After a game in which the 49ers had anywhere between six to nine drops, depending on who you listen to, the 49ers needed the receiver group to step up. With no George Kittle and a banged up Emmanuel Sanders, the 49ers couldn’t afford to have a letdown at the receiver position. Several players stood out, but one receiver in particular rose above them all. Deebo Samuel. Before this game I wrote about how Deebo Samuel needed to grow up quicker than expected and answer the call.
And that he did.
Deebo, named after a fictitious neighborhood bully in the movie “Friday,” lived up to his name and was the bully on the field. Samuel would not take “no” for an answer. No play exemplified this mentality more than his crazy leaping and juggling act catch in the second half over a Cardinals defender.
On a ball that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo left short, Deebo refused to let the ball fall incomplete.
Deebo followed up his 8 catch, 112-yard performance against the Seahawks on Monday night with an 8 catch, 134-yard game just six days later. That’s 16 catches for 246 yards the last two games combined.
At the podium postgame, Jimmy Garoppolo spoke about how you could see Deebo’s confidence growing each week – something that’s much needed with the 49ers’ schedule getting increasingly tougher and top two targets Kittle and Sanders banged up.
Media courtesy San Francisco 49ers
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