Jake Moody was the first 49ers player on the field in Pittsburgh for Sunday’s season opener. About two-and-a-half hours before the opening kickoff, Moody was on the grass and visualizing his kicks before getting in his pregame routine.
After a preseason that sparked doubts, the rookie kicker was perfect in the 30-7 razing by the 49ers over the Steelers.
The attention heaped on Moody isn’t solely his fault. The magnifying glass has been on him since draft day, as the 49ers used their No. 99 overall pick in the third round to draft him to be Robbie Gould’s successor.
Gould had been the model of consistency throughout the first six years of coach Kyle Shanahan’s tenure with the team, so when Moody missed two kicks in the preseason opener and an extra point in the next exhibition game, you could hear the collective ‘Uh-oh’ from the 49ers Faithful.
The subsequent quad injury that kept Moody out of the preseason finale didn’t quell those concerns, but he didn’t look rattled in his NFL debut. Moody hit field goals from 41 yards, 32 yards and 40 yards while also going a perfect 3-of-3 on extra point attempts.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Moody also joined some elite kicking company with his 12-point debut.
After the game, Moody said it wasn’t hard to shake off his preseason hiccups. In fact, he seemed pretty nonchalant about his first real NFL action.
“Just another game,” Moody said. “If I’m too worried about that, I’m not focused on what I need to be doing, which is making kicks. Felt like a normal game, thanks to these two guys (long snapper Taybor Pepper and holder/punter Mitch Wishnowsky) right here, they made my job really easy and felt really confident going into it.”
Likewise, coach Kyle Shanahan said he had faith in Moody despite his rocky introduction to the league.
“We’ve felt so good about him in practice every day,” Shanahan said. “He’s been great. He had a couple struggles in the preseason games and then got hurt, but he healed a lot faster than we expected and he’s been pretty good here in practice. But you still wanna see it in the games. Getting the delay of game (on the first extra point attempt) we did that just to make it harder for him. But he looked great there and continued it throughout the whole game. He did a hell of a job today.”
