Kittle-Mania is back and at right time
It’s no secret George Kittle is an avid pro wrestling fan. The San Francisco 49ers tight end even ended a postgame chat with journalists quickly so he could attend a WWE show.
It’s an apt love affair for Kittle as he, along with the rest of the 49ers, laid the smackdown on the visiting Green Bay Packers with a 37-8 drubbing Sunday night.
“I think one of my favorite things that I do is I just bring as much positive energy as I possibly can,” Kittle said. “Just try to get guys going, get ’em motivated to play. I just try to bring guys along with me, ’cause no matter what the score is, I’m having a good time because I’m getting to play football.” Yahtzee!
Niners faithful were having quite the time as the team not only improved to 10-1, but trounced a Packers team led by one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Aaron Rodgers. While there were several highwater marks in the 49ers’ domination, nothing encapsulated the team’s superiority more than Kittle’s elegant 61-yard touchdown catch and run (thanks to a gorgeous thrown by QB Jimmy Garoppolo).
The play-action pass saw Kittle make the Packers defender look like he was in a washer machine spin cycle, the tight end
displayed his jets despite lower-body injuries that caused him to miss games. That left Kittle streaking all alone in the middle and Jimmy G threw a dime for the score.
“He literally turned the corner around, I’m pretty sure,” Garoppolo said. “It makes for an easy throw for me. Those are the throws you get a little nervous on, though. So wide open that you don’t want to miss him. …
“We’ve been kind of holding on to that one for a little while.”
Oh? For a while, you say?
“Oh, my, we’ve been running that like (in practice) since Week 1, and I’ve had to run it two or three times a week,” Kittle said. “That’s like a 50-yard route every single time, so I almost was like, ‘Hey, Kyle, relax. I’m a tight end.’ We finally got it called and ran it. So that was pretty fun. It was just corner-post. It was a perfect coverage to run it against; Jimmy gave me a perfect ball, and I had to unhitch the trailer to outrun a couple guys.”
Watching Kittle leave a defense flummoxed and then torching them is surely much better than seeing him go through the anguish the everyday fan goes through in the luxury box. His jublication and nervousness up there when the 49ers squared off and lost to the Seattle Seahawks was on par with every Niner fan in the seats that night.
“You can’t replace a player like George Kittle,” tackle Mike McGlinchey said.. “I think he’s one of the best, if not the best player in the league. He’s somebody that I’ll be able to tell my kids about someday, that I played with that guy.
“Our offense goes through him as much as anybody else. He’s a special player, a special leader, and we’re very, very lucky to have 85 back.”
Kittle isn’t just a onetrick pony like other elite tight ends in the league — like Travis Kelce, for example. The Chiefs tight end is a pass catcher though and through and is at technician at hauling in the rock.
Kittle, on the other hand, comes from Tight End U — Iowa. There tight ends must know how to block and get better at it week-to-week.
And it’s Furious George’s work in the trenches that sets him apart from other tight ends.
“He means a ton, you guys all know that,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Kittle. “It was hard without him. And to have him back tonight, I mean, obviously what he did in the pass game. But what he does in the run game is equally as important.”
The 49ers defense has been stout all season. And with Kittle back in the mix, the offense is going to be equally as domineering.
To say otherwise would be as foolish as covering Kittle one-on-one.