The Dolphins defeat the 49ers in a dominating win

Silence the doubters.

That’s what the Miami Dolphins did on Sunday, defeating the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 43-17. The Dolphins move to 2-3 on the season, and have earned the respect of many with this win.

This was a merciless showcase of dominance by the Miami Dolphins, something I have been wanting to say for years. The Dolphins led the 49ers by a score of 30-7 at the half, a situation that’s only comparable to their 2015 game vs the Houston Texans, where they won 44-26.

Now, in all fairness, it’s hard to say they beat the NFC champions. They beat a 49ers team that was missing: Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman, Emmanuel Moseley, K’Waun Williams and Tevin Coleman. That isn’t to say the win isn’t impressive, but just to say that the 49ers are not a top 5 team right now by any means.

Now it goes without saying, there are several units that deserve a ton of praise for this game, but I will begin with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

All week, fans and media members clamored for the Dolphins to replace Fitzpatrick with rookie Tua Tagovailoa. I was even skeptical about Fitzpatrick’s role on the team for the immediate future.

Fitzpatrick responded by going 22/28, with 350 yards and 3 TDs. He came in to this game as the only quarterback to have started every game without a pass of 40+ yards. He had two in this game.

I said in my preview, the Dolphins offense would have to push the ball downfield in order to win. Their lack of aggressiveness on offense defined the team leading up to this game, but today, that idea went out the window. The Dolphins offense finally opened up, as Fitzpatrick was 5 of 6 on passes beyond 20 yards.

Preston Williams was the target of plenty of criticism before this game. Through the first four games, Williams had 6 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown. In this game alone, he had 4 catches for a career-high 104 yards and a touchdown. This was the exciting Preston Williams that many fans remembered in 2019, as he was coming down with contested catches and capitalizing on one-on-one situations.

I said in the preview, that receivers not-named “Parker” must step up. I hinted at that comment being directed at Williams and Mike Gesicki, and they both stepped up. Gesicki came down with a huge 70-yard reception, and finished the game with 91 yards.

DeVante Parker continues to thrive, as he had 50 yards and a touchdown.

If there were any negatives from the receivers, it was Jakeem Grant. It pains me to say it, but the Jakeem Grant experiment may be nearing its’ end. Grant’s greatest value to the team is currently on special teams, where he has the potential to be an elite returner. However, he muffed a punt return in this game, and it seems like he still can’t be trusted to field a punt — something that has always been a struggle for him. With that in mind, you have to ask “how much does he bring to the table as a receiver?” Unfortunately as of now, it’s not enough. He will have to have a strong second half of the season to make a good case for himself. 

This was another great game for the running backs. Jordan Howard was inactive leading to more volume for Myles Gaskin. Gaskin finished the day with 57 yards rushing, and 5 catches for 34 yards. He also had an easy goal line score.

Matt Breida continues to flash his elite speed, coming down with a nice 31-yard run after the catch. He finished the game with 59 total yards.

This is going to sound like a broken record, but the offensive line was solid yet again. Left tackle Austin Jackson was placed on IR, so the Dolphins adjusted by moving Jesse Davis over to left tackle, and putting rookie Robert Hunt at right tackle.

Hunt had a respectable performance. It wasn’t perfect, as there were a few occasions of him being pushed around by linebacker Fred Warner, but it was a promising start for the rookie nonetheless against a tough San Francisco line.

Ryan Fitzpatrick called the Dolphins fake punt in the third quarter the biggest play of the game. The ball was snapped directly to Clayton Fejedelem on 4th and one, where he was able to pick up the first down. The drive ended with a touchdown pass to Preston Williams.

If my life were ever in jeopardy, and I needed a field goal converted in order to save me, I would have absolute trust in Jason Sanders. Sanders has been automatic all season, as his 5/5 game this season puts his season total at 9/9.

Defensively, this was the best game of the season for the Dolphins. I said in the preview that their performances had ranged from “atrocious to not-so-bad.” Well this was a really, really good performance by them. They are well deserving of praise for this game.

The pressure applied by the defense defined that entire side of the ball for the Dolphins. They finished the game with 5 sacks, and 8 QB hits. Both interceptions in this game look like a product of solid pressure by the Dolphins, and it was clear both Beathard and Garoppolo were uncomfortable on most of their drop-backs.

Emmannuel Ogbah, who was impressive the last two weeks, continued that this week.  He had a strip sack towards the end of this game, which put Miami in position to score. He also had a deflected pass at the line of scrimmage.

Zach Sieler, who is slowly becoming a fan-favorite, also had another sack this week where he blew by Trent Williams. He was in Garoppolo’s face with Ogbah and Van Noy on one of Garoppolo’s interception. Overall, Sieler is a disruptive force on the line and is well-deserving of more snaps.

 

Jerome Baker led the Dolphins in tackles, and also had a huge sack where he blitzed in nearly untouched, and was able to get an easy sack on Beathard.

Andrew Van Ginkel also had a strip sack, where he beat his man on the edge to lay a vicious hit, but the ball was recovered by San Francisco.

Safety Eric Rowe was great in this game. He was at times tasked with covering the best tight end in football, a player who had just come off of a huge 183-yard performance in the week before, George Kittle. Kittle finished this game with 4 catches for 44 yards. The combination of coverage from Rowe, Jerome Baker and just the general zone utilized against Kittle rendered him a non-factor, which was huge for this game.

This will sound familiar, but Xavien Howard is once again tied for the NFL lead in interceptions this season. He came down with his third pick of the season, each of them occurring in three straight games. His interception came with 14 seconds left in the half, and put the Dolphins in position to score a field goal.

Bobby McCain also had an interception, where he made a good play on a rushed decision by Garoppolo.

These two interceptions led to the benching of Jimmy Garoppolo, who was making his return from an ankle injury that sidelined him for 2 weeks. The 49ers replaced him with C.J. Beathard.

The Dolphins getting out to a big lead early and forcing the 49ers to throw, was probably the deciding factor. No receiver had more than 44 yards for the 49ers.

Raheem Mostert was having a productive day on the ground, with 90 yards rushing on only 11 carries. If there was any negative about this game, it was that the 49ers had several drives that were dominated by their ability to run on the Miami defense.

While I think the linebackers did a great job in coverage and at applying pressure, it seems like they over-committed on a handful of plays, which led to a lot of open field for Mostert. This was mostly evident with Elandon Roberts, who had several good plays where he applied pressure on passes, only to get burned on run plays for doing the same thing.

Takeaways:

“Tua Time” might not be so near after all. After Fitzpatrick’s performance last week, it wouldve been hard to convince anyone that Tua Time wasn’t on the horizon. Now after today, the offense looked good enough to compete with most teams. As a reminder, Fitzpatrick is one of the streakiest quarterbacks of all time. There is a legitimate chance I’m writing about a poor outing from him next week,  but he definitely did enough to retain his job for at least a few more games.

This defense can be good IF there’s pressure. There are ballhawks all around this secondary. Xavien Howard and Byron Jones looked like the duo they were suppose to be. Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe are both cornerbacks turned safeties who can make plays on the ball. All it takes is one bad decision from a quarterback for these guys to take advantage of them, as we saw in this game. Those two interceptions before the half killed any momentum the 49ers had. Any team is better when there’s pressure, but I think the Dolphins defense can really take a huge leap because of their secondary. 

An aggressive offense, is a better offense. Fitzpatrick has been a risk-taking, gunslinger his whole career, and that is when he plays best. Even with the added risk, I would prefer the Dolphins offense to play aggressively, and take those risks, as opposed to playing painfully conservative football. The NFL is trending more and more towards verticality, it’s time for Miami to embrace it.