Where did 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan's Creativity Go?

Before the 49ers lost the Vikings on Monday Night Football, I thought the game would be a showcase of Kyle Shanahan's brilliance and creativity.

National television. No Deebo Samuel or Trent Williams. A banged up Christian McCaffrey. This was the perfect opportunity and the perfect stage for Shanahan to dazzle the world with his genius. To show everyone that he doesn't need the best set of weapons in the NFL to put together an elite offense. That he can score lots of points even without a couple of his best players. That he can make backups look like stars.

Instead, his offense scored 17 points for the second game in a row. And Shanahan showed nothing creative. He just kept doing what he has been doing for the past year, which is to overuse Christian McCaffrey.

Monday night was the perfect opportunity to give another running back a chance to play, because McCaffrey has been ineffective since Week 5. He's worn down and injured. And yet, he still played 97 percent of the snaps against the Vikings. That's absurd.

The 49ers' best run with McCaffrey is anything outside and to the left behind left tackle Trent Williams. But he didn't play against Minnesota, so the 49ers tried to run up the middle instead and McCaffrey struggled, because he's a smaller running back.

Jordan Mason would have been much better suited to run between the tackles, but the 49ers never gave him a carry even though he's averaging 5.6 yards per carry.

Shanahan is such a creative genius, he doesn't even use one of his best players.

The 49ers' problems begin with Shanahan. He should be able to win without a stacked deck.