George Kittle has blunt take on 49ers’ quarterback woes in NFC Championship Game

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle said he was proud of his team for not quitting despite not having a healthy quarterback in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles, but he didn’t mince words when asked about how he felt about the situation.

Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy gave the 49ers a fighting chance after starting quarterback Trey Lance and backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo went down with season-ending injuries early on this year. 

But an injury to his throwing hand early on in the first half of Sunday’s title game took him out before he was eventually forced to return after Josh Johnson was ruled out with a concussion. 

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The result was a 31-7 blowout by the Eagles. 

“Losing your starting quarterback who’s a third-string rookie to your fourth-string quarterback who did everything he could – gets hurt right away in the third quarter, and then you can only run the ball – it’s tough, it’s frustrating,” Kittle said during his post game presser. 

“You dress two quarterbacks and neither one of them can throw and neither one of them is really available, it kind of limits what you can do as an offense. Kind of limits our playbook to like 15 plays. So, you can only do so much.”

Despite praising his team for putting up a fight, Kittle had a blunt response when asked about what it was like to reach this point in the season only to have injuries take them out. 

“How’s that feel to lose an NFC Championship because I don’t have a quarterback? Pretty s—– to be honest. That’s about it.” 

Purdy is set to have an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of his injury as San Francisco’s quarterback situation remains as uncertain as ever. 

“It’s a hell of a team. I think we’ll definitely come back,” Kittle said. “We have a great foundation, this football team. Great locker room. So, it’s just on to the next one.”