Warner lauds 49ers’ grit in ‘character’ win over Bucs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The 49ers certainly didn’t make it easy, but San Francisco dug deep when it needed to, pulling out a last-second 23-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Following the game, linebacker Fred Warner praised the 49ers’ ability to deliver a victory after overcoming plenty of adversity along the way in Tampa Bay.
“This was a character game all the way through,” Warner said. “We knew that they were going to fight, they were going to battle. We watched that game on Monday night, them going into Kansas City when everybody said they didn’t have a shot on offense losing their top two receivers. They have a heck of an offense, they have a heck of a scheme, players to run the scheme and the same was true today.
“I think the first half we stood up and played great defense, in the second half we came up short in some of those areas, but to hold them at the very end to a field goal to give our offense a chance to win the game was about as grimy as it’s going to get.”
The main storyline from Sunday’s win was a sideline scuffle between wide receiver Deebo Samuel and long snapper Taybor Pepper, which overshadowed the late-game heroics from both San Francisco’s offense and defense.
After trailing 17-13 with less than 10 minutes to play, quarterback Brock Purdy made a sensational play, delivering a strike to tight end George Kittle in the back of the end zone to put the 49ers in front.
San Francisco’s defense then delivered their own signature moment, stopping the Buccaneers’ offense just shy of the end zone in the final minutes of the game.
That gave Purdy and the 49ers’ offense a chance to march down the field and set up kicker Jake Moody — who had missed three field goals in the game to that point — for the ultimate redemption story,
Moody’s game-winning 44-yard field goal snuck through the upright, and the 49ers escaped with a much-needed win coming out of their bye week.
Now with Christian McCaffrey back in the mix, San Francisco can eye a second-half surge, and hopefully rack up less stressful wins along the way.
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