49ers Notebook: Fighting off disaster; Brock Purdy recovers from shaky start; George Kittle’s weird kicking superstition

Had things gone a little differently for the San Francisco 49ers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Sunday, they would be flying back to the Bay Area with one of their most disappointing losses in recent memory.

But the 49ers were able to make the plays they needed when it mattered most and instead are heading home with a 23-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who came close to taking the game from the 49ers but instead wound up with a bitter defeat of their own.

The 49ers fought through a comedy of special teams errors in the second half, which included multiple missed field goals from kicker Jake Moody and a muffed punt that set up a Buccaneers touchdown. One of Moody's missed field goals came with just over three minutes remaining and left the score at 20-17, giving the Buccaneers the chance to win the game on the next drive. For a while it looked like that might happen, as after giving up a first down on an improbable fourth down pass from quarterback Baker Mayfield, the 49ers committed four defensive penalties that helped the Buccaneers set up a 1st-and-Goal from the 8-yard line with just under a minute on the clock. But the 49ers held firm on defense and forced a field goal, which tied the game at 20 at the 41-second mark.

49ers quarterback Brock Purdy then engineered one last drive to get Moody in position to redeem himself with a 44-yard game-winning field goal. Moody connected as time expired, and what would have been a disastrous loss for the 49ers was averted.

"I was so proud of the guys in all three phases, how they rebounded," head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game. "...The struggles on special teams, mainly with the missed field goals. For Jake to come back at the last one, there's as much pressure on him as you can imagine on anyone with missing those three in the game, and for him to drill that was huge.

"...And the defense, who I thought was solid all game, but those huge penalties on that last drive to have those, you can just see the way it's going. For them to still hold them to a field goal I thought was huge and that gave us a chance to answer there at the end."

The string of penalties on Tampa Bay's final drive led to a sense of impending doom for the 49ers. But to their credit, they halted the Buccaneers' momentum at a time when it seemed to be rolling downhill.

"That fourth down, Baker makes a heck of a play to keep the drive going," linebacker Fred Warner said. "And my mindset through it all was, 'Hey, even with the penalties, next play. Next play mentality. I talked to the group about winning on defense, and in that moment, we knew we had to hold them to a field goal, and obviously we want to get them off the field. We want to take the ball away in that moment, win the game. But to hold them to the field goal, man, it speaks to the resilience and the character of the group."

In the end, it was all jubilation for the 49ers, who for the second straight game escaped disappointment after flirting with losing a 17-point lead in a 30-24 win over the Dallas Cowboys on October 27. It's evident the 49ers still have some growth ahead of them as they continue to search for consistency, but at least they'll do so with a hard-fought win in their pocket.

"I'm not concerned with it," Warner said. "My concern right now is to get better as a team. You have to find a way to win in this league, no matter what the situation. You talk about this week, coming out of a bye week against a great team, going cross country, all the time changes, all this and that, there's going to be some rust there, whatever it is, whatever the case. There's so many things that go into winning and losing football games. Do I wish we blew them out by 30? Of course. But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that we're playing our best ball when it's needed at the end of the season.

"And we look at the tape this game, and you'd much rather learn off of win than a loss, you know, and so we're going to continue to get better, and that's when we'll find those signature wins for you."

Here's a quick roundup of some other notes of interest to come out of the locker room Sunday.

Shaky start, strong finish

Purdy stepped up with a number of clutch plays in the second half of Sunday's game and finished with a strong stat line of 353 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions on 25-of-36 passing. But by both his and Shanahan's admission, he started the game a little shaky, with a number of throws that were off target.

"He did miss a few throws in the first half, just being a little bit off, and it cost us on a couple ones," Shanahan said. "But the way he came back in the second half was huge."

But Purdy stayed composed and let loose in the second half, which led to results that spoke for themselves.

"Definitely felt out of rhythm to start the game," Purdy said. "Not really sure what it was, but I know (in the) second half, I just told myself, 'All right, dude, just go out and compete and rip it. Don't hesitate.' And I thought second half, we all did that. The guys were open. I didn't hold back."

Purdy completed 15-of-20 passes in the second half and finished with a passer rating of 119.3, while adding one more game-winning drive to his resume.

"We just try to stay ahead of the chains and move the ball and keep it simple," Purdy said. "So that was the biggest part. And understand that it's a four-quarter game for a reason. What happens early on can affect you right now in the present. So that was my mindset and I thought we were all able to finish pretty well as a team."

Locked on Brock

One of Purdy's touchdowns came on a highlight pass to George Kittle, who put the 49ers up in the fourth quarter with an over-the-shoulder grab after Purdy bought some extra time for him to get open.

Kittle told reporters Sunday that he wasn't the main target on the play, but he and Purdy were able to read each other's eyes and improvise into a touchdown.

"My only responsibility on that play was to get covered by the safety so Christian could score a touchdown," Kittle said. "And so I got covered, Christian didn't score. And I'm just kind of trying to find Brock in the back, which is, it's hard to see sometimes because one of his only shortcomings is that he's not the tallest quarterback. He's just hard to see sometimes. But like one thing I love with Brock and scramble drills, like if you do lock eyes with him, like he is going to give you time to make a move and get open.

"And so he, once we locked eyes. I try to give him space in the corner of the end zone and he just dropped a dime like he always does. "

"I have issues"

Kittle blamed himself for one of Moody's missed field goals on Sunday due to breaking a superstition where he doesn't watch field goals as they are being attempted on the field.

The superstition started several seasons ago when Robbie Gould was the 49ers' kicker, but Kittle strayed from it on Sunday and Moody missed the kick. Fortunately, Kittle didn't do the same during the game winner.

"I made this decision, like, I think it was like 2018 or 19," Kittle explained. "Like, the one that I stood up and watched, Robbie missed it, and Robbie Gould never misses kicks. I was like, 'I'm just gonna stop watching kicks from standing up.' So I usually just sit down. And then for some reason I stood up and I watched, and Jake missed the first one. I was like, 'What am I doing? This is my fault.' Because I'm very superstitious. A little. Yeah.

"And so now I just sit down. Like, I'll watch the (score)board, but I just I don't watch the live rep of it. I have issues, man. I'm sorry."

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