How Kyle Juszczyk Amazingly Predicted Jake Moody's Game-winner In 49ers-raiders

How Kyle Juszczyk amazingly predicted Jake Moody's game-winner in 49ers-Raiders originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Jake Moody’s game-winning field goal in the 49ers’ preseason victory over the Las Vegas Raiders last weekend took the football world by surprise, but one person close to the kicker had an inkling.

San Francisco general manager John Lynch recently shared his sideline point of view from the exciting moment, and he revealed how one 49ers player actually predicted Moody’s game-winner.

“It was awesome. It really was,” Lynch said Thursday morning on KNBR’s “Murph & Markus.” “Sometimes I’ll venture down to the sideline early. It’s nice to feel the team and see things from a different perspective. A lot of the starters were out and had their pads off, and Kyle Juszczyk came to me in the fourth quarter, and he goes, ‘Wouldn’t it be perfect for Moody to have a walk-off?’ At that point, we thought it might be a walk-off tie. Kind of uneventful, but that’s NFL preseason football. Juice called his shot and he got it.

“And we thought, wow, that’s really cool for him and his confidence. It got even better when [49ers safety Jaylen] Mahoney picked off that ball and Chase Lucas tackled him for some reason instead of letting him run. And it became a 59-yard field goal. Such a cool moment. It’s preseason football, but our team was into it. The Raiders were into it and he nails a 59-yarder — and did so with some room to spare. The reaction from our team, I think that tells you that those guys believe in Jake Moody. The guy’s been through it a little bit. Last year was rough, but he’s done a great job of moving forward.”

Moody made five of his six field goal attempts in Saturday’s win in Las Vegas.

He made a 44-yarder to tie the game and then nailed a career-best 59-yarder to win the game.

It was a needed confidence boost for a guy who dealt with plenty of adversity last season, missing 10 field-goal attempts as his confidence notably deteriorated game by game.

The 49ers brought in veteran kicker Greg Joseph to compete with Moody this offseason, something Lynch believes helped Moody as the young kicker braces for a bounce-back season.

“We had Greg Joseph in here, and because of injuries, a lot of people said there wasn’t competition. There actually was a great competition,” Lynch said. “I thought it made Jake Moody better. And we’re very grateful to Greg Joseph for that. But Jake was solid. And he’s had a really, really good camp. The one miss in that game was a 53-yarder. 53-yarders are hard to make. He expects himself to make it. But what did he do? He came back and made a number of kicks after that.

“I think it’s huge for his confidence. I think it’s huge for our team, and it was a really cool moment to see our team rally around our guy. One of the fun preseason moments that I’ve had.”

Hopefully for the 49ers, Juszczyk’s intuition continues to be spot on throughout the 2025 season.

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