Dolphins vs. 49ers: Brock Purdy Nearly Perfect as Christian McCaffrey Hits 100 Touchdowns in Week 2 Rout

Brock Purdy threw 22 passes against Miami and completed 20 of them, and when Kyle Shanahan went hunting for a mistake on the film, he found exactly one. "He was almost flawless," Shanahan said. "His last play was probably his only miss on the intentional grounding."

That's the level the 49ers are operating at right now. San Francisco scored touchdowns on its first five possessions, Christian McCaffrey plowed in from a yard out twice to reach 100 career touchdowns, and the 49ers flattened the Miami Dolphins 35-13 on Sunday at Levi's Stadium to move to 2-0. Back home from their Australian adventure, they looked like the most rested team in the building.

Five Drives, Five Touchdowns, One Long Afternoon in Teal

The strange part is that Miami had the ball for most of the first half and still trailed at the break. Riley Patterson pushed a 51-yard try wide right on the opening drive. The next possession was a 17-play, 63-yard, 9:21 epic that stalled when Malik Willis got sacked on back-to-back snaps near the goal line, ending in a 28-yard field goal. Patterson added a 24-yarder as the half expired. Two red zone trips, zero touchdowns.

San Francisco didn't waste a possession. McCaffrey capped a 12-play drive with a 1-yard run, and Purdy scrambled in from 2 yards out. It was 14-6 at halftime.

Then the third quarter happened. On the first snap of the second half, Purdy found George Kittle down the middle for 40 yards, and three plays later Kittle caught a 12-yard touchdown. Next possession: 71 yards in eight plays, finished by a 6-yard Purdy pass to Kyle Juszczyk. Miami's following drive ended with a punt snap that never got off the ground, Bradley Pinion recovering his own aborted attempt for a turnover on downs at the Dolphins' 28. Mike Evans promptly hauled in a 27-yard catch to the 1, and McCaffrey walked into history on the next play. It was 35-6, and Miami's lone touchdown, a 77-yard Willis strike to Ryan Miller with 2:30 left, only fixed the fantasy box score.

Purdy Played on Rookie Mode

Purdy's stat line looks like a typo: 20 of 22, 287 yards, two touchdown passes, a rushing score and a 149.1 passer rating. He completed 18 straight passes at one point and averaged 13.0 yards per attempt. According to the 49ers, he became the first player in NFL history to complete at least 90 percent of his passes with 285 or more passing yards, two or more touchdown throws and a rushing touchdown in one game. He was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Kittle (four catches, 80 yards, a touchdown) was the explosive-play button, and Shanahan explained the 40-yarder like a cheat code. "We got him down the middle on a double corner blitz, so they don't have enough guys to guard everyone when that happens," he said.

McCaffrey managed just 23 yards on 10 carries, but he did his best work where it counts. His two 1-yard plunges gave him 100 touchdowns in 114 games, the fourth-fastest pace in the Super Bowl era behind LaDainian Tomlinson (89 games), Emmitt Smith (93) and Shaun Alexander (96). He now has 50 touchdowns with Carolina and 50 with San Francisco, joining Marshall Faulk and Randy Moss as the only players with at least 50 for two franchises.

"It's kind of crazy to hear that," McCaffrey said. "I watched all those guys growing up."

The defense got home four times, with Marques Sigle and Romello Height each notching their first career sacks, per the team, and Ji'Ayir Brown racked up 13 tackles.

The Third Quarter Was a Mercy Rule With Extra Steps

Miami's blueprint was obvious: shorten the game, bleed the clock, kick field goals and hang around. For 30 minutes it sort of worked. Kittle's 40-yard catch on the first snap after halftime torched that plan on contact. San Francisco scored 21 points in the third quarter on drives of four, eight and two plays, and a team built to win ugly suddenly had to win pretty. It couldn't. The aborted punt was just the blooper reel rolling over the credits.

Numbers Worth Screenshotting

• 5 for 5: Touchdowns on San Francisco's first five possessions, a first for the franchise since at least 1981, per the team and Elias.
• 0: Sacks allowed by the 49ers through two games, a first since sacks became official in 1982, per the club.
• 7.8: San Francisco's yards per play, its best mark since the 2024 season.
• 0 for 2: Miami in the red zone, against the 49ers' 5 for 5.
• 4: Sacks of Willis, who took five more in the opener at Las Vegas.

What It Means for Both Sides

San Francisco is 2-0 with back-to-back wins by at least 20 points to open a season for the first time in franchise history, and it pulled that off after a trip to the other side of the planet. "That was the biggest challenge of this, just the human nature of what all went into Week 1 and the travel and everything and coming back after five days off," Shanahan said.

The bill arrives in the training room, though. Shanahan believes receiver Demarcus Robinson and defensive tackle James Thompson Jr. suffered high ankle injuries that could cost them time, and Evans left with a hip injury. Arizona visits next.

For Miami, now 0-2 under first-year coach Jeff Hafley, a week of practice in nearby Napa instead of flying home didn't buy much. Willis went 14 of 23 for 197 yards and De'Von Achane ground out 74 yards on 20 carries, but this offense can't finish drives. Hafley, an assistant on Shanahan's first two San Francisco staffs, knows exactly what he's chasing. "So great players, great play-caller, consistency and continuity in one scheme over time usually equals success," he said. "That's a really good team." Kansas City comes to Miami next.

Player One, Meet the Record Book

McCaffrey's best line of the day wasn't a run. Asked about joining Faulk and Moss, he admitted his relationship with Moss started with a controller in his hands. "Randy Moss I played with a ton of time with Madden growing up," he said. Somewhere, a generation of kids who spammed deep balls to Moss just felt very old and very seen. Purdy, who grew up watching McCaffrey, put it plainly: "And now to be a teammate with him when he scored his 100th touchdown, it's insane." The quarterback is completing passes at a video-game clip, and the running back now shares a list with the guys he used to pick on the menu screen. Not a bad Sunday.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press and 49ers.com.