Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Giving out gold stars for the #49ers’ best performances against the Dolphins:
The 49ers needed some good performances to beat a tough Dolphins club Sunday at Levi’s Stadium. They got plenty of them in a 33-17 win where they found success in all three phases.
Going through all the good showings would take all day, so we’ll stick with a handful of the best ones that helped the 49ers to stay atop the NFC West:
6 takeaways from a wild 49ers win over the Dolphins.
The 49ers on Sunday knocked off the Dolphins 33-17 in what was considered to be a measuring stick game for both clubs. While San Francisco emerged with the win, they also lost quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for the season.
Garoppolo’s injury could flip the 49ers’ season upside down, but they overcame it Sunday. Whether they continue to overcome it will play itself out over the final five weeks, but for now we have some takeaways from Sunday:
That was … not good for the #49ers. Our in-game notebook:
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The 49ers’ game against the Dolphins wasn’t supposed to mean a ton for them from a playoff-chase perspective. Alas, a foot injury to quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in a 33-17 win over Miami could alter the course of the 49ers’ season.
They still grabbed a victory behind rookie QB Brock Purdy and more sensational second-half defense. The win moves the 49ers to 8-4 on the season and keeps them atop the NFC West.
Here are our notes from throughout Sunday’s game:
BOSA. GREENLAW. BALL GAME.
This defense hits different, literally.
Nick Bosa with his 3rd sack of the day, Dre Greenlaw takes it back to the house.
📺: #MIAvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+#ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/g3JZVVuC8w— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 5, 2022
Nick Bosa capped his huge day with a strip sack of Tua Tagovailoa that Dre Greenlaw picked up and returned for a touchdown just inside the two minute warning. The 49ers had just gone up 26-17 with 2:03 remaining, so it was pretty close to over. The Greenlaw TD after Bosa’s third sack of the game sealed what might be the best win of the Kyle Shanahan era.
WATCH: Brock Purdy gives the #49ers the lead over the Dolphins with his first-career TD pass.
Juice jumps into the end zone for the lead! 🧃#ProBowlVote @JuiceCheck44
📺 : #MIAvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ pic.twitter.com/uNj3okMxaZ— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 4, 2022
The 49ers on Sunday lost QB Jimmy Garoppolo on their first drive of the game. Rookie seventh-round pick Brock Purdy took over for their second series and led a nine-play, 54-yard touchdown drive that he capped with a three-yard touchdown pass to fullback Kyle Juszczyk. That marked Purdy’s first-career TD pass. He went two-for-four for 10 yards and a score on the drive.
How the San Francisco 49ers can knock off the Miami Dolphins in Week 13.
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The 49ers do not necessarily need to beat the Dolphins on Sunday. In terms of their playoff aspirations, the Week 13 clash at Levi’s Stadium carries less importance than in-conference games with the Buccaneers and Seahawks in the coming weeks.
Yet there are some bragging rights are stake, with Kyle Shanahan facing his former offensive coordinator in Mike McDaniel and the 49er defense looking to silence two chatty former teammates in Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson Jr, who made the headlines with comments made to Go Long.
Should the 7-4 Niners vindicate their status as favourites, it will firmly establish them as legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
To do so, they will likely need to achieve these three aims against the 8-3 Dolphins.
How good are the Dolphins? We asked an expert.
The 49ers last game against the Dolphins in 2020 was a disaster. Both teams are dramatically different from that last meeting and they enter Sunday’s game looking to establish themselves firmly in the Super Bowl contender conversation.
We don’t get a ton of looks at an AFC team from Florida, so we got in touch with Dolphins Wire managing editor Mike Masala to chat about Sunday’s matchup and how Miami has arrived at Week 13 with an 8-3 record an an MVP candidate at quarterback:
The #49ers need big outings from these 6 players to knock off the Dolphins.
The 49ers’ Week 13 showdown against the Miami Dolphins is one of the club’s first real tests of the season. Their wins over the Rams are looking less impressive, and their victory over the Chargers came against a depleted Los Angeles club.
Miami has their health relatively in order and they bring with them one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. In games started by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, they’re averaging 27.6 points per game – the third-highest mark in the league. Over their last four contests, all victories, they’re averaging a whopping 33.8 points per game.
They combine that offense with a defense that survives in the middle. They’re 19th in points allowed, 17th in yards allowed, 17th in defensive DVOA and tied for 17th in yards-per-play. A middling defense is all that’s really necessary to accompany an offense that’s liable to put up 30 points any time it takes the field.
That’s why they offer a unique challenge for the 7-4 49ers who’ve won four in a row. This isn’t a must-win game for San Francisco, but it most definitely matters when it comes to getting a barometer of just how good this team is when it isn’t facing some of the NFL’s more mediocre clubs.
If San Francisco is going to get a win at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, they’ll need strong showings from these six players:
The #49ers’ showdown with the Dolphins won’t matter much in San Francisco’s quest for an NFC West crown.
It’s not that the 49ers’ showdown with the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium doesn’t matter, it’s just that in the grand scheme of the playoff picture this one could very quickly become of very little consequence for San Francisco.
Now, there are certainly reasons it matters. Wins are better than losses, for one (you’re welcome for this analysis), and Miami will give San Francisco a good measuring test as to just how good they are against another one of the NFL’s top teams. Their last test against the Chiefs did not go well, so some affirmation that the 49ers haven’t just been beating up on bad teams would go a long way.
On the other hand, a loss to the Dolphins wouldn’t mean the 49ers are out of contention. From a standings standpoint San Francisco won’t move from the No. 3 seed regardless of Sunday’s outcomes. They’re locked into third place in the NFC for at least this week.
They won’t move up since they’re two games back of the No. 2-seed Vikings. And they won’t move back because they’re a game up on the Seahawks and own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The bigger deal for the 49ers in their quest for an NFC West crown and a third playoff berth in four years will be their three contests immediately following the Dolphins.
In Week 14 they host the No. 4 seed Buccaneers with a chance to put more separation between the third and fourth spots in the NFC playoff standings. The 49ers go into Week 13 with a two-game cushion.
In Week 15 the 49ers go to Seattle on a short week for Thursday Night Football in a game that could be the tipping point in the NFC West race.
Then in Week 16 San Francisco hosts the Washington Commanders who are vying for a playoff spot and could be battling for the No. 7 seed with San Francisco depending on how the next few weeks go.
There’s also a conference record element that could come into play if the Vikings start to stumble near the finish line, but that’s a bridge we can cross when we get there.
Beating the Dolphins would be a nice feather in San Francisco’s cap as they look to establish themselves as true Super Bowl contenders, but in reality that’s simply related to vibes. They could lose to the Dolphins by a million, win out, and cruise to a division title. It’s nice to stack up Ws against good teams, but the 49ers have more important games to worry about down the stretch that will do far more to decide their postseason fate.
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The #49ers IR situation is kind of a mess, and they have a couple tough decisions to make.
The 49ers are up against it with their short-term IR, and now they’re facing another significant injury that could push them to their limit.
Running back Elijah Mitchell suffered an MCL sprain in Week 12 that is expected to keep him out at least through the regular season. Typically putting a player like that on IR with the intention of bringing him back would be an easy call. Placing him there opens a roster spot and allows the team to utilize that roster spot on a different player.
For San Francisco it isn’t that simple. Teams are allowed to return eight players from IR per season. The 49ers have already brought six players back from IR – Mitchell, FS Jimmie Ward, LB Curtis Robinson, OL Colton McKivitz, DL Jordan Mason and LB Azeez Al-Shaair. They’re also planning on bringing back DL Javon Kinlaw, who head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated is getting close to returning.
Once Kinlaw comes back, San Francisco will only have one short-term IR slot left. It seemed logical when news of Mitchell’s six-to-eight week injury came out that the 49ers would use that last IR spot on a second stint for the RB, but Shanahan on Friday told reporters that’s not necessarily a slam dunk decision.
“Yeah, you’re allowed eight, that’s the biggest thing and I think we need to use them by then because the playoffs aren’t four weeks long, so I think we have two more also,” Shanahan said. “I’m not exactly sure on that, but that’s the stuff that goes into it, that’s why we didn’t decide to do it with Arik. Even though it was a long time ago, we just weren’t sure how many we’d have at the end of the year and we feel pretty good, six games left, where we’re at, but we’ll make that a decision on Elijah, most likely in the next 24 hours.”
For San Francisco the decision comes down to how good they feel about their RB depth and whether they want to clear a roster spot for a player like Tevin Coleman, who’s on the practice squad.
They may decide to wait on Mitchell and see how the next couple of weeks play out. If they suffer another injury at a spot where they have less depth, they’d likely rather use the remaining short-term IR slot for that so they can sign a player to fill that void.
Either way the decision isn’t going to be easy, and if things go well for the 49ers, it’ll be the last such choice they’ll have to make all year.
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