George Kittle has reinvigorated his 2021 season, generating two 100+ yard receiving performances over the last two weeks for the first time since his first game back from IR in Week 9 against the Arizona Cardinals.
Last week, Kittle caught 12 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns in the losing effort against the Seattle Seahawks. This week, Kittle caught a season-high 13 passes on 15 targets for 151 yards and a touchdown, and for the second week in a row, the 49ers franchise tight end was the majority of San Francisco's offense.
Before Sunday, Cincinnati was 29th in DVOA against the pass inside the numbers, and the losses of LBs Logan Wilson and backup Markus Bailey only made that problem more evident.
Kittle exploited the Cincinnati defense, as he was able to get open on numerous occasions en route to his magnificent performance Sunday, much to the dismay of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor.
Despite Taylor's best efforts to take away Kittle in the passing game, Cincinnati's adjustments failed to come together.
"We tried like hell to take him away," Taylor told reporters. "We tried everything. He's one of the best tight ends out there. We've known that for a long time. He had similar production last week—he had almost 200 yards receiving—so it's not like he surprises people."
Kittle was productive from the beginning drive until the end, when he made an impressive catch-of-the-year play, securing a deep ball from Jimmy Garoppolo with under 30 seconds left in the 4th quarter to put San Francisco in field goal range. Robbie Gould subsequently missed the field goal to send the game to overtime.
"You saw the catch he made that almost won them the game in regulation and put them in field goal range," Taylor said. "When a guy is that explosive, and has that big of hands with that kind of catch radius, he makes a lot of plays. And I promise we tried like hell to take him away, and he just finds a way to make those plays."
Better luck next time, Zac. If you want some help, perhaps look to your former employer Sean McVay. Maybe he can give some tips.
Kittle will look to dominate again next weekend, when the 49ers face the Atlanta Falcons at Levi's Stadium. With the win Sunday, San Francisco improved to 7-6 on the season and leaped the Washington Football Team for the 6th seed in the NFC.
Still, the 49ers have much competition for the final few playoff spots, with the Atlanta Falcons being one of the teams chasing them, as their win over the Panthers on Sunday put them at 6-7 on the season, and still in the playoff race.
But, moral of the story? George Kittle is just special. Let's appreciate that.