Deebo Samuel lined up wrong on long reception vs. Eagles

The 49ers needed a big play late in the first half of their Week 2 game against the Eagles, so Jimmy Garoppolo went to the NFL’s leading receiver, Deebo Samuel. Garoppolo found Samuel streaking across the middle and the receiver turned it into a 40-yard gain and the team’s longest play of the game. It helped set up San Francisco’s first touchdown. It also wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did.

Samuel was lined up to the left of the formation, so his in-breaking route took him from left to right. The third-year wide receiver told Damon, Ratto and Kolsky on 95.7 the Game in San Francisco that he was on the wrong side of the field.

“You know what’s crazy, and not too many people know this, but I actually lined up wrong,” Samuel said. “I was supposed to be on the right side and I ended up on the left. And we didn’t have enough time on the clock for me to get back on the other side of the field. So we just went with the flow and it just happened.”

That tidbit makes the pitch and catch even more impressive. Garoppolo threaded the needle between two Eagles to find Samuel who had nothing but green grass in front of him until he was pushed out of bounds at the Eagles’ 11-yard line.

While having receivers line up wrong isn’t ideal, it’s easy to forgive this one since it generated a huge play and catalyzed San Francisco’s first score to end a sluggish first half for the offense.