No one from the San Francisco 49ers defense really got in the way of Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick who threw for three touchdowns at Levis Stadium in Santa Clara on Sun Oct 11, 2020 (AP News photo)
By Barbara Mason
Sunday afternoon the San Francisco 49ers (2-2) took on the Miami Dolphins (1-3) at Levi Stadium. The team welcomed back quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo who had missed the past two games due to a sprained ankle. He is coming off a full week of practice and the hope is that this will get the team back on the winning track after dropping one to the Philadelphia Eagles 25-20.
Despite being underdogs the Dolphins put up two touchdowns in the first quarter. Ryan Fitzpatrick connected with Adam Shaheen for three yards and the touchdown for the early lead 7-0. At 4:14 in the first quarter Myles Gaskin had a one yard rush to extend Miami’s lead 14-0 with San Francisco yet to get anything going.
San Francisco would finally get on the board with a seven yard rush by Kyle Juszcyzk. The Forty Niners had the opportunity to get back into this game. That opportunity vanished when the Dolphins answered with three unanswered scores, the first a DeVante Parker 22 yard pass from Fitzpatrick followed by two field goals.
The first was a 26 yard field goal and the second one a long 50 yard attempt that was good for a 27-7 lead. Jimmy Garoppolo threw his first interception of the season in the second quarter that led to a Miami score. With 14 seconds left in the half Garoppolo threw his second interception of the game. The long anticipated return of Garoppolo showed a struggling quarterback who didn’t look at all ready to return to action. The halftime score was 30-7 in favor of the Miami Dolphins. Garoppolo finished the half seven of 17 for 77 yards and two interceptions.
The opening drive of the third quarter showed a fired up San Francisco defense but the question remained; could the San Francisco offense take advantage. As expected Beathard took over at quarterback in San Francisco’s first possession of the third quarter. Thanks in part to two Miami penalties and a 12 yard pass completion followed by a 19 yard pass for the touchdown, San Francisco was finally getting something going defensively and offensively although that came to an abrupt end in the second half.
Trailing by the score of 30-14 the worst was yet to come for the Forty Niners. Fitzpatrick would throw a 32 yard touchdown to Preston Williams and the Miami quarterback was having a banner day. San Francisco’s Robbie Gould would kick a 37 yard field goal and going into the fourth quarter San Francisco trailed by the score of 37-17.
San Francisco had a lackluster fourth quarter and Miami would kick a 31 yard and a 49 yard field goal. There was not much that Miami was unable to do. They won this game by the score of 43-17 in an unexpected turn outplaying San Francisco on offense and defense. Despite having some of their key players returning to the field it did absolutely nothing for the team. The Forty Niners have a lot of questions moving forward, the most pressing at the position of quarterback.
