49ers in review: How the defense slowly smothered the Buccaneers

Plus, a baffling decision before the end of the first half by Kyle Shanahan

A win is a win, but for a San Francisco 49ers team coming off a bye week, Sunday’s win left us with more questions than answers.

The 49ers were able to squeak out a 23-20 win in Tampa Bay against the Buccaneers, but it shouldn’t have been as close as it was. San Francisco jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, but like plenty of games earlier in the season, they couldn’t pull away, and the Bucs hung around, keeping it within one score for the entire game.

The return of Christian McCaffrey wasn’t all it was hyped to be, rushing for 39 yards on 13 attempts, and the offense still struggled, especially in the red zone. But the 49ers managed to escape with a 5-4 record. The win, in review:

A quietly solid defense

There were a million and a half talking points from this game alone, so I wanted to ensure the 49ers defense got its shine.

No player in particular stood out, but the unit stymied the Tampa Bay offense. The Buccaneers did have some success on the ground, with Bucky Irvining leading the way with 13 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown, but Tampa only managed 215 total yards on 58 plays, good for a measly 3.7 yards per play.

Maybe the game doesn’t feel as significant for the defense since there were no turnovers, ending a three-game streak with at least two turnovers forced. Instead of relying on a big momentum swing, the San Francisco defense slowly smothered the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay’s offense had ten drives on Sunday, with six ending in punts, two ending in field goals, and two ending in touchdowns.

One of the touchdowns shouldn’t even be counted against the defense, forcing a three-and-out to open the second half, but a Jacob Cowing muffed punt gave Tampa Bay the ball back, leading to a short-field touchdown.

The defense even handled some (self-inflicted) adversity, allowing Tampa Bay inside the San Francisco 10-yard-line with multiple penalties on the Bucs’ final possession but still holding them to a game-tying field goal instead of a go-ahead touchdown.

Fred Warner led the way with nine tackles. Tampa Bay went 5-for-14 on third down. The 49ers only sacked Mayfield twice. Nothing pops off the box score, but a solid performance from Nick Sorensen’s defense.

A baffling decision before the half

We’ve talked about it in the past, but conservative Kyle Shanahan struck again a few times on Sunday. Two of Jake Moody’s misses were preventable by Shanahan attempting a fourth down-and-medium.

Shanahan’s decision to attempt the 49-yard field goal at the half was mind-boggling.

Facing a third-and-10 inside Buccaneers territory with under a minute left in the half, Brock Purdy hit Ricky Pearsall, who got out of bounds to set up a fourth-and-3 with 29 seconds left. With the 49ers holding a seven-point lead with all three timeouts, Shanahan sent Moody for a 49-yard attempt. The kick would hook left, and Tampa Bay would get the ball back, but it would go three-and-out to end the half.

The three-and-out almost made Shanahan’s passiveness that much more frustrating. Because of the miss, Tampa started with the ball around the point where a failed fourth-down conversion would have started them. Three yards sure isn’t a short distance to gain in the NFL, but it’s also not a long conversion for an offense with Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle.

Twenty-nine seconds and three timeouts is plenty of time, especially with a short field like the 49ers had on Sunday. But again, Shanahan showed that he was afraid to get aggressive in those situations and gave Tampa Bay a chance to score before getting the ball back on the other side of halftime.

Play of the game

If Sunday was the win that started the 49ers’ typical second-half surge, Purdy’s touchdown pass to Kittle would be the candidate for the play that turned the 49ers’ season around.

With San Francisco trailing by four, Purdy floated a pass that fell into the arms of McCaffrey for a gain of 30 to put the 49ers offense into plus-territory. A Tampa Bay penalty would move the offense into the red zone, where San Francisco scored no touchdowns from two previous red zone drives earlier.

Facing a second down, Purdy had plenty of time in the pocket, so he used that time to roll to his right before unloading a pass to Kittle in the back corner of the endzone:

Reminiscent of Jimmy Garoppolo finding Dante Pettis in Minnesota back in Week 1 of 2018, Purdy dropped the ball into the bucket, and Kittle did a fantastic job getting both feet in for the score.

Scoring a touchdown over a field goal gave San Francisco a three-point lead, which the Bucs would match a couple of drives later, setting up a potential game-winner for Moody, who had himself an eventful Sunday in Tampa Bay.

Deebo Samuel should get partial credit for the game-winning field goal

Moody had as hectic of a game’s final three minutes as any player could have. After missing two of his first four attempts, Moody lined up for a 44-yard attempt with a chance to extend the lead to six, so the Buccaneers had to score a touchdown on its final drive.

The kick went right, and the Bucs needed only a field goal to tie the game–a score Tampa would get after an 11-play drive.

As Moody came off the field after the miss, Samuel met him. He had some choice words for the kicker before long snapper Taybor Pepper stepped in, and a skirmish broke out between the specialists and the receiver.

According to Pepper, he took exception to Samuel telling the second-year kicker to “lock in” after Moody’s third miss.

The words “lock in” likely rang in Moody’s mind as he lined up for a potential game-winning 44-yard field goal. Maybe Samuel’s motivational words kept the ball just inside the right upright, as Moody’s kick gave the 49ers the 23-20 win as time expired.

Are scuffles between two teammates ever an ideal situation for a team to deal with? No. But, in a competitive sport, they are bound to happen. Tempers are bound to flare with that many competitive people in such proximity. But maybe, just maybe, Samuel’s flare-up is just what Moody needed at the moment to lock in for his game-winner.