The San Francisco 49ers squeaked out a narrow win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday as kicker Jake Moody knocked in a 44-yard field goal as time expired to win it 23-20. Moody's game-winner turned around what was an otherwise brutal day for the kicker.
After missing more than a month due to an ankle injury, Moody missed three field goals on Sunday, which kept the Buccaneers in the game all afternoon and gave them a chance to win it at the end. After Moody's third miss, wide receiver Deebo Samuel confronted the young kicker before long snapper Taybor Pepper stepped in to defend Moody. In response, Samuel took a swing at Pepper, causing fans all over the place to speculate about what happened.
After the game, Pepper got the chance to explain for himself what happened between himself, Samuel and Moody, per David Lombardi of The San Francisco Standard.
“High-emotion game,” Pepper said after the game, per Lombardi. “Jake was having a little rough patch there, (so I'm) standing up for Jake. The game wasn't over, and everybody knows what happened at the end. It's not over until the clock hits zero. … It's nice that he had a rough patch that he was able to come back from because not a lot of people get that opportunity.”
There was understandably a lot of tension around this game as the 49ers try to keep pace in both the NFC West race and the NFC Wild Card picture. This was a huge win for the 49ers, who improved to 5-4 with the win and kept pace with the Arizona Cardinals at the top of the division.
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Moody is a big part of the special teams, so the 49ers are hoping that Sunday's poor showing was just him knocking off the rust after his injury. He has been very reliable entering Sunday's game, making 34 out of his 39 career field goal attempts.
The 49ers also got Christian McCaffrey back on Sunday after he missed the first eight games of the season due to an Achilles injury. Jauan Jennings was back out there as well, so this is a team that is getting healthy at the right time. The 49ers will have a chance to make a big move in the division in Week 11 when they take on the Seattle Seahawks.
