49ers news: Kyle Shanahan says Jake Moody has a high-ankle sprain

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan provided injury updates after the game. Safety Talanoa Hufanga suffered a wrist injury that forced him to sit out most of the game. Hufanga did not return.

The player who took over for Hufanga after he suffered a torn ACL in the second half of last season, Ji’Ayir Brown, left briefly with an ankle injury. Brown was healthy enough to return.

The big injury news comes at kicker. Jake Moody limped off the field and was carted to the locker room after he had to make a tackle on the kickoff team. He immediately went down and grabbed his right ankle.

When further questioned, Shanahan called it an ankle injury and revealed that Moody had a high-ankle sprain. When asked if Moody suffered any broken bones or fractures, Shanahan responded, “They just told me high ankle.”

Kyle believes Moody’s injury is a part of the game:

“Same as everybody. You try to tackle. You don’t tell guys to keep their ankle out of it. You hope it doesn’t come to him, so he doesn’t have to make a tackle. But you don’t tell guys to turn it down and let him score. That’s just part of football.”

The 49ers will need to sign a kicker. Shanahan said, “We’ll get one in as quick as possible and sign the best guy we can. I’m sure it’ll have to be for a few weeks. I’m not sure, but it’s a high ankle, and that’s never soon.”

It goes without saying that not having a kicker will impact your approach as a play-caller. Shanahan said, “The biggest thing was those turnovers. The pick to start the second half. Then, having that fumble down there inside the 10. Don’t know how it would have impacted it later because I believe that was first down.”

He’s referring to Jordan Mason’s fumble inside the red zone with the 49ers up 23-21 and a chance to make it a two-possession game. It indeed was 1st & goal from the 8-yard line.

Shanahan said the 49ers were trying to get to the 15-yard line and “trying to make it like an extra point” for Mitch Wishnowsky. But a tipped pass led to a game-sealing interception.

For the second-straight divisional game, the 49ers blew a double-digit fourth-quarter lead. Shanahan was asked about his frustration levels:

“Extremely frustrated. I think we had 13 points and 17 in the other. By no means should we be able to give that away. It always will come back to turnovers, in my opinion. There’s other things you can do to overcome them. We talked last night about how the key in this game would be turnovers. That’s exactly what the first half was. It gave us a huge advantage, and then it flipped in the second half. When you do that, it’s tough to win.”

Red zone issues continue to haunt the offense. Shanahan said, “When you’re fighting for extra yards, you just have to be smart with the ball.” He also said, “We got a lot worse today” after entering Week 5 as a middle-of-the-pack offense.

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