2) Old man Rivers’ encore performance
Philip Rivers played shockingly well in his return to the NFL … for a 44-year-old who retired following the 2020 season and hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass in exactly 1,800 days. That caveat is important when looking ahead to his second start, as his limitations were still clear in Week 15 despite the impressive feat of hanging in under center. His deep ball simply wasn’t there, which limited players such as Alec Pierce, who leads the team with 785 receiving yards and 20.1 yards per reception but managed just one catch for 16 yards in the loss to Seattle. Rivers was 2 of 8 for 33 yards, a last-second interception and a 4.7 passer rating on throws of 10-plus air yards, per Next Gen Stats. He could certainly improve in that regard with a game under his belt, but it’s unlikely the Colts can expose San Francisco through the air apart from dinking in dunking. With that said, Rivers was tremendous with his quick decision-making, going 16 of 18 for 87 passing yards and a touchdown on throws under 10 air yards. He’ll likely pepper Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman and Josh Downs with easy targets, and they all have the capacity to break one. He’ll also benefit from a far easier matchup than the one that initially welcomed him back. With so many injuries on defense, the 49ers are quite easily exposed. They have the fewest sacks (16) in the league, are tied for the second-fewest INTs (five) and are third in passing yards allowed per game since Week 5 (252.6), per NFL Research.
3) Showcase of workhorse backs
The 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey and Colts’ Jonathan Taylor have both put their teams on their backs for most of the season. McCaffrey entered Week 16 leading the league with 345 touches, which he’s turned into 1,742 scrimmage yards (third in the NFL) and 14 scrimmage TDs (tied for third), while Taylor is right behind him 310 touches for 1,761 yards (second) and 18 scores (first). Monday night will feature only the third matchup over the last 20 seasons in which two opposing players each boast 1,700-plus scrimmage yards. Despite their prolific seasons thus far, though, the running backs have fallen into lulls in recent weeks — at least for their standards. McCaffrey has amassed fewer than 90 scrimmage yards in each of his last two games after falling to reach that mark just once through his first 12 contests. The league’s RB leader in both receptions (86) and receiving yards (820), he’s coming off a game in which he was limited to one catch for 14 yards. Taylor has also fallen off his early-season pace during the Colts’ four-game losing streak. After forcing himself into the QB-saturated MVP race with 113.9 rushing yards per game and 15 TDs on the ground through Week 11, he’s dipped to 76.0 rushing yards per game with a lone rushing score since. Still, it would come as no surprise if either running back got back on track Monday as an offensive focal point.