49ers’ red zone offense has too often found the dead zone and settled for field goals

SANTA CLARA — When Christian McCaffery is healthy, it’s not as if coach Kyle Shanahan is in a lounge chair, drink in hand at his favorite vacation spot in Cabo while leisurely scanning his call sheet.

Shanahan sounded almost wistful last week when he talked about McCaffrey’s effect on play-calling.

“I feel it’s been as easy as football as I’ve had in my 20 years,” Shanahan said. “It’s a very good bonus to have a really good third-down back for situationally what it does on third down, what it does in the red zone.