Dolphins @ 49ers Odds and Predictions

This is a must win game for the 49ers. Luckily for them, Sunday is looking like the first time all season that they’ll have their ideal starting offense playing together.

Point Spread: 49ers -9

Over/Under 50.5

Analysis: This is a must win game for the 49ers. Luckily for them, Sunday is looking like the first time all season that they’ll have their ideal starting offense playing together.

Jimmy Garoppolo was named the starting quarterback earlier this week after missing the previous two games with a high ankle sprain. Raheem Mostert also figures to be back in the lineup after missing the same amount of games with a knee injury.

That means the offense will feature: Garoppolo, Mostert, McKinnon, Samuel*, Aiyuk and Kittle.

*Samuel missed two practices this week with a illness, his status for Sunday is in question*

In 2019, the team had the second-highest-scoring offense in the NFL, nearly scoring 30 points per game. This year, the offense seems to be just as talented and, now that they’re slowly getting to full health, they have the potential to meet or even exceed the success they experienced on offense last year.

The Dolphins decided to keep Ryan Fitzpatrick as their starting quarterback for this matchup as opposed to having rookie Tua Tagovailoa make his NFL debut. This benefits the 49ers, because they struggle to defend mobile quarterbacks. That’s exactly what Tagovailoa was in college.

But Fitzpatrick is no statue in the pocket. He has 115 rushing yards on the year, including 47 last week against the Seahawks. He’s a crafty veteran that knows how to keep his team in games.

In general, the Dolphins are a middle of the road team. They’re not as bad as the Jets or Giants, and not quite as good as the Cardinals or Eagles. From a statistical standpoint, nothing they do on either side of the ball stands out in a really good nor really bad way.

All things considered, this matchup favors the 49ers.

Spread prediction: 49ers cover the 9 points.

Both of these teams are 2-2 against the spread. The 49ers covered the spread against the Jets and Giants, but lost outright as favorites against the Cardinals and Eagles. The Dolphins did not cover the spread Week 1 against the Patriots, as they were 7 point underdogs and lost by 10. They then covered the next two weeks against the Bills and Jaguars, before failing to cover the spread against the Seahawks last week.

Still, I give the Miami Dolphins credit. They’ve played three 2019 playoff teams already and have yet to lose a game by more than 10 points. For a team that was 5-11 last year, they’ve found a way to keep all of their games relatively close.

Will that continue to be the case against the 49ers? The 49ers have not lost back-to-back games since December of 2018, and they have not lost three consecutive home games since 2017.

A lot has gone against the 49ers to begin the season and, now that things are slowly falling back to place health-wise, I believe that the team will be out for blood.

The 49ers will win this game in convincing fashion.

Over/Under Prediction: Under 50.5 points

Out of the four matchups the 49ers have played so far this year, zero of them have gone over 50 points. Flipping things around and looking at the Dolphins, two of their four matchups have exceeded a total of 50 points.

I expect this game to go well under. I have a hard time seeing the 49ers allowing the Dolphins to score enough points for this game to exceed the line of 50.

I like the 49ers by 10.

Final Prediction: Dolphins 17 - 49ers 27. 

All 49ers SI Writer Predictions: 

<strong>Writer</strong>	<strong>Record</strong>	<strong>Spread Prediction</strong>	<strong>Over/Under Prediction</strong>
Jack	6-2	MIA +9	Under
Maverick	5-3	SF -9	Under
Jose	4-4	SF -9	Over
Nick	4-4	SF -9	Under
Grant	4-4	SF -9	Under
Marco	4-4	SF -9	Over
Leo	3-5	SF -9	Over

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