Maybe we all should’ve realized that, like it or hate it, the second half of the 49ers’ season will probably be decided and defined by Jake Moody, his erratic kicks, and how everybody else in the franchise reacts to the whole drama-rama.
The 49ers aren’t good enough to survive a shaky kicker. And Moody hasn’t been bad enough (presumably) for them to discard him. So everybody involved is stuck in this situation, which can pluck at the nerves just a bit.
Maybe Deebo Samuel was realizing all of that in real-time during the 49ers’ excruciating 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in Tampa. Maybe there was no way Deebo could stop himself from barking at Moody after the kicker missed a third field-goal attempt, which drew a loud defense and response from Moody’s long-snapper, Taybor Pepper.
Maybe Deebo’s small smile in the locker room explained almost everything — Moody’s redeeming 44-yard game-winning kick as time expired; the 49ers’ relieved celebration as they moved to 5-4; the realization of how close they came to blowing this; and the cold understanding that this team desperately needs a dependable kicker but probably has to ride it out with Moody.
“Just frustrated in the heat of battle, and I kinda got out of character a little bit,” Deebo told reporters in the locker room afterward. “But I’ll talk to Moody and we’ll get past it.”
To be clear, nothing major happened between Samuel, Moody, and Pepper after Moody missed wide right in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, following two earlier misses wide left. No punches were thrown and it’s possible that the words exchanged were at high decibel but not very rowdy. Presumably, Deebo made his feelings about Moody’s misses quite clear to Moody as he headed to the sideline — something like, Lock in and make your kicks! — and Pepper moved in to defend his kicker with a screaming affirmation that they know what they have to do.
It’s all understandable. Moody isn’t quite a Made Man in the 49ers’ locker room after some wobbles last season, including a missed extra-point try in the Super Bowl and a miss that cost them a win in Cleveland. But this was Moody’s first game back after a stint on the injured list for a high ankle sprain. Everybody on the team sees his talent. They just want to see Moody make more field goals.
Left unsaid: Last season, when the 49ers started out 5-0 and finished as the No. 1 seed in the NFC, they could deal with a rookie kicker’s growing pains. And they loved Moody’s strong leg. But the 49ers have been fighting for their playoff relevance basically from the start this season. They’ve been counting on a big run after last weekend’s bye, and Sunday’s long struggle against a beat-up Buccaneers team was more proof that this is not destined to be a free-and-easy season for the 49ers. They need those 50-yard field goals. They need to believe in Moody.
Was it a great look for the FOX cameras to catch Deebo and Pepper swiping at each other on the sidelines, with Moody in between? No — it was a bad visual from a team that almost never has these kinds of public eruptions. It’s the kind of thing the 49ers want to make their opponents do, frankly. It was a sign of confusion and anger. And almost certainly some amount of desperation.
But it also probably was destined to happen. Everybody wants to win. Deebo is a ferocious competitor. Nobody had to tell Moody how much he was letting the team down, but it was informative for all of us to feel the 49ers’ urgency right then and there. To watch the gasket get blown.
“We know what our job is,” Pepper said. “We’ve got ‘us.’ It’s hard being a specialist. Sometimes it’s feast or famine. As a young developing specialist like Jake is … I don’t know how much better it gets than missing three straight and then having to step up and hit an almost 50-yard game-winner. So I’m super-proud of Jake.”
From the moment the 49ers burned a third-round pick on Moody in the 2023 draft, Kyle Shanahan has uncharacteristically handled Moody with kid gloves in public. Clearly, Shanahan was convinced of Moody’s talent during the draft, he’s watched Moody boom kicks in every healthy practice, and he hasn’t wavered, even through some of the uncomfortable times. Shanahan doesn’t want to have to worry about the kicker. He’s tried very hard not to worry (publicly) about Moody.
He sent Moody out there Sunday for a 50-yard try early in the fourth quarter, after Moody had made two short ones and missed from 49 yards. And after Moody missed that one, Shanahan sent him out to try another from 44 two possessions later — which Moody missed, drawing the reaction from Deebo. After the game, Shanahan said he didn’t see the incident and said it likely wasn’t a big deal.
“Guys are frustrated,” Shanahan said. “And brothers scuffle a little bit. I didn’t see any of this, so I don’t know how bad it was. But it’s something I’m not too worried about. We’ll fix — if it hasn’t been fixed already, we’ll fix it on the plane. And go back to loving each other tomorrow.”
That does not sound like a coach who’s getting ready to cut his kicker. The 49ers have options, since they had to run through two other kickers while Moody was on IR. If Moody had missed that last kick, I think Shanahan might’ve been ready to call back Anders Carlson or check to see if Matthew Wright was anywhere near ready to come off of IR. (He hurt his back in his first game with the 49ers.)
But Moody made the game-winner — it was also pushed a bit right and probably would’ve been a miss if Jauan Jennings hadn’t fought for a bunch of extra yards while the clock ticked down two plays earlier.
“I think when it all comes down to you, everyone’s depending on ya, there’s a lot of pressure on that guy,” Shanahan said. “Even if he hit six in a row today and it all comes down to him on the last one and he misses that … it’s why you’re only as good as your last kick, you’re only as good as you’re last throw, you’re only as good as your last game. It was great practice for [him] to put himself in a situation like that and come through. I think it does add confidence [for] guys, that they’ve been there before.”
No doubt, there were a lot of clear positives for the 49ers in this game — Purdy’s sizzling late-game performance to get them in position for those Moody kicks; Ricky Pearsall making huge catches throughout the game; Christian McCaffrey’s big plays in his first game this season; and a very solid performance by the very young secondary.
But the 49ers displayed many of the same soft spots that have haunted them all season, especially in the run defense, with the Bucs running it 27 times for 110 yards, most of that coming in the second half. They were unable to get Baker Mayfield to the ground multiple times when 49ers’ defensive linemen had him in their sites. Also, the 49ers hoped that McCaffrey’s return would end their Red Zone woes, but they only scored one touchdown in three Red Zone trips on Sunday.
And yes, the 49ers’ special teams once again was an albatross, not just the three Moody misses, but also a muffed punt by Jacob Cowing, when Darrell Luter was pushed into him, which set up Tampa Bay’s first TD.
The 49ers outgained the Buccaneers 413–215 and still almost lost this game, similar to the way they dominated the Rams and Cardinals earlier this season and lost both of those games. The 2024 49ers aren’t a great team yet, and may not get there this season. They’re sloppy. They blow leads.
This is not an enviable situation for the 49ers, or for Moody, who they need to trust but probably can’t. But it’s the hand they’ve dealt themselves, and if you think it’s tense now, wait until there are 10 more huge kicks in the stretch run and maybe into the playoffs.