THOUSAND OAKS — The Rams have lost seven consecutive regular-season games to the San Francisco 49ers and now their matchup issues against their NFC West rivals have gotten tougher because the 49ers acquired do-it-all star running back Christian McCaffrey in a blockbuster trade last week.
“He’s a headache to try to game plan for with all the pieces they already got,” Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald said about preparing to face McCaffrey and the 49ers (3-4) on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
McCaffrey gave the Rams (3-3) headaches before the bye week when he was a member of the Carolina Panthers. McCaffrey contributed 158 of the Panthers’ 203 total yards during their Week 6 loss to the Rams.
McCaffrey will likely have a similar heavy workload in his second meeting against the Rams this season because 49ers star receiver Deebo Samuel missed another practice Thursday with a hamstring injury. But the Rams aren’t expecting another one-man performance from McCaffrey with tight end George Kittle and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on the field for San Francisco. Also, McCaffrey is now playing in the 49ers’ productive rushing scheme conducted by head coach Kyle Shanahan, which will give the Rams’ defense another set of headaches.
Rams middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said he’s expecting to see a variety of disguised formations from the 49ers with McCaffrey, who had a quiet 62 total yards in his San Francisco debut last week during the loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Most teams you pay attention to personnel, but this team is the team you don’t pay attention to personnel because every personnel is … they have the same formation, the same variation with every personnel,” Wagner said. “So, you hear 21 personnel, you hear 12 personnel, you come in and look just like 11 personnel or look like you hear 13 personnel but it looks like 12. So, that’s kind of how they play with you. They bring in different personnels and make you think they’re about to do something and then it looks exactly like something else.
“You just study formations and understand that they’re going to have two or three new formations that they haven’t shown yet. I’m pretty sure they didn’t show everything they could do with McCaffrey this last game, so we’re going to get different personnels with him. So it’s always fun, it’s chess.”
If Samuel isn’t able to play, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see McCaffrey get more work as a pass catcher with the 49ers having depth at running back with Jeff Wilson, who had a 32-yard rushing touchdown up the middle against the Rams in Week 4.
“I think we do a really good job on the edges and I think that’s kind of why a lot of the runs kind of work back into the middle,” Wagner said. “And so, on the one run that they had a touchdown, they had us like overplay and they came up the middle. So, obviously, we’re conscious of that.
“He’s (McCaffrey) really, really good at finding the holes when he is running, so we need to be conscious of that. Obviously, the 49ers have a lot of gap runs that complement his game very well. So, I just think we need to be understanding (of) how they’re going to try to attack our edges and attack the inside of our defense.”
DONALD ENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH KANYE WEST
Donald said ending his partnership with Kanye West’s Donda Sports agency was the best decision for him and his family after West made antisemitic comments.
“Obviously, things were said that me and my family don’t agree with,” Donald told reporters on Thursday. “So, we just decided to part ways. It was a decision we felt comfortable doing and what’s best for us and our family.”
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Donald was asked why he decided to partner with West, who has a history of making offensive comments about the Black community, and had this to say: “A lot of things was going on that I felt like wasn’t in the best interest of my family or what we got going on or what we believe in, so I think it was best for us to just go our separate ways.”
Donald said he and his wife, Erica, who handles his business marketing, spoke earlier in the week about how to move forward without Donda Sports.
“You never know what could happen in the future,” Aaron Donald said. “You create partnerships to hopefully build great things and do some great stuff, but sometimes things don’t work out how you think. That’s a part of life, not just business.”
HENDERSON RETURNS TO PRACTICE
Rams running back Darrell Henderson returned to practice Thursday after being sidelined the day prior because of illness.
Wide receiver Brandon Powell was added to the injury report and was listed as a “limited participant” with an ankle injury.