There will be a lot of renewed scrutiny around the San Francisco 49ers' decision to draft kicker Jake Moody in the third round following his missed would-be game-winning field goal against the Cleveland Browns.
Moody sent a 41-yard attempt wide right to doom the 49ers to their first loss of the season. However, the Niners made it clear after the 19-17 defeat that they retain complete faith in him, with quarterback Brock Purdy quick to express support for Moody, despite the miss seeing Purdy lose the first game he has started and finished in his career.
"Honestly, we trust in Jake," Purdy said. "Jake, he has a great leg. He's been great all year. [Head coach] Kyle [Shanahan], that's something that he saw, where we were good at where we were at, and we trusted in Jake to make the kick.
"And so, for me, do I think we should have done this or that? I think we did our job, and I think if we had to do it again, we're going to trust in Jake again. Jake's done a great job all year. We're going to continue to believe in him, and it is what it is."
Fred Warner echoed the sentiments of Purdy, the 49ers' All-Pro linebacker refusing to put the loss on Moody after a performance he felt was not deserving of victory.
"I would never put it on Moody at the end there," Warner said. "It's great that we had an opportunity to win that, in that fashion, but we didn't earn it.
"He's [Moody] a young player. He's a rookie, and he's going to have so many other opportunities to help us win games. And so, like I said, I would never put that on him, to say that we lost this game because of him."
With 11 accepted penalties going against the Niners, the defense surrendering 160 yards on the ground and the offense wasting several opportunities to build on a fast start and put the game beyond the Browns in the first half, there were a host of other factors beyond Moody that contributed to the 49ers dropping to 5-1.
But Moody was appreciative of his teammates' show of solidarity after he came up short in the biggest moment of his young career.
"For a guy that just got here, having all my teammates tell me to keep my head up, come give me a high five, pat on the back, that was pretty cool," Moody told reporters.
"So I really appreciate all that, especially them putting their trust in me to make a kick and just not execute. But having everybody have my back, even for a guy that just got here, that was pretty cool."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan didn't have a chance to talk with Moody before facing the media, but also shifted the blame away from his kicker.
"It's always tough to miss that last kick, but that happens in football. [The Browns] played better than us today. That was the last play, but there was a lot more today than just that."
From injuries to key players, consistent failures in execution and a couple of hugely controversial decisions going against San Francisco, Sunday provided the ideal recipe for a letdown defeat. Moody's missed kick was the finishing touch that many outside the organization will focus on, but it won't prevent the 49ers from focusing on the more important lessons from a poor performance.
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