McRae is still amazed opposition teams have been letting Daicos, the Brownlow medal favourite, run free.
But McRae expects that to change when his second-placed Pies travel to Adelaide to meet the fifth-placed Crows in Sunday's twilight fixture.
"Surely this is the week they tag Nick, surely," McRae said.
"I don't know what they (Adelaide) are deciding to do.
"The difficult thing with tagging Nick is he can play four or five positions.
"I like a game of chess. Hopefully I will be a couple of moves ahead.
"I would tag him. I don't know how, but I would."
Adelaide's Ben Keays is the man most likely to try and put the squeeze on Daicos, who has amassed 40 and 42 disposals in his past two matches.
The likely duel is a fascinating sub-plot as the Crows seek to continue their unexpected rapid rise - after missing the finals since 2017, they have won four consecutive games.
Adelaide's last home blockbuster was when they torched Carlton in the Gather Round opener on April 13.
The Crows followed that with a last-gasp three-point triumph over bottom-placed Hawthorn - both results gave coach Mathew Nicks equal amounts of pleasure.
"We're still learning," Nicks said.
"You have seen our best and then last week you saw us grind out a win, that's a real good sign for us.
"We learnt a lot from the last big stage we played on which was Carlton and we performed well, so know we trust ourselves that we can do that.
"This is another opportunity to step up and we are going to have to.
"Some of the things we got wrong last week won't hold up against Collingwood and the way they inflict damage."
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