If you don’t succeed in the first – or second, or third – phase, try again.

San Francisco’s Jake Moody missed three field goals against Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon, but made one he needed: a 44-yard game-winner as time expired to lift San Francisco to a 23-20 victory. It wasn’t pretty, but it kept the 49ers in the playoff hunt… even though they may have had significant locker room problems.

Moody also made three field goals, but after the third of three misses, teammate Deebo Samuel confronted him and long snapper Taybor Pepper — not something you see on a smoothly functioning team.

San Francisco’s first score was promising: the first touchdown for wide receiver and first-round draft pick shot Ricky Pearsall in an apparent offseason heist gone awry. Pearsall’s acrobatic 46-yard touchdown led to most of the early afternoon highlights, and for good reason:

On the 49ers’ next possession, George Kittle used a little magic of his own to haul in a Brock Purdy pass:

That possession stalled in the red zone and San Francisco added a field goal to take a 10-0 lead.

The usually productive, but currently injury-laden Bucs offense didn’t cross midfield until midway through the second quarter. Quarterback Baker Mayfield could only lead Tampa Bay to one field goal in the first half, making the score 10-3 at halftime.

But the Bucs found some mojo in the third quarter. Tampa Bay turned a muffed 49er punt into a touchdown, a short 9-yard pass to Rachaad White tying the game at 10. San Francisco retook the lead with a 33-yard field goal, but Mayfield led the Bucs on an intentional 10-yarder. play, 70-yard drive that ended with a 12-yard Bucky Irving touchdown run to take a brief 17-13 lead.

Christian McCaffrey returned for his first game of the season, and his signature moment of the afternoon came with just under nine minutes remaining. Purdy pulled off a moonshot pass that went straight down into the hands of McCaffrey, who turned it into a 30-yard gain.

Later in the drive, Purdy found Kittle in the corner of the end zone for a nifty 11-yard toe-tap touchdown that put the 49ers ahead again, 20-17.

San Francisco smothered Tampa Bay in a net minus-13 three-and-out, but Moody missed a 44-yard field goal, his third of the day.

That was enough for Deebo Samuel to confront Moody as he came off the field; Moody’s long snapper, Taybor Pepper, intervened on Moody’s behalf and got in Samuel’s face.

Tampa Bay hadn’t been able to capitalize on the previous two misses, but this one gave the Bucs a chance to force overtime late in the fourth quarter.

On their final, desperate drive, Mayfield beat Nick Bosa on a do-or-die fourth-and-7 to complete a pass to White, and the Bucs drove multiple 49er penalties to the tying field goal. But the 49ers managed to cover 39 yards in 41 seconds, enough for Moody to get into position for what must have been the most nerve-wracking field goal of his life.