The San Francisco 49ers narrowly held on to beat the feisty Arizona Cardinals 28-25 in Week 9 on Thursday Night Football, primarily due to the team scoring 21 first-half points. And while there were a number of heroics, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, tight end George Kittle managed to deliver in what ended up being a key and much-needed way.
Kittle suffered what appeared to be a hyper-extended knee in the first quarter, but managed to bounce back and even gave Cardinals safety Budda Baker quite the stiff arm en route to what would be a 30-yard touchdown catch-and-run grab from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo:
Kittle would finish with six catches for 79 yards and the score, with many of those numbers coming after his knee injury.
Following San Francisco's win, Kittle joined NFL Network's postgrame crew to discuss the victory and the Niners' success this season. But when he was asked about coming back after taking a hit to his knee, Kittle simply responded, "It's football."
"We are not going to mess up this opportunity!" 👏@49ers TE @gkittle46 explains how his winning team capitalizes on opponent matchups each week 👇
📺: #TNF Postgame on NFL Network pic.twitter.com/zbBakreIru
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) November 1, 2019
"Stuff happens, and you've just got to push through it," Kittle added. "There's only 53 guys out there playing, well, 47. And you've got to make the plays."
Kittle made the plays, and then some. So did wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who led San Francisco's offense with seven catches for 112 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Garoppolo tossed a career-high four touchdown passes in the game.
"Jimmy does this stuff every day in practice," Kittle added. "Seeing him make those plays, I expect those. So it's nothing new to me. But I love the fact he's doing that, because he's an incredible quarterback, he's the best leader I've ever been around. And for him to have that type of game on Thursday Night Football when not everything is going the way it's supposed to, he definitely took a step forward."
In a way, Kittle has, too.
Before the trade for Sanders, Kittle frequently found himself bottled up by two and three defenders at a time. In back-to-back contests with Sanders in the mix, Kittle has totaled 165 yards on 12 net catches.