Why the 49ers will Blow Out the Miami Dolphins
I predicted the 49ers would blow out the Philadelphia Eagles last week. I was just a bit off.
Let’s try this one more time.
The 49ers will blow out the Miami Dolphins at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday. Will beat them by two touchdowns and make the game seem easy. Here are five reasons I’m so certain the 49ers will destroy Miami:
1. Jimmy Garoppolo will make the whole team better and more confident.
Fair or not, it seemed the 49ers lost confidence in Nick Mullens the instant he overthrew Kyle Juszczyk in the first quarter against the Eagles. And I don’t know how anyone could have confidence in the other backup, C.J. Beathard, whose career win-loss record is 1-9. So Garoppolo’s return is huge for the 49ers. They still believe in him, because he’s good and still wins most of the time.
And although he’s had issues turning the ball over the past few seasons, he has committed zero turnovers through a game and a half this season. So even if he’s rusty and less than 100-percent healthy, he should be experienced and mature enough not to give away a game against an inferior opponent.
2. The 49ers run game will be better than it has been recently.
I write this not knowing whether running back Raheem Mostert will play -- he’s questionable with a knee injury. And he definitely is the 49ers’ best running back. But even if he doesn’t play, the 49ers run game should improve.
Why?
Because of Garoppolo. When he’s out, opposing defenses stack the line of scrimmage to stop the 49ers run game -- you would too against the Niners. They’re a run-first team. But when Garoppolo is on the field, opponents respect his arm, so they back off the line of scrimmage just enough to give the 49ers running backs space to run for big gains.
I predict the 49ers will run for 200 yards against the Dolphins and we’ll see lots of end arounds, reverses and jet sweeps. Kyle Shanahan took heavy criticism this week for not calling more of those plays against the Eagles. I’m guessing Shanahan heard the criticism and will correct his mistakes.
3. The 49ers will be fresher than last week.
Before playing the Eagles, the 49ers spent a week on the East Coast. They did this to avoid back-to-back cross-country trips to New Jersey. And the strategy paid off, because the 49ers beat the Jets and Giants in consecutive weeks.
But when you spend a week on the East Coast and then travel back to the West Coast, you get jet lagged. It takes days to readjust your body clock to West Coast time. I’m sure you’ve experienced this.
Didn’t the Niners seem jet lagged against the Eagles? Trent Williams looked half asleep on the field. The entire team seemed lethargic, flat and sloppy.
Same thing happened to the 49ers last season when they spent a week in Youngstown, Ohio. They came home, played the Pittsburgh Steelers, turned the ball over five times and just barely squeaked out a win against a team playing a backup quarterback.
In both cases, you could argue the 49ers were jet lagged.
They definitely won’t be this weekend.
4. The Dolphins offensive line stinks.
It stinks so bad, they won’t let their first-round pick, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, play behind it yet. They keep him on the bench and let 37-year-old journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick serve as the crash-test dummy while the Dolphins rebuild.
So even without Nick Bosa, Dee Ford and DeForest Buckner, the 49ers still should disrupt Fitzpatrick and force him to make bad decisions. And Fitzpatrick loves making bad decisions. He could throw three picks in a game any given week.
5. Arik Armstead will contain Fitzpatrick in the pocket.
Armstead was one of the main reasons the 49ers lost to the Eagles, because he could not contain Carson Wentz in the pocket. Sometimes Armstead was undisciplined. Other times he simply wasn’t athletic enough to chase down Wentz, which is understandable, because Armstead is 295 pounds and Wentz is 220 pounds and fast. Tough matchup.
This Sunday, Armstead faces a similar dilemma -- a quarterback who wants to scramble and buy time. And Fitzpatrick is a good scrambler. He has rushed for 85 yards and two touchdowns the past two games. If Armstead continues to rush without discipline, he’ll let Fitzpatrick do what Wentz did, and the 49ers will lose.
But I’m guessing Armstead won’t let Fitzpatrick escape the pocket. Because I’m guessing after Armstead watched my film breakdown from last week, he’ll make sure to contain Fitzpatrick.
Call it a hunch.
Final score: 49ers 27, Dolphins 13.
