SANTA CLARA — Now, the San Francisco 49ers can say all is back to normal.
Almost 16,000 of the 38,105 miles they’ll travel this season are behind them, and they’re 2-0.
A convincing 2-0, at that.
They had more than a week to recover from a taxing, transcontinental start to the season, and they left no doubt about any lingering effects in their first game back at Levi’s Stadium.
That is to say, there were none at all.
“We knew that it would be a challenge,” coach Kyle Shanahan said, “but getting the days off, by the time everyone came to work, we were over the travel and stuff by then.”
The Niners could have sleepwalked to a win over a futile Miami Dolphins team that possessed precisely one weapon, but instead Shanahan’s squad shifted into high gear and set the tone for the remainder of the season. Final score: 49ers 35, Dolphins 13.
Brock Purdy was nearly perfect, Christian McCaffrey scored his 99th and 100th career touchdowns, and San Francisco dominated in all three phases on its way to a convincing romp in its first game this season in front of its home fans — or on American soil.
For the first time in franchise history, the 49ers began the season with back-to-back wins by margins of 20 points or more, after decleating the Rams in a 27-7 win last Thursday.
If anybody in red and gold could be accused of not showing up, it wasn’t the guys who traveled to Australia and back within the last two weeks. There was practically no homefield advantage for them to feed off of, with empty seats scattered throughout all three levels of Levi’s Stadium.
They didn’t need any energy boost. Even battling potential jetlag and a sleepy home stadium, the 49ers were practically unstoppable. Here are the takeaways:
Second half monsters
Whether it’s due to Shanahan’s halftime adjustments or possessing the better-conditioned football team, the 49ers are 2-0 thanks to two dominant second halves that turned one-possession games at intermission into blowouts by the final whistle.
Purdy found a wide-open George Kittle streaking across the middle of the field on the first play of the second half for a 40-yard gain, and less than two minutes later San Francisco had extended its 14-6 halftime advantage to 21-6 and never looked back.
The 49ers outscored the Dolphins 21-0 in the third quarter, a week after pulling away from the Rams with a 17-0 margin after halftime on their way to the Week 1 win.
“Brock Purdy, Nick Bosa — they just give these huge speeches,” Kittle joked. “No, it was the same. In fact, this halftime speech wasn’t any different than the NFC championship speech when we were down by 20. Just, ‘Hey, you have 30 minutes to play. Go put it all out there.’”
Kittle’s return
Kittle, still only nine months removed from tearing his Achilles tendon, wasn’t much of a factor against the Rams and admitted that he didn’t feel like he was back to 100% yet.
That might have been the most noticeable difference for the 49ers from last week.
Kittle looked like himself, his long blonde hair frequently flowing out of his helmet in his wake as he bored through the Dolphins’ porous pass defense for a team-high 80 yards on four catches.
Every play he made was quintessentially Kittle, which is a good sign for the 49ers.
His big gain to begin the second half was his official pronouncement that he was back.
“I was just disappointed there was another safety,” Kittle said. “That would’ve been a fun 75-yarder. … It’s just always fun to rumble, bumble and tumble — and stiff-arm people into the dirt. It just feels really good.”
(Almost) Perfect Purdy
Purdy never missed when targeting his tight end — or hardly anyone else while posting a 149.1 passer rating. He completed 20 of 22 passes for 287 yards and a pair of touchdown tosses, including one to fullback Kyle Juszczyk on the same play that resulted in a TD on Purdy’s first drive after taking over for Jimmy Garoppolo against the Dolphins four years ago.
Purdy’s lone incompletions came on a dropped pass by Deebo Samuel and a broken play that the 49ers thought was pass interference and ended up being international grounding.
Juszczyk thought Purdy overthrew him once; the ball landed in Mike Evans’ hands instead.
“I should never expect that,” Juszczyk quipped, “because apparently Brock doesn’t throw incompletions anymore — just intentional groundings.”
Beyond his passing prowess, Purdy used his feet to score another touchdown and to pick up a first down while leading the Niners on the ground with 30 yards rushing.
For as memorable as Purdy’s stunning debut off the bench against the Dolphins was back in 2022, he one-upped himself on Miami’s first time back at Levi’s Stadium since.
The pass rush arrives
The 49ers and Dolphins entered the game as two of only five teams that didn’t record a sack in Week 1, but only one of them maintained the distinction after Week 2.
Purdy still has yet to take a sack this season.
Malik Willis, on the other hand, wasn’t so fortunate.
The 49ers got to the Dolphins quarterback four times, including on back-to-back plays once Miami entered the red zone for the first time on its second drive of the game.
With Fred Warner giving chase on second-and-goal and Romello Height on third down, the Dolphins were forced to settle for their second of three field-goal attempts.
Miami didn’t get into the end zone until long after the outcome had been decided.
Injury bug bites again
Besides a broken play with the game out of hand that resulted in a 77-yard touchdown strike, the Dolphins were limited to just 207 yards from scrimmage — 93 from De’Von Achane.
The only thing that could put a damper on the dominant win was the injury report, and the 49ers didn’t quite make it out clean, with the biggest loss being veteran receiver Demarcus Robinson.
Robinson never returned after leaving in the first half with an ankle injury. Mike Evans also left the game in the second half with a hip injury, but it wasn’t considered serious.
According to Shanahan, Robinson was dealing with a high-ankle sprain. Although his prognosis seemed positive, the 49ers were already thin at receiver after losing Ricky Pearsall (PCL) and De’Zhaun Stribling (ankle).
Shanahan was asked about a possible reunion with Brandon Aiyuk, given the circumstances.
“No,” he responded, bluntly.
