The 49ers' great special teams play followed by Moody's game-changing injury

Posted by enzo2go October 7, 2024

SANTA CLARA – Jake Moody knew once he kicked the ball, he wouldn't get the carry he wanted.

Little did he know that failing to attain a touchback could be a giant problem for the 49ers in a 24-23 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at Levi's Stadium.

The 49ers had just gotten a 61-yard return from Deommodore Lenoir after a blocked 45-yard field goal from Chad Ryland courtesy of Jordan Elliott, giving them a 19-10 lead and a much-needed boost against a beleaguered team Special unit provided.

Moody then converted the additional point for a 20-10 lead before going to the Cardinals.

To this point, Moody has had 19 touchbacks on 21 kickoffs this season, which is amongst the perfect within the league.

“When I went that way into the wind, I got a little bit of pressure,” Moody said afterward, wearing a protective boot on his right foot. “It wasn’t deep enough to let go for a touchback. They put it out there and it sucks how it turned out in the end.”

Arizona returnee DeeJay Dallas got free, broke to his left and Moody did what football players do. He attempted — and succeeded — to make the tackle at Arizona's 38-yard line. However, his right foot twisted underneath and the resulting severe ankle sprain took Moody out of the sport.

Moody will likely be out indefinitely, and the 49ers have already begun calling up placekickers for what could possibly be a month or longer absence.

That left player Mitch Wishnowsky because the player and fullback Kyle Juszczyk because the defending champion. Wishnowsky converted a 26-yard field goal attempt late within the half, but coach Kyle Shanahan said he wasn't comfortable attempting field goals from anything further than the 15-yard line.

That meant that when the 49ers got to the Arizona 13 within the third quarter and the drive failed with a false start by Jauan Jennings and a sack that was absorbed by Brock Purdy, the 49ers were forced to get a primary down on fourth down -23 as an alternative of Moody attempting a 44-yard field goal to avoid wasting some points.

Purdy was incomplete on fourth down and the 49ers still led 23-13, however the missed points proved crucial. When Arizona finally took the lead for good on fourth-and-23, Purdy needed 1:37 to make something occur — with no place-winner.

As the 49ers subsequently handled the loss, there was no denying that Lenoir's touchdown (on his twenty fifth birthday) and Moody's subsequent injury played a giant role.

“It was a crazy thing, but in the NFL it's always 'Next Man Up,'” Lenoir said.

Juszczyk, who threw just a few balls into the online in case he was called upon to kick, shook his head on the sudden turn of events.

“It just seems like with every loss we had a series of events that overlapped,” he said. “It's hard to plan and these things are unfortunate. You have to react and score touchdowns and not shoot field goals.”

Moody, who eventually left the sphere under his own power – although he skipped the ultimate 10 yards – knew immediately that it wasn't good.

“I actually broke my leg in eighth grade in a very similar way, so that was my first thought,” Moody said. “Luckily I didn’t feel anything break or crack like I did when I broke it. But I knew something was wrong.”

There were times on the Raiders when place-kicker Sebastian Janikowski would make a beeline for the sideline after a kickoff to make sure that he wasn't in peril. It never occurred to Moody.

“I will always try to make the best tackle possible,” he said. “I don't try to make tackles every day so I'm not used to that, but I'll do my best to bring him down. Just try to go deeper I guess. I got kind of shaken up.”

Shanahan wouldn't have it some other way.

“You try to tackle it. You don’t tell guys to keep their ankle out of it,” he said. “You hope it doesn’t happen to him and he doesn’t have to make a tackle, but you also don’t tell the guys to turn it down and just let them score. So it’s part of football.”

Moody made field goals of 28 and 20 yards – with the 49ers again struggling within the red zone – but got here into the sport having missed only one field goal in 4 games, a 54-yard attempt against the Rams. At the time of the injury, he was 13-for-14, 3-for-3 from 40 to 49 yards and 2-for-3 on attempts beyond 50 yards.

“Losing a kicker is huge, especially when you have a guy who is good from 57 yards,” tight end George Kittle said. “This is hard. Jake is a damn good kicker, and when you don't have that option and now you have to get to the 25 yard line (actually the 15) to kick, it's tough. But I think our special teams and defense gave us every opportunity to win.

“As an offensive player who’s been here for eight yards, that’s on us more than anything.”

Wishnowsky was not there when reporters entered the locker room. It's not the primary time he's been pressed into service. In Week 4 of 2021, placekicker Robbie Gould suffered a groin strain during warmups and was unable to kick. Wishnowsky, who grabbed Taybor Pepper and held Juszczyk, was 1-for-2 on extra-point attempts but missed a 41-yard field goal attempt wide left.

With the additional point that day, Wishnowsky became the primary Australian player to attain a degree in an NFL game. Coincidentally, after the conversion, Wishnowsky, a former soccer and rugby player, delivered a giant blow to DeeJay Dallas on the decisive kickoff. The same Dallas that Moody took on Sunday with a much more painful consequence.

Football coaches have plans for all the things, but using practice time to organize for a sudden loss isn't a part of the plan, partly because kicking and punting are dramatically different when it comes to muscle use and the basics of the swing.

“It’s such a strange anomaly,” Pepper said. “Your punter may take a few kicks throughout the year, but that is a weekly thing that is not the expectation of an NFL punter.”

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image credit : www.mercurynews.com

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