The 49ers beat the Buccaneers 23-20 Sunday in a mess of a football game.
The Niners’ defense aided a late Tampa Bay drive with four penalties, including three on consecutive plays. But the Bucs could only tie the game with a field goal, leaving 41 seconds for Brock Purdy to lead a drive and set up Jake Moody’s game-winning kick from 44 yards out.
Moody had missed three kicks earlier in the game.
Purdy was 25-of-36 passing for 353 yards and two touchdowns. Christian McCaffrey led the rushing attack with just 39 yards on 13 carries as the 49ers only gained 75 yards on 22 attempts rushing. Jauan Jennings had 93 yards on seven catches while Ricky Pearsall had four for 73 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown.
McCaffrey added 68 yards receiving.
Here’s what the Niners had to say after the win:
Kyle Shanahan
On his warning to the team last night:
I told them last night, don’t expect this game to be fun. It’s going to be grimy, it’s going to be sticky. This team that is playing too desperate. It’s a good team that’s lost some games, close ones, and they’re a day before their bye week.
On Moody making his last kick after missing three:
There’s as much pressure on him as I could imagine than anyone with missing those three in the game. For him to drill that was huge.
On the Samuel-Moody exchange:
I don’t have much of a take because I didn’t see any of it. … Probably obvious, one guy’s frustrated and something probably happened. Brothers scuffle a little bit. I didn’t see any of it. I don’t know how bad it was but something I’m not too worried about. We’ll fix it if it hasn’t been fixed already. We’ll fix on the plane and go back to loving each other tomorrow.
On Moody:
You’re only as good as your last kick, so he did a hell of a job winning the game for us there at the end.
On managing McCaffrey’s snaps:
We did that in the first half. We did a couple series and stuff. In the second half, it got away from us a little bit. I think we only had one drive in that whole third quarter. Didn’t have as many possessions and we weren’t taking him out in the fourth and he didn’t need to be taken out.
On Pearsall:
Ricky was awesome. He made the plays he needed to when we went to him, scored a touchdown on that. He beat his guy in coverage and then made a great catch and scoring points there is huge.
On Jennings:
Especially losing BA, we needed to get Jauan back in the starting position and this is his first time ever playing the X position, which he’ll be doing the rest of the year.
On Purdy:
He did miss a few throws in the first half, just being a little bit off and cost us a couple ones. But the way he came back in the second half was huge. Had some big time (throws): That one to Christian down the sidelines because we had a busted protection. He actually threw it so early I didn’t think it was a good throw. I didn’t know why he threw it so early until I saw the pictures and saw we busted the protection. So he had to get rid of it so early and put some touch on it, which gave Christian a chance to get under it. So that was huge. The throw to Kittle on second-and-goal from the 10 in the corner of the end zone, that was huge.
On Moody-Samuel:
This is the first time I’ve had it all described to me. So it’s not that I don’t trust you but I’m going to wait to see it with my own eyes and talk to the guys.
On Moody:
I don’t think the pressure of getting shoved with a helmet on or something is much of it. I think when it all comes down to you and everyone’s dependent on you, there’s a lot of pressure on that guy, even if he hit six in a row today and it all comes down to him at the last one and he misses that. … It was great practice for him to put himself in a situation like that and to come through. I think that does add confidence to guys.
Christian McCaffrey
On returning:
I’m just happy I’m here, man. That was a long journey and a lot of long days, so it feels good to win and feels good to just play a football game again.
On Purdy’s anticipation throw to him:
It was a great throw. He had pressure in his face, I guess, and perfectly thrown ball. That’s not easy to put touch on it, to understand where I’m at on the field and to be able to put that there.
On his return:
That’s the third time I’ve had pads on in eight weeks, so just getting back into a groove was really good for me to do. I think there’s a couple things that maybe I didn’t feel like myself 100% but that’s normal when you haven’t played in a long time.
Brock Purdy
On the mess of the game:
Obviously it’s not, like, our favorite to be in that kind of position, but that’s the NFL, we’re going to be playing games like this. And for us to be able to pull together as a team, defense get a stop, offense move the ball and then special teams finish, it feels good to finish it out.
On Moody’s final kick:
I knew he was going to hit it. Just who he is and what he’s done for us. We’ve literally seen him hit some really big kicks in his career and obviously in practice and stuff, we’ve seen what he’s capable of. So for him to be in that moment, obviously I know that he’s the kind of guy that would learn from his kind of mistakes and then when it mattered most, finish. And that’s what he did.
On McCaffrey:
I think it was awesome, just what he can do, running the ball and then coming out of the backfield in our pass game, we had multiple plays with us.
On McCaffrey’s impact:
Just seeing how gritty and tough he is, we get behind him. He inspires us and he keeps us all sort of going and lights that fire in our huddle.
On his game:
Definitely felt out of rhythm to start the game and not really sure what it was, but I know in the second half, I j just told myself that all right, just go out and compete and rip it, don’t hesitate. I thought in the second half, we all did it.
Nick Bosa
On his hip injury:
It was a factor.
On recovering:
Just some rest, hopefully. I kind of knew that I could push through without getting too much worse, so that’s what I did. But definitely evaluate tomorrow.
Ricky Pearsall
On his touchdown:
I think it was a drive before that, we had a similar route. I had an in-breaker and it was a pass breakup on that one. It was a little bit behind me in the same spot and the DB broke it up. So we definitely wanted to get that one back. So I had a similar route to that — me personally, I wanted to get it back. So on that one, we connected on that and then after that, it was just make a play with the ball, get my hands on it, get my first (TD).
On chemistry with Purdy:
I think the most important thing is just continue to develop that trust with Brock. I think the reason the pass was a little bit behind me on that first drive is because I cut it short. So, you know, just getting on the same page on that and it’s just going to get much, much better.
George Kittle
On the postgame locker room:
We were just waiting for Brock to get off his off-the-field interviews. We all sat there for an extra 10 minutes.
George Kittle
On the ugly game:
Being able to deal with all of that and still come out with a win. That reminds me of like 2019, like it’s not going to be pretty but you just have to find ways to win no matter how ugly they are sometimes.
On his touchdown:
My only responsibility on that play was to get covered by the safety so Christian scored a touchdown. I got covered, Christian didn’t score and I’m just kind of trying to find Brock in the back, which it’s hard to see sometimes because one of his only shortcomings is that he’s not the tallest quarterback. He’s just hard to see sometimes. But one thing I love with Brock, on scramble drills: If you do lock eyes with him, he’s going to give you time to try to make a move and get open. And so once we locked eyes, I tried to give him space in the corner of the end zone and he just dropped the dime like he always does.
On McCaffrey’s return:
When he’s out there, it’s hard to double-cover anybody because if you do that, you’re leaving Christian one-on-one with a linebacker most of the time. So he opens that area for us.
Fred Warner
On the Moody-Samuel spat:
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I didn’t know about it until I got back into the locker room. That’s just the fiery spirit of the team. Everybody, of course, wants to win and I don’t put too much into that.
On the mistakes and getting the win:
It was unfortunate the amount of mistakes, mine included. Of course, everybody’s out there trying their hardest to play hard to win and make the play to win the game. … My mindset through it all was hey, even with the penalties, next play, next play mentality. I talked to the group about winning on defense and in that moment, we know we had to hold them to a field goal.
On whether he watched the final field goal:
I did not watch. I’d rather just listen to the cheers. … I’m always ready for regardless of what happened in the game, I’m always ready for any situation. So I wasn’t sitting there praying like “Oh, Moody, I hope you make it. I was getting my mind right for if he did happen to miss it, then playing overtime.
On mental preparation:
You prepare like you’re going to dominate the team that you’re playing but you’re prepared for whatever. You prepare for that fight and so when you are in that battle, then you’re ready for it.
On not blowing out Tampa Bay:
Do I wish we blew them out by 30? Of course. But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that we’re playing our best ball when it’s needed at the endo the season, right. And we look at the tape this game. You’d much rather learn off of a win than a loss.