said traffic heading into San Francisco from the East Bay has not been significantly affected.
“Getting into the city, it wasn’t too bad. Regular [traffic], what we expect on a Saturday morning,” said visitor Andrea Inouye.
While the closure has posed challenges for businesses, some workers said they are taking it in stride.
“Hopefully, it’s not for too long and we get past it, and get back to our normal routine,” Bermudez said.
Despite early concerns about widespread gridlock, transportation officials said the region has avoided the worst-case scenario. Traffic remains heavy in areas near detours, but the anticipated “carmageddon” has not materialized, in part because many drivers chose to avoid the area or take public transit.
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