Thirteen and a Half Over Miami and I Hate Every Half Point of It

Ten days after beating the Rams by twenty on the other side of the world, the 49ers open Levi's against Jeff Hafley, Bobby Slowik and a Dolphins team that took five sacks in Vegas. Everybody says this one's easy. That's exactly what scares me.

Thirteen and a half. That's the number for Sunday. It opened at ten and a half, and then the whole country looked at 27 to 7 in Melbourne and piled on.

I don't like it one bit.

I've been doing this long enough to know what a home opener against a team everybody's already written off can turn into. Sleepy first quarter. A fumble inside our own thirty. A backup receiver lined up in the wrong spot. And all of a sudden it's 10 to 3 at halftime and the whole stadium is looking at its phone.

Maybe that's just me. It's probably just me. I'm going to worry about it all week anyway.

They got ten days, and that matters

Good news first, because there's real good news. This isn't a short week. We played Thursday night in Melbourne and we don't play again until Sunday at 1:25, so this team got ten days to fly home, sleep in its own beds, and get its legs back under it after a trip where they went a week early just to trick their body clocks.

Shanahan and McVay both waved off the travel after the game. Fine, say that. I watched the Rams fly in the day before and play like it, and I watched us play like we'd lived there all month. Whatever you want to call it, those extra days before Miami are worth more than anybody in that building is going to admit out loud.

The receiver room got thinner again

De'Zhaun Stribling's out at least a month. Deltoid sprain, left ankle. The Achilles is fine, which I was thankful for last week and I'm still thankful for, but a month is a month, and this is the kid I've been hyping to anybody who'd listen since July.

Now go look at that room. Ricky Pearsall's done for the year. Christian Kirk's on IR with the calf and can't come back before Week 5. So you've got Mike Evans, you've got Deebo, you've got Demarcus Robinson, and after that you're looking at Jacob Cowing, who played five snaps in Melbourne and didn't see a target.

Evans caught six for 49 and a score. Deebo caught six for 48 and a score and brought two kickoffs back for 74 yards, and I've missed that man more than I let on. Robinson only caught two balls, but one of them was the 39 yard touchdown that put us ahead for good.

Three guys. That's what Purdy can trust right now. I'd feel a lot better with four.

Tonges, and a lot of Kittle

Jake Tonges' knee is the one I keep checking my phone about. Shanahan called it an MCL Thursday night and said it wasn't good, and nothing I've seen since has made me feel any better.

Without him it's George Kittle, back from a torn Achilles in January, and Luke Farrell, who wound up playing 46 snaps in Melbourne once Tonges went down. Kittle caught two balls on five targets. He isn't all the way back and nobody should expect him to be yet. So this week's really about how Shanahan hides a thin tight end room inside an offense that basically lives in two tight end sets.

What Miami actually looked like

I sat through the Dolphins in Vegas on Sunday. Raiders 27, Dolphins 13. Malik Willis got sacked five times, threw a pick, and Miami went 2 for 10 on third down. De'Von Achane got 11 carries and turned them into 36 yards. Willis took the blame for it afterward, and Hafley went out and said he's got total confidence in his quarterback, which is what every coach says right up until he doesn't.

It wasn't all bad for them, and I'm not going to pretend it was. Willis ran for 39 yards and a touchdown, and he's exactly the kind of quarterback who makes a pass rush pay for losing contain. A rookie named Caleb Douglas caught five balls for 94 yards. And their defense held Las Vegas to 290 total yards.

Then there's the part that makes me nervous for a completely different reason. Jeff Hafley coached defensive backs for Shanahan right here. Bobby Slowik, who calls Miami's offense now, spent years in this building too. Those two know the language. They know how this place thinks. You won't find that anywhere in a point spread.

Get to the quarterback this time

Something got lost in all the 27 to 7 glow: we didn't sack Matthew Stafford once. Not one time. We won by twenty with zero sacks.

Nick Bosa was great against the run in his first game back from the ACL, and I'll take it. He just didn't get home. And the middle of that line is held together with tape, with Alfred Collins gone for the year, Sam Okuayinonu's broken foot, and C.J. West and Gracen Halton lining up next to Osa Odighizuwa.

Willis just took five sacks from the Raiders. If this defense can't get to him at our place, I'm going to have a real problem with it. He holds the ball. Go take it from him.

What I want to see Sunday

Purdy clean again. He wasn't sacked once in Melbourne, went 25 of 34 with three touchdowns, and looked like the calmest man in Australia. Keep that line in one piece. Trent Williams cramping up in the middle of a 99 yard drive was plenty of scare for one September.

More Kaelon Black, too. The rookie got 14 carries to McCaffrey's 10 and I was completely fine with that. Christian's going to need those breathers if this thing is going to last into January.

And the one I actually care about. Put them away early. I don't want a fourth quarter. I want the backups in with six minutes left and me already out of the lot and crawling down Tasman.

Shanahan got his extension on Friday. Multiyear. Good, he earned it. Now go beat the team you're supposed to beat by two touchdowns and don't make me write the column about how it got close.

Sunday, 1:25, home opener. I'll be nervous the whole time. Don't tell me I shouldn't be.

Everything from Week 1 is on the schedule hub, and the rest of it lives on the 49ers page.

More coverage: 49ers · NFL · Bay Area Sports Blog home