Kittle relishes more Saturday football with Beathard
George Kittle’s return meant a lot to the 49ers’ winning cause Saturday, and it carried special weight with C. J. Beathard, his teammate since their 2012 redshirt season at Iowa.
“Even though we’re out of the playoffs, he didn’t necessarily have to come back,” Beathard said after their 2012 win over host Arizona. “But the fact he was fighting to come back and wanting to come back, all week was, ‘I can’t wait to be out there with you.’ We’ve been together for nine years, so it was pretty cool.”
Kittle returned the compliment, saying of Beathard: “Overall he handled himself incredible and it was really fun to play some Saturday football again with my brother again.”
Kittle, no surprise, led the 49ers with 92 receiving yards. He had four catches and dropped his only other target.
His first catch, a 24-yard effort in which 23 yards came after the catch, may have looked like the old Kittle, but the tight end said he didn’t feel like he was back to his 2019 All-Pro form.
“Oh gosh, no. The game was moving pretty fast,” Kittle said. “Only got 28 plays so I’ve got to make the most of those. It slowed down in the second half and I got a feel for it. I’m proud of our tight end room and the team itself.”
Kittle wasn’t on the receiving end of any of Beathard’s three touchdown passes, and that wasn’t much of a surprise, either. They’ve connected for only two touchdowns since joining the 49ers in 2017, when Beathard was drafted in the third round and Kittle in the fifth round after their four seasons together at Iowa.
Another by-product of his presence as a blocker was the 49ers’ revived rushing attack (seasonhigh 227 yards, including 183 from Jeff Wilson).
“It was like old times, like last season when we were winning and dominating in the run game,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “George Kittle, having his energy out there and seeing him make plays, the first time he gets the ball he breaks tackles and it’s, ‘ Man, this is what we missed.’”