San Francisco 49ers' Jake Moody (4) reacts after missing a field goal attempt in the second quarter of their NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA — Two weeks before the 49ers are set to begin their playoff push, Jake Moody put a scare into the heart of the fanbase.
Entering Sunday’s 21-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams to finish the regular season, the rookie kicker hadn’t missed a field goal since Week 7, having made 10 in a row.
The game meant little to the 49ers; they had already locked up the No. 1 seed and won’t play again for two weeks.
But on a 38-yard try to extend the Niners’ 14-7 lead in the second quarter, Moody pushed it wide right for his first miss inside of 40 yards all season. He was 15-for-15 until Sunday.
No kicker is perfect, and one second-quarter miss in a relatively meaningless game could’ve blown over without a second thought.
It’s what happened afterward that created some pause.
On the 49ers’ very next drive, Sam Darnold drove the offense 90 yards in 1:27 to score a touchdown with 11 seconds remaining in the half and put the Niners up 20-7. Moody came out to attempt the point-after try.
And again, he pushed it wide right.
As he walked off the field he went through his kicking motion, taking a big swing through the air, before he was met by special teams coach Brian Schneider, who gave him a few words and a pat on the helmet.
The streak was over.
Moody hadn’t missed a PAT all year. In fact, in Week 14 he set an NFL record for most consecutive PATs (since 2015, when the extra point became a 33-yard kick) when he hit his 53rd in a row. And after hitting the first two on Sunday, he extended his streak to 60.
Had he finished the game without missing, he would’ve been just the fifth kicker in NFL history to hit at least 60 extra points without missing during a single season; three of those kickers (Matt Prater for the 2013 Denver Broncos, Stephen Gostkowski for the ‘07 New England Patriots and Jeff Wilkins for the ‘99 Rams) went on to play in the Super Bowl that same year.
Was Moody’s miss a bad omen?
During the broadcast on Fox, sideline reporter Kristina Pink said she spoke to Niners coach Kyle Shanahan at halftime and asked him if he was concerned about Moody’s misses: “Uh, yeah,” he told her.
The Niners ended up losing by a single point, and Shanahan was again asked about Moody in his postgame press conference. (Moody was not available to speak to reporters after Sunday’s game.)
“It’s never good when you miss them, especially having two like that,” Shanahan said. “But he’s had a hell of a year, he’s done a hell of a job up to this point and had a rough day today.”
His consecutive misses brought back memories from Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns, the last and only other time he missed multiple kicks in the same game.
During the first quarter in Cleveland, he missed a 54-yarder, pushing it wide left. Then he got a chance to redeem himself with nine seconds left in the fourth quarter as the 49ers trailed 19-17.
A 41-yarder would’ve won the game, but Moody pushed it wide right and the Niners lost their perfect season; they were 5-0 until that point.
Looking back on his season as a whole, it’s hard to be too displeased with Moody’s record-setting rookie year. He entered with exceedingly high expectations after the 49ers used a third-round pick to draft him out of Michigan last April, making him the first kicker to be drafted within the first three rounds since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Roberto Aguayo in the second round in 2016. (Aguayo played just one season for the Bucs and hasn’t kicked in the NFL since.)
And Moody’s PAT streak is nothing to sneeze at; since the NFL moved the extra point back, only Gostkowski in 2015 and the Buffalo Bills’ Tyler Bass in 2021 have gone the entire season without missing a PAT (minimum 50 attempts). Moody’s 57-yarder in Week 2 against the Rams is tied for the seventh-longest field goal hit by any kicker this year.
But the 49ers’ high-powered offense didn’t provide Moody with many field goal attempts this year. He finished the season 21-for-25 for an 84% success rate, 19th among 30 kickers with at least 20 attempts.
Was Moody worth a third-round pick? It’s too soon to tell.
But if you’re wondering if the 49ers and Shanahan are concerned about his ability to bounce back from failure, here’s what Shanahan had to say when asked if he’d be trying out any other kickers ahead of the postseason.
“No, he’s been great all year,” the coach said. “I know he was rough on those two today, but no, we’re good with Jake.”
Originally published at Jason Mastrodonato