The San Francisco 49ers may have come away with a last-second win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. However, it was quite a bumpy road to reach that end result.
49ers kicker Jake Moody missed his third field goal of the afternoon in the fourth quarter, and he was approached by star wide receiver Deebo Samuel on the sideline. After Samuel began yelling at Moody, long snapper Taybor Pepper began scolding Samuel for reacting in that manner toward Moody. Samuel eventually placed his hand on Pepper’s throat before removing himself from the situation.
After the altercation, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Pepper initially overreacted in approaching Samuel.
“Oh yeah, totally. I think it was a little bit overreaction, and I don’t think you never want Deebo to throw a baby punch or anything on anybody on our own team, but Deebo also wasn’t saying anything bad to Jake, like it sounded,” Shanahan said, via Sports Illustrated. “He was meeting him on the field telling him to lock in, the same thing I’ll tell to an offensive player who just dropped some balls or made some penalties or something.
“And I like Taybor Pepper’s intentions on it, he’s got his kicker’s back. But I think he kind of interpreted wrong what Deebo was doing to him and overreacted a little bit. And Deebo didn’t like that and got him out of his face, and that’s really about where it ended.”
Moody did rebound from that particular missed field goal, and ultimately connected on a game-winning 44-yard field goal to lift the 49ers to a 23-20 win.
It was certainly a chaotic day for the 49ers, who also regained the services of star running back Christian McCaffrey. Moody did miss three of his six field goal attempts on the day, but was able to successfully drill his final kick through the uprights.