SANTA CLARA – Deebo Samuel marveled at Steph Curry and the Warriors as he sat courtside Tuesday evening with fellow 49ers extensive receiver Ricky Pearsall at Chase Heart.
“That game was lit up, like I was at a football game, for real,” Samuel mentioned. “The crowd was loud, intense. Curry put the nail in the coffin at the end. It was a great game, for sure.”
Two days earlier, Samuel and the 49ers survived their very own late-game theatrics. Samuel’s ardour to win boiled over right into a sideline spat with lengthy snapper Taybor Pepper, who rushed to Jake Moody’s protection after a 3rd missed area objective – and earlier than Moody’s successful kick in a 23-20 walkoff in Tampa.
“We’re all one in here. We have each other’s back, no matter who it is,” Samuel added in cliché trend at his locker Wednesday. “That’s the culture John (Lynch) and Kyle (Shanahan) built and what we feed off.”
Samuel, neither in his press convention nor his personal podcast, didn’t relive nor broaden on Sunday’s late-game confrontation. In spite of everything, he was not exiled nor suspended for his swipe at Pepper’s neck.
Shanahan didn’t condone that transfer, however he additionally has Samuel’s again for causes aside from to keep away from extra chaos: Samuel’s intimidating presence could also be the most effective factor he has going for him as a sixth-year veteran.
He’s primarily change into a boom-or-bust participant. It may be a love-hate look every time the 49ers power him the ball.
They’d like to see extra touchdowns, and his solely scoring catch got here on a 76-yarder final month in opposition to the Seattle Seahawks, who go to Levi’s Stadium this Sunday.
They’d hate to see extra run-game cameos which can be simply predictable and thus stymied. Of his 26 carries, eight have been stopped for 1 yard or much less.
However he nonetheless is Deebo. And also you’re not.
He nonetheless is usually a bodily brute on the sphere who calls for the ball in crunch time. He simply doesn’t should be their No. 1 all-purpose weapon like he was in his 2021 All-Professional “wide back” yr.
Such is the luxurious of welcoming Christian McCaffrey again onto the sphere, plus the rising presence of Pearsall and Jauan Jennings, the latter duo every making two catches on Sunday’s successful drive as a substitute of Samuel or others. George Kittle earlier made his team-high seventh landing catch.
Ah, however relating to being an in-house, on-field enforcer, Shanahan added this caveat: “You can’t throw whatever type of punch that was. You can’t do that.”
“… Deebo wasn’t saying anything bad to the kicker,” Shanahan added. “And Taybor was overprotective of the kicker, which I like his intentions, but he misinterpreted it and he got too close to Deebo, which was irritating to Deebo.”
To Pepper’s credit score – and Moody’s — the uncommon but explosive alternate didn’t affect how they executed their job on the successful snap and kick, from 44 yards.
“My job is to give the best ball every time, whether it’s a game-winner or a PAT. My mindset can’t be different because the game is on the line,” Pepper mentioned. “I’m sure a lot of people were thinking the situation was different because of everything that happened, but nothing was different for me.”
Added Shanahan: “To watch him kind of graze Pepper and fall into Jake and it just looked like that he’s punching Jake because he missed a field goal, that could have been avoided. I didn’t mind at all what Deebo said to Jake and Jake didn’t mind it either. But regardless of what happens, you don’t throw a punch.”
Samuel’s tough-guy aspect defines his NFL popularity, and never simply because he’s been in different scuffles, like final season’s pregame melee in Cleveland.
That’s translated in video games to large yards after the catch. Simply not a lot this season. He’s averaging a career-low 8.28 yards per catch, down from 8.78 final yr (tenth in NFL), 8.8 in 2022 (sixth), 10.0 in 2021 (fourth), 12.06 in 2020 (first), and eight.3 in 2019 (twelfth).
His well being hasn’t helped. He missed a sport (Week 3 loss at Los Angeles) due to a calf pressure, he bowed out of one other after 4 snaps (Week 7 loss to Kansas Metropolis) due to pneumonia that will hospitalize him two nights, and he performed 50-of-64 snaps Sunday regardless of rib and indirect accidents that had him practising in a no-contact jersey.
Samuel is off the damage report this week. The second-place 49ers (5-4 total, 1-2 NFC West) want him and all gamers to remain combating mad to comb the Seahawks (4-5, 0-2).
Flashback to Tuesday evening’s Warriors sport, by which the group and followers welcomed again Klay Thompson with the Dallas Mavericks to Chase Heart. Samuel admired Curry and the Warriors’ ardour to excel and take down no matter foe stood of their means.
“It’s crazy. I’m over there talking to Ricky, watching (Curry) play, that consistent running,” Samuel mentioned. “I don’t know how he runs around the court all game the way he does and how the team feeds off his energy. With him and Draymond, it’s just crazy.”
The craziest storyline all yr with the 49ers centered round Pearsall, a first-round draft choose who survived a gunshot wound by means of his chest Aug. 31 in a San Francisco tried theft.
Taking Pearsall again to San Francisco on Tuesday evening was not one thing Samuel took frivolously. He’s a captain, in any case, even when Sunday’s scuffle with specialists referred to as his actions into query.
“The only thing (Pearsall) asked me was I by myself,” Samuel mentioned of Tuesday’s Warriors sport. “I said, no, I don’t really go nowhere by myself; I had my two brothers with me. When he got there, he’s looking around, talking about Kyrie (Irving), Curry, and how excited he was just to be there.”Associated Articles
San Francisco 49ers |
49ers’ Deommodore Lenoir cashes in with contract extension after humble beginnings
San Francisco 49ers |
Ex-49ers exec testifies Santa Clara Vice Mayor Anthony Becker leaked him confidential report, as protection casts doubt
San Francisco 49ers |
49ers mailbag: First rule of combat membership is … to beat all NFC West foes
San Francisco 49ers |
Supply: 49ers reward cornerback Deommodore Lenoir with huge bucks
San Francisco 49ers |
49ers’ Shanahan places Deebo-Moody-Pepper squabble to relaxation
Samuel’s been a long-time fixture at Warriors video games since arriving as a 2019 rookie. Now he’s the one attempting to mentor rookies.
“I want to be the person they always can lean on and talk to about anything,” Samuel mentioned – in a a lot softer, much less irate tone than he used on Moody, a second-year kicker who survived after which thrived in a pressure-packed scenario with extra to come back.
