Christian McCaffrey has yet to play a full season with the San Francisco 49ers, but after just three weeks of football, he is already etching his name in the record books alongside one of the organization's greatest.
McCaffrey, 27, rushed for 85 yards on 18 attempts and scored one touchdown in Thursday night’s victory over the New York Giants. It marked his third straight game this season rushing for at least one touchdown.
It also marked his 12th consecutive game scoring a touchdown, matching the franchise record of Niners legend Jerry Rice set in 1987.
"That’s a huge honor," McCaffrey said after the game. "Obviously scoring touchdowns is a team line. O-line did a great job blocking, I just had to hit the hole. But, yeah, that’s a huge honor to be mentioned with somebody like that."
The former Carolina Panthers star is also now the third 49ers player in franchise history to open the season with three straight games of 100 scrimmage yards and a touchdown, according to ESPN stats and info. Rice also accomplished that feat in 1989.
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McCaffrey will have a chance to break Rice’s record in next week’s game against the winless Arizona Cardinals. He is just three touchdowns shy of breaking the NFL record.
"For us, we know what we can do. We expect to win every game and that fact that we’re 3-0 is awesome," McCaffrey said of the Niners’ hot start. "We know it’s a long season and there’s so much football left."
He continued, "I love the mentality of our team right now because I think we're 3-0, we’re happy but we’re still hungry and there’s still a lot we can get better at and that’s a good place to be."
Before the Cardinals travel out to San Francisco, they will try to pick up their first win of the season against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday afternoon.
The Cowboys opened the season with a shutout victory over the Giants and 30-10 rout of the New York Jets in Week 2.
