Chris Foerster Explains How the 49ers Offense Changes without Christian McCaffrey

SANTA CLARA -- Christian McCaffrey missed most of the second half last week with an oblique injury and could miss the upcoming game against the Minnesota Vikings as well.

On Friday, 49ers run game coordinator explained how the how offense changes when McCaffrey isn't on the field.

ME How did the offense change when Christian McCaffrey wasn't on the field in terms of the coverages you guys faced?

FOERSTER: "I think they stayed pretty much the same. I think they had a plan for us and what they decided to do with Christian was just fine to keep doing going forward. I don't think it was something they would've had to change too much with because they had a good plan and it wasn't like it gave away much else. So, it's kind of a coverage they always play and then whether they can help with Christian or not. That's a very general and broad statement because there's a lot of different things that they can do. But it didn't change, I don't think a whole lot. Again, coverages, and how they were handling Christian at that point, we weren't far enough into it for me to really be able to tell. But it didn't change much."

Q: If he's not available, how much of it will be a two back approach or riding the hot hand? How do you balance that?

"I think it still just goes back to, we knew who the next back in the game was. [RB Jordan Mason] J.P. was going to be the next guy in the game, and then [RB] Elijah [Mitchell] was going to play some. And then it is just a matter of as you get a feel of how they're rolling, what we're doing, what we're trying to get done. They both have strengths and weaknesses, probably one a little bit towards the run, another a little bit towards the pass. And so, you want to be able to balance that out, if it's becoming a throw game, it's becoming a run game, who's going to be on a third down since Christian's not going to be? Who's going to be in on first and second? So that's more of it than the hot hand thing. Obviously, if a guy's feeling it and pounding up in there, that hot hand lasts. You give them about three carries in a row and you're like, yeah, he needs to get out for a bit here and put somebody else in. So, it can go either way. But both guys, you kind of play to their strengths."