SANTA CLARA – For their encore, the 49ers won’t have a morning kickoff before 100,000-plus fans on a foreign continent across the International Date Line and Equator.
Home is where the 49ers are, specifically Levi’s Stadium for their next three games, starting with Sunday’s visit by the Miami Dolphins.
Now comes the 49ers’ normal business after upsetting the Super Bowl-favorite Los Angeles Rams 27-7 to open the season as NFL pioneers in Melbourne, Australia.
Not that any 49ers are complaining about going Down Under and getting serenaded by the pro-Faithful crowd. Heck, perhaps Sunday’s home crowd can also voice a stadium anthem out of “All The Small Things” by blink-182.
All that hoopla aside, the 49ers now have a singular focus: “FOOTBALL!” as shouted by Fred Warner during Friday’s pre-practice stretch.
Here are five keys to a 2-0 start for the home team:
1. TAKE MIAMI SERIOUSLY
Unlike the heavyweight divisional matchup to open the season, the 49ers are 13 ½-point favorites to beat a rebuilding unit with a first-year coach (Jeff Hafley), a new quarterback (Malik Willis) and the NFL’s youngest roster (25.09 average age; two players 30 or older).
In contrast, the 49ers have the NFL’s oldest opening-day roster with an average age of 27.49, with a league-high 14 players who are age 30-plus. Also, the 49ers have a combined 54 Pro Bowl selections on their roster, to just one on the Dolphins (running back De’Von Achane in 2025), per CBS Sports.
“The greatness in our team is having a head coach like Kyle Shanahan. He paints the picture perfectly for the situation week to week,” Warner said, “and he did that this week to let us know the challenge the Dolphins present and the challenge we have as a team to get better.”
Last season, the 49ers started 2-0 on the road, then lost as home favorites to Arizona and Jacksonville.
2. PRESSURE WILLIS
The Dolphins brought in Willis (three years, $67.5 million) to replace Tua Tagovailoa, and Willis’ debut saw him sacked five times and hit 11 times in a 27-13 loss at the Las Vegas Raiders.
The 49ers registered no sacks against the Rams, shades of last season’s NFL-low 20 total. However, Nick Bosa, Keion White and Osa Odighizuwa did put ample pressure on Matthew Stafford to alarm the reigning NFL MVP.
Pressure aside, the 49ers historically have trouble with mobile quarterbacks, and Willis is capable of testing that. Of his team-high 39 rushing yards in Week 1, he scored Miami’s lone touchdown on a 14-yard run. He’s run all-time for 444 yards and five touchdowns (and passed for 1,542 yards with six interceptions and four touchdowns) over a career that began with the Tennessee Titans (2022-23) and then the Green Bay Packers (2024-25). He is 3-4 all-time as a starter.
3. STOP ACHANE
The 49ers’ run defense didn’t start well Down Under. Containing Willis and Achane is vital, so that the Dolphins can’t play keep-away with the ball from a star-laden 49ers offense.
Achane had 11 carries for just 36 yards rushing (plus 30 yards receiving) in the Dolphins’ opener. He is coming off a 1,350-yard, eight-touchdown Pro Bowl season, after averaging 853 yards his first two years out of Texas A&M.
“He gets mistaken that he’s an outside runner, but he lowers his pads, he runs for the extra yards, he does the special things that we talk about in running where he makes (extra yards),” defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said. “Then, if you’re not careful, he can make a really explosive run or catch. Presents a lot of challenges for us.”
4. PURDY PRECISION
The last time the Dolphins came to Levi’s Stadium, a rookie quarterback named Brock Purdy emerged after Jimmy Garoppolo got injured on a first-series sack. So that worked out.
Now Purdy is coming off a three-touchdown debut in which his biggest error was a second-quarter interception. Turnovers might be the Dolphins’ best hope to contend, seeing how an interception set up their lone touchdown against Las Vegas.
Chop Robinson (concussion) is out so Purdy must dodge the pass rush including Josh Uche and ex-49ers Cle Ferrell and Rob Beal Jr.
Instead of speculating, let’s rewind to a key date in 49ers’ history.
Purdy piloted a 33-17 win on Dec. 4, 2022, showing pocket courage in the face of all-out blitzes, such as a third-and-long conversion that George Kittle vividly remembers.
Said Kittle: “They had a cover-0 blitz, I had a six-step slant that if you threw it at the time of the play, you should beat any blitz. He stepped into it, whipped it, and he got smoked by Jaelan Phillips. It’s one of those routes, you turn around and the ball is hitting you in the sternum. I was like, ‘Alright, I can play with this. This is awesome, he hit me in the chest.’ Then I saw the replay and was like, ‘Oh (crap), good job Brock.’ His confidence sky rockets but everyone around him has their confidence sky rocketed.”
5. RUN GAME REVIVAL
Perhaps no unit needed a bigger jolt of confidence than the 49ers’ run game coming out of last season (3.8 yards per attempt). That was accomplished in Week 1 behind a two-back combination of Christian McCaffrey and rookie Kaelon Black, not to mention excellent schemes and blocking along the way. McCaffrey ran for 68 yards, Black for 65.
Black is listed as questionable because of a groin injury that limited him the 49ers’ past two practices, tempering enthusiasm after his 65-yard rushing debut. Still, McCaffrey is at full health.
“Both run this offense and scheme really, really well. Everyone knows what Christian does in the pass game, and K.B. is not in a situation where we have to use him as much, because Christian is one of the best to ever do it,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “(Black) is capable. We just don’t have to.”
