The San Francisco 49ers are home again, and the Miami Dolphins are in town for the home opener at Levi’s Stadium. The performance from the 49ers in Australia has reminded some folks about how loaded the team still is, and somehow, the team was overlooked. Now, the team looks to remain undefeated and build on their Week 1 performance.
Here are three things to watch for on Sunday:
The under center revolution
The 49ers revealed one of their newest wrinkles going under center and used it in the drop-back
passing game. With the fourth-highest rate in the NFL, which is seeing a huge bump in under-center percentage, the 49ers finished with the third-highest EPA per play under center at 0.20. On the flip side, Miami faced the second-highest rate, as the Raiders went under center 63.5% of the time. The Dolphins did well against it and posted a defensive EPA of -0.04.
You can expect this to continue, along with the winding motion to create angles and force defenses to react a second too late.
Miami’s defensive strategy
The 49ers took advantage of the lighter personnel on the Rams’ defense and ran the ball right at their nickel and dime packages. Los Angeles came out in base defense on 28.1% of their defensive snaps. Miami led the NFL with a 68.3 base defense percentage. Also, the Dolphins were in nickel at the lowest mark in the league at 31.7%.
If Miami continues this trend, the 49ers will attack their base looks with more passing on early downs. Expect a big game from Mike Evans on Sunday if the Dolphins want to stay in base all game.
Generating pressure on Malik Willis
The 49ers blitzed at the second-lowest rate in the NFL at 10.3%, but generated pressure at 37.9%. Miami allowed the highest pressure percentage last week, with Malik Willis feeling pressure on 56.8% of his dropbacks. The Dolphins offense took a ton of shots downfield with the highest deep throw percentage of 29,6%.
Not allowing routes to develop downfield, keeping Willis in the pocket, and generating pressure is the key to slowing down the mobile quarterback
