Dolfan Radio | Week 2 Preview

Week 2 at Levi’s: A 13-Point Road Game Is Still a Standard

By Brad Michaels • September 17, 2026

Sit down a minute. Last Sunday we learned this team can be in a football game, and I will not give that back. This Sunday is a different question. San Francisco just took a Super Bowl favorite apart on another continent and now they get to sleep in their own beds. The Coach used to say you are what you do when the other fellow is ready. They look ready. That does not mean we stay home.

Levi’s Stadium, Sunday, September 20, 1:25 in the afternoon out here, 4:25 back east, FOX. We are 0–1 after 27–13 in Vegas. They are 1–0 after 27–7 over the Rams in Melbourne, 100,021 people in the building. The board has them minus 12 and a half to 13 and a half, total sitting around 45. Some shops will give you Miami at plus 650. ESPN has our chance of winning at 9.2 percent, which is a polite way of saying they do not believe us. I have been in this chair since I was five in 1970. I do not need a model to recognize a hard Sunday. I also do not need a model to tell me I will be watching it anyway.

What San Francisco just did

The Rams were everybody’s preseason darling — Stafford, Nacua, Myles Garrett in a new color — and they asked the league to send San Francisco to Australia with them. Careful what you ask for. The 49ers scored the last 24 points of the night and sat Stafford with three minutes left. Final was 27–7, and it did not feel that close.

Brock Purdy went 25-of-34 for 205 yards, three scores, and one mistake. He ran five times for 29. Mike Evans, first game in red and gold, caught six for 49 and a two-yard fade that was the 109th touchdown catch of his life. Demarcus Robinson beat them deep before half. Deebo Samuel came home, took the second-half kickoff 45 yards, and scored from 15. McCaffrey is still McCaffrey when they let him be — ten carries, 68 yards — and they split the rest with the rookie Kaelon Black, 14 for 65, because Shanahan said all summer he wanted a committee and, for once, he used one. George Kittle played on a healing Achilles, two catches, 12 yards, five targets. They treated him like glass. At home they will not.

The other side of the ball is why they are laying two scores. Nick Bosa and Fred Warner both played real football again. Warner led the game with 11 tackles and punched a ball loose. Bosa was in Stafford’s jersey on the first snap. Last year’s scoring machine finished with seven points and got stuffed on two of three fourth downs. That is not Vegas with Kirk Cousins and no Brock Bowers. That is a whole football team that just proved it on a long trip and now gets to sleep in its own beds.

They also have the extra day. Thursday night in Melbourne, Sunday afternoon in Santa Clara. We have been in Napa all week so we would not fly home and fly back, which is the grown-up thing to do. It is not the same as beating the Rams by 20 and coming home to a parade. I will not pretend it is.

What Miami just did, and what it did not

We were not 2019. I already wrote that, and I meant it. Two hundred fifty-nine yards to 290. Five-point-two yards a snap to their 4.3. Two picks. Rodriguez all over the field with 14 tackles. Douglas with 94 yards and a reason to keep throwing it his way. 17–13 in the third quarter on the road. I am keeping that. A man who has been here since 1970 knows the difference between a beating and a game you let get away.

I am also keeping the other column, because pretending it is not there is how you get surprised again. Third down was 2-of-10. We took five sacks and did not give one back. Achane had 11 carries for 36 yards. Chop had one tackle. The clock ran 25:07 to 34:53. Cousins threw three touchdowns and never hit the grass. The pressure rate on him was 6.5 percent. If that number shows up again Sunday, Purdy will have all day. He just had all day against a Rams front that was supposed to be better than ours — Myles Garrett and the rest of it — and that game ended 27–7.

Friday morning in Napa, Hafley stamped the two that matter. Chop Robinson will not play. Concussion, Wednesday’s practice, still in the protocol. Third one of his career. Harrison is out with the hamstring. Willis practiced in full on the toe all week and is expected to start. Trader was full. Addington is Questionable. Traore practiced limited all week and carried no designation Friday. Kyle Louis is already on injured reserve with an MCL. The edge on Sunday is Uche, Herring, Beal, and whoever they pull up. I hate writing that sentence. It is still true. San Francisco’s Friday sheet is in. Bosa, Kittle, McCaffrey, Williams, Greenlaw — no designation. Expected to play. Kaelon Black is Questionable with a groin. Eddy Pineiro is Questionable with an illness, and they are signing another kicker in case he cannot go. Stribling is Out. That is their whole card. It does not help us.

The history in the building

Regular season and playoffs we are 9–7 against these people. The last time was December 22, 2024, at Hard Rock, and we won it 29–17. Different roster in both colors, but I remember leaving that building with some air in my chest. The time before that, their house, December 4, 2022: 33–17 San Francisco. The one that still lives in this chair is January 20, 1985. Super Bowl XIX. Stanford Stadium. Shula and Walsh. Marino and Montana. They beat us 38–16. We led 10–7 after a quarter and never found the end zone again. Montana threw for 331 and ran for 59. Roger Craig scored three times. The Coach did not make excuses when he met the press. He never did. I can still hear the quiet in that locker room from a boy who was already 20 years into this thing.

I am not putting Willis next to Marino or Hafley next to Shula. That would be cheap. I am reminding you the series has a standard, and the standard is you show up prepared even when the other fellow has more of everything. Thirteen points on the board is the market telling you they do. Showing up anyway is the job. That part has not changed since I was five.

How the game plays

San Francisco will run it until we prove we can tackle in space — McCaffrey and Black, Juszczyk if the finger lets him, Kittle as a move man the minute they stop treating that Achilles like china. Purdy will throw it short and let Evans and Samuel win third down the way Evans already did on the opening drive in Australia. If we cannot get him off his spot, it will be a long afternoon of six-yard hitch routes and then one 20-yarder when a safety gets greedy. I have seen that movie. I do not like the ending.

Our path is the same one we walked in Vegas, except the man across from us is better at every station. Achane has to touch the ball until Fred Warner actually stops him. Willis has to take the sacks he must take and none of the ones he invents by holding it a beat too long. Douglas has to be who he was on Sunday, not a nice story we tell for a week. The line that gave up five to Crosby and Paye now gets Nick Bosa and whoever lines up next to him. That is not a scheme problem. That is a man standing in your kitchen. You meet him or you do not, and I have loved this team long enough to say that out loud without apologizing for it.

Chop against Bosa was going to be the card they slapped on television. Year 3 against a man who just came back from an ACL and looked like himself. Hafley took that card off the table this morning. Sunday the edge is Uche, Herring, Beal, and whoever they call up. Purdy will have more time than Cousins did. I do not like that picture. I will watch it anyway.

The secondary picked a veteran twice last week, and I smiled when they did. Purdy is not Cousins. He will throw it on time. Trader and Taaffe earned the right to be trusted, and they will spend Sunday answering Evans outside, Samuel in the slot, and McCaffrey leaking out of the backfield. Rodriguez will see a lot of that last one. Fourteen tackles against Vegas was a beginning. This is the exam, and I want him to pass it because I have already decided I like the kid.

The pick

49ers 27, Dolphins 13. I like this team more than I did on September 2. I am not going to lie to you about a 13-point road favorite that just beat the Rams by 20. Last week we competed, and it mattered to me. This week we have to prove we can do it when the other roster is whole, at home, and coming off a statement. The spread is the market being honest. The job, in this chair, is to be honest back. Hard on them. Still my team. That is the deal I made when I was five.

If Willis takes care of the ball, if Achane finds a crease, if the front gets Purdy on the ground even twice, you can leave Santa Clara with your head up at 13–27 and not feel small. If third down is 2-of-10 again and the edge is a rumor, it will look like the number on the board, and I will not dress that up. Either way, 1993 stays in the featured slot until we win one. That was the promise. I am not moving the furniture because we played a clean first half in Vegas.

Friday, Sept. 18 final. Miami: Chop Out, Harrison Out, Addington Questionable. Willis, Trader expected. San Francisco: Black Questionable (groin), Pineiro Questionable (illness; they will sign another kicker), Stribling Out. Bosa, Kittle, McCaffrey, Williams, Greenlaw — no designation. Pick stays 49ers 27, Dolphins 13.

Be ready. That is all the Coach ever asked. Leave the score you have in the comments. I will be here after, same chair.