Hey, I don’t know. When the season started, I didn’t see this as any kind of significant game. But here we are. The 49ers, after struggling mightily have somewhat righted their ship, and have crawled back up to the top of the division at 7-4. Miami on the other hand has been cruising on the arm of Tua Tagovailoa. They are neck and neck with the Buffalo Bills in the suddenly highly competitive AFC East and they carry the advantage now with their win over Buff in week 3. Miami hit a blip on the road when Tua got blasted into oblivion and missed 2.5 games in the concussion protocol, but he’s 8-1 as the starter while the backups are 0-2.
So what does it mean? Well, this will be a test of our ability to keep the high-powered Miami offense off the field. Shanny knows this. And I’m sure McDaniel does as well. The Miami run defense isn’t all that, and neither is their defense in general, but the ability to score from anywhere on the field at any time mitigates their defensive shortcomings.
As we saw in the Atl and KC games, we aren’t exactly built for shootouts. Especially when we are kicking field goals and they are scoring touchdowns, so yeah, our best bet is to keep their offense on the sidelines as we grind out (hopefully) touchdown drives.
But as I said, I’m not gonna really sweat this this game. We gave up our shot at being the #1 seed a long time ago, so winning the division is our goal. Losing to an AFC team isn’t gonna hurt as much as losing to Tampa Bay even. I mean, I seriously don’t think this team will run the table, but we go 5-1 we win the West.
So, barring something catastrophic, I’m not gonna get too disappointed of the Niners don’t pull this one off. Granted, Miami is the one traveling 3 time zones west, and we are relatively healthy while Miami is struggling with injuries, so that may help some. I would love to see us take these guys, if only to prove to themselves that they are legit, and that we can scheme out a plan and execute it successfully. As with most, this game will be won in the trenches. If we can disrupt Tua and get him off his marks early, we can dictate the pace of the game and slow down their passing game.
I would like to see the defense come out aggressive and blitz early rather than wait to see how things go with the base defense. I noticed Ryans likes to use the first couple drives to see how things progress, but a lot of teams have scored early on us while we see how the pressure is or isn’t working off of the base defense. Wonder if we try nickel/dime packages early as well. They may come out running on us.
Certainly a lot of strategy in this game given the similarities and overlaps in these teams.
Forty Niners Forever 
A lot of times teams play up to their opponents, with that said Miam D might be overly motivated. JG will have to be up for this game. Bring his best game. And since our run game isn’t up to the Niners usual standards, Miami might just load the box and make JG throw the ball. I hope Kyle is ready for that. Also Deebo is banged up, hopefully Kyle doesn’t use him as a running back too much. Go Niners
Props to McDaniel in his first year already looks better calling plays then Shanahan ever has. That said with a Dolphins shaky defensive unit and a banged up OL with both the LT&RT possibly out,are limited, Tua will have to get the ball out even faster.Move BOSA around to maximize his rush and confuse the Dolphins beat up line..31-24 Niners in a high scoring affair..
I don’t have a clue as to how this one plays out. Probably the team with the least mistakes. Everyone should be up for this game especially the coaches.
Yep. I think last week’s dud had something to do with everyone looking at this game.
Gonna be a long day.
FG’s aren’t going to cut it in this game
Well now it will be run,run,run
What happened to Garoppolo?
Sacked by two players, ankle I think
Good to see Kyle calling pass plays
Here we are in the red zone where the Niners struggle
Good job Purdy and good play calling Kyle
Purdy TD to the Juice!!
Nice power jump into the end zone for the Juicer..
Going to be a wild ride today for sure..
Double teaming Bosa.
Okay, they are stopping the run, time to loosen that D up
Where is the pass rush
Still need to score, don’t play based on the clock
Zero pass protection
Kyle has to know that when it is 3rd and 5+ theyare going to come after a rookie QB.
Blitzes off edge confusing them. Purdy made one play but not 2 in a row.
Lot of open guys in secondary. Tua settles down this gonna be tough unless SF gets more pressure on him.
Ha like that! Another sack for Bosa.
Nice throw to Kittle but another guy right in his grille as he got pass off.
All Purdy has to do is keep burning them with complete passes and they will have to make an adjustment
Beauty of TD pass to finish off drive, clutch play.
Purdy good half.
Miami will not be able to blitz constantly if Purdy gets his passes off and complete.
Re-Ward yeah
Kyle needs to get the plays in quicker, might need that time out later
This game reminds me of the Niners/Miami SB, all the talk was about Marino.
All the stupid drives only coming up with a FG could come back and bite them now in a 23-17 game dammit
KC Super Bowl all over again
They need at least 2 first downs to use up the clock, minimum of 2
Terrible, get the play call in