Whenever we go over a San Francisco 49ers loss (which hasn’t happened yet this season), I like to say it’s not that they lost, but how they lost. The same can be true about winning, and the 35-13 victory over the Dolphins is a perfect game to look at how they won, especially when you want to make some conclusions about this team for the long haul.
Two games in, there are some things that we’ve seen in both that might raise an eyebrow. Overall, the 49ers look terrific. How can you not when Brock Purdy
nearly gets the best single-game QBR in history? Stats lie, tape doesn’t, and both seem to be unanimous in how effective the quarterback—and the offense by extension—is.
It’s two games, and if history has taught us anything, we can identify a few things. We’ve said over and over again that making any conclusions about what a team in the NFL is after Week 1 is inaccurate. Week 2 isn’t much better, but after a second week, you can see a few things that will be there for the long haul due to the larger sample size.
2023: The 49ers opened against the Pittsburgh Steelers, followed by the Los Angeles Rams. The 49ers walloped the Steelers—in Pittsburgh—30-7. We knew that offense was going to be a problem for the league; we also saw hints of the 49ers’ two-minute defense.
The Steelers scored their only touchdown due to the (soon-to-be predictable) defensive brain farts thanks to late hits and soft coverages. A week later against the Rams, the defense didn’t crumble in the two minutes, but they had some really strange coverages against the Rams. The 49ers managed to win both games, but the strange calls against the Rams and the two-minute break in the Steelers game were something we’d see more prominently.
2024: The 49ers opened against the New York Jets and beat them convincingly. Many saw new defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen as a breath of fresh air after the aforementioned issues with Steve Wilks. That breath was quickly turned into seething through gritted teeth in Week 2 when the 49ers faced the Minnesota Vikings.
You knew something was very, very wrong once then-Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold threw a 97-yard touchdown pass out of his own end zone in the second quarter. It wasn’t just the fact that it was a touchdown; it was Justin Jefferson being covered by two safeties.
What was that coverage? Things didn’t get much better from there, as the offense struggled to move the ball downfield. Brock Purdy fumbling and throwing an interception didn’t help. Yes, the offense was an issue, but the defense (aside from stars like Fred Warner, who notched an interception) looked lost on several plays. Things didn’t get awful until much later in the season, but the cracks certainly showed here.
2025: The 49ers opened with victories both in Seattle and New Orleans. Wins on the road at either of those places are nothing to sneeze at. Both came down to a Nick Bosa sack. The Seahawks went on to win the Super Bowl that year and beat the 49ers twice after that: once in Levi’s Stadium and again in the NFC Divisional. Both of those wins were after injuries decimated the team.
Unlike the Seahawks, the Saints were not a good team, finishing the season 6-11. With Spencer Rattler at quarterback, the Saints managed 21 points, and Rattler had a 118 passer rating—not exactly a defensive masterpiece.
This is with Robert Saleh as defensive coordinator and before Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and others were out with injuries. The 49ers were not bad, but that second game went a little too close for comfort. Then again, the 49ers were favored by only three points, thanks to injuries on the offensive side of the ball, so maybe this was expected.
And now we’re into 2025. What have we learned? What could be a problem or benefit with this team? Well, the 49ers are consistent on offense, gashing both the Dolphins and the Rams. However, those come with asterisks; the Rams had an injured Myles Garrett, no Aaron Donald, and jet lag.
The Dolphins were seen as a bad team before the coin toss. It’s not an overreaction to ask if the 49ers are the best offense in the league, but it’s also not incorrect to point out they still need a Seattle-like defense as a litmus test.
Then there’s the defense. Outside of the touchdown in garbage time, they clamped down pretty well in the second half after the Dolphins’ run game gave them trouble in the first.
And the run game problems the 49ers had were an issue for the Rams too. Fortunately, both the Rams and Dolphins moved away from it as their respective games progressed. It doesn’t remove the issue. There’s a point to be made that if Brock Purdy is going to play like he’s played the last two weeks and the 49ers can stay healthy, they don’t need a running defense since opposing teams are going to be playing catch-up.
At the end of the day, it’s not the 49ers beating the Dolphins. That is expected. They did what they should have done. They were favored by nearly two touchdowns anyway. It’s how they beat the Dolphins. This wasn’t a nail-biting last-minute go-ahead field goal.
Nor was it the offense making mistakes while the defense just held down the fort. This was an offense playing near-perfect on every drive and a quarterback having one of the best games of their career back-to-back. On the offensive side of the ball, the 49ers very well might be the best. On the other side, they benefited from a bad Dolphins offense, but also a bad Dolphins offense that managed to win time of possession in the first half.
On the defensive side, that’s where there’s worry. Right now, the 49ers defense looks like a second-half defense. I’ll take that.
Yes, the Dolphins were holding like crazy, but so do the Kansas City Chiefs and other teams. That first half may have ended in just six points for the Dolphins, but what happens when a more capable offense is in that position? Do they walk away with six points or 14? Or 21? The defensive backs looked terrific, but the Dolphins don’t have much in the vein of wide receivers to begin with.
At the end of the day, the 49ers got the job done, and they are positioned to wreck the NFL this year. That said, while we can say the offense is one of the best in the league, we’ve seen enough to question whether the run defense will be an issue in the future.
More games will give us answers.
