49ers’ Nick Bosa captures NFL award for November dominance
Nick Bosa is the NFC’S Defensive Player of the Month, a month that opened with a bye, then saw Bosa and the 49ers extend a win streak to four while shutting out all opponents in the second half.
Bosa finished his November work shift with a fourth-andgoal sack to seal Sunday’s 13-0 shutout of the New Orleans Saints.
An oddity about Thursday’s NFL honor: He may have won monthly honors but neither he nor any 49ers defender captured player-of-the-week accolades, for November or any other month this season.
Now the 49ers (7-4) are onto December and a home game Sunday against the offensivecharged Miami Dolphins (8-3).
“It’s going to be fun. It’s my hometown team,” said Bosa, who grew up and maintains an offseason home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “I’ve got some friends coming out. They’ll be wearing Dolphins jerseys which would be good to shut them up, but it’s go
ing to be fun, a really good team, a taste of what can come.”
Bosa’s November totals: three sacks, and of his 10 tackles, five were for loss.
Dolphins’ first-year coach Mike Mcdaniel was a 49ers’ assistant the previous five years, so he sure knows Bosa’s capabilities, which make him a viable NFL Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
Mcdaniel, in Monday’s press conference with Miami reporters, recited what it was like working alongside Bosa.
“When I was around him in San Francisco, he would do pass rush moves on (hand) sanitizer machines,” Mcdaniel said. “If you see like an object like this podium, he would do a pass rush move on it. So that’s just who he is.”
With his fourth-and-goal heroics Sunday – he insists he did not jump offside, upon film review – Bosa now has 11 ½ sacks, four shy of last season’s career-high total as he came off knee reconstruction surgery.
This Sunday, he could be facing backup offensive tackles for the third time in four games. Left tackle Terron Armstead may try playing through last game’s pectoral injury, while right tackle Austin Jackson (ankle) is out. Their backups: Greg Little and Brandon Shell.
“They might be missing a couple of guys, but I think their scheme is going to make it difficult on us early,” Bosa said, “and we just have to stop the run and eliminate some of the early options for him to throw and hopefully get home.”
“If Nick Bosa has a pulse, you’re concerned,” Mcdaniel added. “If he walks past you in the parking lot, you’re concerned.
“He’s one of the better players in the entire NFL. You could easily argue, many people have, and I think a lot of teams that have played him have, that he’s the best pass rusher in the NFL.”
Bosa won one other NFC Player of the Month award, in October 2019 en route to NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and the Super Bowl.
As for Bosa’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year candidacy, he could dethrone the Pittsburgh Steelers’ T.J. Watt, who won two player-of-the-month honors last year en route to that title.
In Bosa’s immediate sights is Tua Tagovailoa, the NFL’S passer-ratings leader and an elusive quarterback who’s been sacked 12 times this season but four times in Sunday’s 30-15 win over Houston.
“His accuracy makes him unique. He knows where to go with the ball and he doesn’t really need to see the guy open,” Bosa said. “It’s always fun to play a team that’s having success, especially when we think of ourselves as one of the better defenses. You like the challenge.”
The only other 49ers player to earn two player-of-the-month awards in his career, according to the NFL: Charles Haley, whose 66 1/2-career sacks rank second in franchise history behind Bryant Young (89 1/2). The ninth-place Niner: Bosa (36 career sacks).