The 49ers walked into Sunday with a lot to sort through, and not just on the field. After a weeklong trip to Australia, they had to reset quickly, manage the travel wear and tear, and figure out whether they could keep the same edge that carried them through Week 1.
That starts up front, where Connor Colby and Jake Brendel are set to deal with the Miami Dolphins defensive line. It also extends to the back end, where the 49ers secondary has its own job against the Dolphins offense.
And then there’s the bigger question hanging over the day: whether San Francisco can throttle up or down without losing focus. That kind of game can lull a team into letting its guard down, and this group is expected to prove something after what it did ten days ago.
The travel back from Australia came with a strict recovery plan. Perry, the team’s vice president of player health and performance, and his staff gave players instructions on how much water to drink on the plane, how long to stay up before falling asleep and when to wake up.
Colton McKivitz said the goal was to stay awake for a couple of hours, sleep in the lie-flat seats, then wake up for the final part of the flight. He said he got about seven hours.
Christian McCaffrey said he was out for about 13 hours, which matched rookie defensive tackle Gracen Halton. Nick Bosa was in that same range.
Bosa said the return trip was actually tougher than the trip over.
“I actually felt it worse on the way back,” Bosa said. “Going out, you just kind of power through a few hours and then go to bed early and then just stay on a little earlier wake-up is what I did. And then when I came back, it’s been kind of hard to get to bed, but [Tuesday] night I got to bed nice and early.”
The 49ers’ approach to health and recovery has also become part of the conversation around the team. In a piece laying out a broader theory on why San Francisco has dealt with so many injuries, the idea was that Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch seek out players who never want to come off the field. That can help with toughness and team chemistry, but it can also create problems when players try to play through too much.
The example used was Stribling, who should have stayed off the field after first hurting his ankle on Thursday. Instead, he wanted to keep going, and the 49ers’ doctors allowed it. The point was that these calls always carry risk, and that if Stribling had not wanted back in, he would not have gone back in.
The larger argument was that the 49ers have built a roster full of players who run to contact, refuse to let teammates down and believe they can return sooner than most people expect. That attitude has helped them win a lot of games, even if it comes with consequences.
That same trust was on display in how the team handled George Kittle and Nick Bosa in Australia and in Week 1, both of whom had only recently returned to practice. It also tied into the belief that this group could handle flying to Australia a week early, beating the Rams and then getting itself ready for the Dolphins on Sunday.
Not everything was set cleanly for kickoff. Pineiro missed practice all week because of an illness, and Shanahan said Friday the team would work out kickers before the game. That was presented as a precaution, and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
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