The San Francisco 49ers beat the Arizona Cardinals Sunday 36-30 and as the Cardinals went to their onside kick in an attempt to win the game, one question entered my mind:
What was George Kittle doing running that final touchdown into the end zone?
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The touchdown is nice. Especially when Brock Purdy scored one two downs earlier with a near 50-yard scramble. Unfortunately that touchdown got nullified thanks to a holding call on none other than Kittle. Had Kittle taken a knee, the anxiety of the game possibly getting snatched from the 49ers would be nothing. The Cardinals had no timeouts, and the clock was well below the two-minute warning. A knee on the 1-yard line and the 49ers can run the clock out leading to the game ending 29-27, 49ers. Instead, we got this:
Now look, no one is disputing the awesomeness of the touchdown itself, especially with the background behind it. That said, why not take a knee? Kittle had just the perfect opening to even go out of bounds. Stops the clock, but at least the 49ers can still tick the thing down, and the Cardinals can never take the field again.
Kittle was just doing what he normally does.
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“Probably should have gone out of bounds,” Kittle told reporters after the game. “We could have just kneeled it out. But no one told me to, so that’s their fault, not mine.”
The 49ers head coach shouldered responsibility for not delivering the memo:
“That was on me,” Kyle Shanahan said. “I didn’t remind him in the huddle and I don’t expect him to be paying attention to the clock. But I definitely wish I did.”
What resulted was the Cardinals trying to move down the field with a minute and change and electing to kick a 49-yard field goal on 2nd and 10 with 34 seconds left. 34 seconds is a sliver of time to get the obvious onside kick and then try to get it in the endzone proper. The plan didn’t work as the kicked ball rolled into the waiting arms of a Deebo Samuel.
Leave it to George Kittle—or is it Kyle Shanahan—to leave us glued to the monitor until the very, very end.
