After Thursday's practice, George Kittle addressed reporters and was asked to explain why the San Francisco 49ers, who started the season as a Super Bowl favorite, have struggled so much. Rather than pointing to a single issue, the tight end thoroughly broke down the team's challenges.
"I think my number one answer is we're plus-two in the turnover category, but we've turned the ball over in all the games we've lost, a lot," Kittle shared. "I think that's really tough. We didn't score a point in the second half against the Arizona Cardinals. Inexcusable. We're on our third kicker, which is kind of wild, but that's not a reason we're losing.
"I put most of the pressure on our offense. We're a very talented offense. We have a lot of players who've been in the system for a long time, and we have to make it click. It's not a pressure thing, and we're not like, I don't think we're playing tight at all. Just some execution stuff. Guys learning."
Kittle mentioned Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs, during which wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk suffered a season-ending knee injury, Deebo Samuel was sidelined with pneumonia, and Jauan Jennings was out due to a hip injury. Thus, the team had to rely on young players who had not contributed much.
"Two of our starting wide receivers go down instantly, and we rely on a bunch of young guys who haven't gotten any of those game-day reps," Kittle said. "All last week, we're preparing Deebo and Aiyuk, and then, they're just not there. Just the timing and stuff [was off].
"And I think [WRs] Ricky [Pearsall] and [Jacob Cowing] and Chris [Conley] and Ronnie [Bell] all had great practices this week, and hopefully, we have another good one tomorrow, and they can just get into stride, and [QB] Brock [Purdy] feels comfortable throwing them the football. Hopefully, that does click."
Kittle highlighted the importance of the offense staying on the field, converting third downs, and scoring in the red zone. He remains confident in the team's ability to turn things around and trusts head coach Kyle Shanahan to guide them through the rest of the season.
"That guy (pointing to RB Christian McCaffrey's locker) will be back soon, so I'm pretty confident in that," Kittle said, noting that he didn't have any insider information to share on the running back's recovery timeline. McCaffrey has not played this season due to calf and Achilles tendinitis issues.
"Any time he's in the backfield, the things we can do with our offense just changes up a lot, and Kyle can be more creative with some of the things that we do because he can do things that no other running back can do," Kittle continued. "Really excited about that. I think we have a lot of really talented players. We've won a lot of football games with me and Deebo. And hey, Jauan's really finding his stride. I know he's been hurt a couple times, but Jauan's Jauan, and he's going to come back really, really aggressive and be a very good player for us.
"You've still got Juice (FB Kyle Juszczyk), you've still got, like I said, Ricky and Jake, guys that are stepping up. When you combine [RB Jordan] Mason with Christian McCaffrey, I think it's going to be really fun out there.
"So, stay healthy, get those guys back, and really, again, I think our offense, once we find our rhythm—our defense played well enough for us to win on Sunday. Our offense didn't. And if our defense can keep playing like that and our offense can just score more points, convert on third down, we'll win more football games."