George Kittle Torches People Who Believe That Analytics Are More Important Than Momentum After NFC Championship
George Kittle and the 49ers are headed back to the Super Bowl after beating the Lions in the NFC Championship on Sunday. Detroit blew a 17-point lead in about 12 minutes and San Francisco got on a roll that ultimately became insurmountable.
Although Kittle had just two catches for 27 yards in the win, the importance of his presence on the field as a blocker and decoy cannot be understated. He is also one of the biggest leaders on the team.
And a vocal one at that!
Kittle is never afraid to speak his mind, which was certainly true after punching a ticket to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. He proceeded to torch NFL people who think that analytics is the end-all, be-all.
The 30-year-old tight end is a firm believer in momentum.
“Why [do] analytics people say that momentum isn’t a real thing,” Kittle asked rhetorically. “I had that conversation with Pat McAfee. He was like, ‘yeah, all these people tell us momentum’s not real.’ and that’s just the biggest load of horse crap I’ve ever heard in my entire life. But we move on, I digress.”
It is hard to ignore the momentum swing that took place for the 49ers during the second half. Kittle pointed to multiple instances during which the analytics were thrown out of the window.
“We had a good opening drive out of the second half and [after] that fourth-down stop we were just kind of feeling the energy,” he said. “Go down and score… alright this is huge. Turnover… I was like, ‘Aw man, all bets are off now!’ Like, bang bang!”
Here is Kittle in his own words:
Regardless of what the analytics might have said, San Francisco got the job done. Kittle and company overcame a 17-point halftime deficit and never took their foot off of the gas!
