Five things to watch: Miami Dolphins vs San Francisco 49ers

Coming off a terrible loss that we had a chance to win, your Miami Dolphins travel cross country to play the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers and Kyle Shanahan have been dealing with a shocking amount of injuries early on in the year, which will very likely force the 49ers to not have either their starting QB or RB. Can your Miami Dolphins take advantage of an opponent who is struggling to even field a healthy team by all indications? Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Offensive Line

Coming off a game where they only allowed 1 sack, the offensive will once again be asked to slow an effective pass rush down. The injury report has not been kind to the offensive line so far as Solomon Kindley started limited in the week but is now a full participant. Unfortunately, our other rookie Austin Jackson began the week with 2 did not practice designations. Without at least a limited practice before the game, we will most likely be going with a backup LT. Not really the best recipe if you wanted to possibly get your rookie QB some snaps.

Slowing down Shanahan’s Run Game

For us to have any chance in this game, we need to limit what Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers do best, which is run the ball. Like last week and slowing Russell, it is going to a lot easier said than done. They could be down their 2 best RB with both Mostert and Tevin Colman dealing with injuries meaning If we can stop 3^rd and 4^th string RB from running wild on us, we would be making them one dimensional on offense, which is the opposite of what they want with Nick Mullens or C.J. Beathard out there.

Establishing the Run Game

It cannot be stated more what a disappointment our running attack has been. I mean to strictly leave it on the RBs inability to make explosive plays and the coaching staff’s inability to try different players in different roles. This is a sort of revenge game for ex-49ers RB Matt Breida, meaning there would be no better game to get him or even Jordan Howard more than the 4.5 carries they have been averaging over the first four games.

A quarter of the season is gone, and as much as Coach Flores loves Myles for what he represents, he is not a starting RB in the NFL. We need to start exploring all our options because this patriots style of RB use is great when you have talented RBs that can excel in their roles, but when you force Jordan Howard to only be a goal-line back and get 4.5 carries a game when he has shown to be a multiple 1000 yard rusher it becomes increasingly more frustrating as each game passes.

Miami Traveling

Last week I spoke about the Seattle Seahawks and the historical struggles of west coast teams traveling to the east coast and essentially playing a 10am. Well, we can go ahead and reverse the roles because east coast teams traveling to the west have also historically struggled to execute. In what will be a quick trip as the Dolphins are traveling their Saturday due to COVID regulations, can we as a team go in their focus, locked and loaded to get our second W of the year, or will we be flying home Sunday night knowing we just earned our 4^th loss of the year?

Coaching Staff

After a quarter of the year, most teams begin an introspective process to assess what went right and what went wrong during the first 25 percent of the year. The entire coaching staff’s performance has to be top on the list of what went wrong.  The entire staff needs to hold themselves accountable as they would a player missing a block, assignment, or tackle.

Decisions are coming on the horizon that could very well affect the next decade of this franchise when it comes to Tua Tagovailoa. Already this week, we have had to “announce” who our starting QB is with Flores coming out and saying that not only is Fitz our starter this week but also that Tua is not ready and that if he was Tua’s father, he would not want him to play yet, but he’s already a snap away from being in the game as the backup QB, so why those comments?

Ultimately, it will take an entire team effort for 60 minutes to steal this game away as we enter 9-point underdogs. Can Fitzpatrick hold off Tua for another week? Will Jerome Baker finally show up after 16 tackles total in the 3 games after his 16-tackle game? How much of a difference will a healthy Byron bring to a defense that has been getting torched all year? All questions of great importance for not just the rest of this year but also next year. Till next time guys, Fins Up!