SANTA CLARA — Jake Moody didn’t sound like someone who is fretting over the possibility of delivering a kick that could make or break the 49ers’ season.
In Week 18, a 21-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams was directly attributable to a missed 38-yard field goal attempt and a missed point-after-touchdown try by Moody. The game was meaningless in terms of playoff seeding, but it was enough to get the Faithful concerned about the rookie who was selected in the third round to replace the reliable Robbie Gould.
The field goal attempt came after a Tayler Hawkins interception in the second quarter and glanced off the right upright. The extra point was pushed even worse and wasn’t even close.
Moody wasn’t present in the postgame locker room and Tuesday was the first chance he has had to talk about what went wrong. It turns out Moody wasn’t around after the game for fear of transferring germs more than avoiding an analysis of two bad kicks.
There was a virus running through the 49ers’ locker room at the end of the regular season. Moody was one of its victims.
“I don’t want to miss any kicks, no matter what the situation is, whether it matters or it doesn’t matter,” Moody said. “I approach each one the same. Wasn’t feeling the best that game with. It happens. But what the conditions are and how I’m feeling doesn’t matter. I’ve got to power through it.”
It was Moody’s lone miss between 30 and 39 yards this season and the first time he missed an extra point, finishing 60-of-61. His rookie year has actually been pretty solid, with the lone exception of a 41-yard attempt that went wide right with six seconds left in a 19-17 Week 6 loss to Cleveland.
The misses are magnified in Moody’s case because he was drafted in the third round to replace Gould. The same Gould who converted a 45-yard attempt to beat Green Bay in the divisional round two years ago at frigid Lambeau Field. The 49ers host the Packers Saturday at Levi’s Stadium at 5:15 p.m.
There were immediate calls on social media for the 49ers to either bring back Gould or at least look at another kicker. Coach Kyle Shanahan was having none of it.
“He’s been great all year,” Shanahan said. “I know he was rough on those two today, but no, we’re good with Jake.”
The bye week afforded Moody the opportunity to not only get healthy but rest his body. Since his senior year at Michigan, Moody was training for the draft and performing for scouts, and then went to rookie minicamps, minicamp and training camp without much of a break.
“I made sure to rest the leg up,” Moody said. “It’s been a long season with no offseason. You feel that as a kicker. It’s like being a pitcher in baseball, you take some time off, and your leg recoups to where it needs to be. I didn’t get that luxury this year but it’s nice to get a little time and rest up as much as you can.”
Moody didn’t spend a lot of time agonizing or overanalyzing the missed kicks against the Rams.
“You can feel it right off your foot,” Moody said. “It’s similar to golf, you can feel it when you hit a good one versus when you shank one. You do it enough to know what it feels like when it’s good or not good. I felt it right away.
“I’m not worried about it. Put that in the past, move on, and keep approaching everything the same because before that I was doing pretty well. Just keep doing that and it should work out.”
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Playing for a team with one of the best offenses in the NFL has also presented Moody with some challenges. He had just 25 field goal attempts in 17 games. In a Week 12 game against Philadelphia, the 49ers scored touchdowns in six consecutive possessions and won 42-19. He also had no attempts the following week against Seattle.
So when the 49ers attempted a 43-yard field goal against Arizona in Week 15 with a 42-22 lead, Moody was overjoyed.
“It’s tough, having to wait for one,” Moody said. “The Arizona game was the first one I had in a little while and I remember running up to (special teams coach Brian) Schneider and saying, ‘Oh, I finally got one. Let’s go.’ It was like garbage time too, the fourth quarter, we were way up. But it does feel good when I get to go out there and get a field goal once in a while after all those extra points.”
