How the Grinch (George Kittle) stole Christmas (Ray-Ray McCloud’s touchdown)
George Kittle had two 34-yard touchdown catches against the Commanders on Saturday. It turns out his first one was supposed to be Ray-Ray McCloud’s second TD of the game.
With the 49ers facing a third-and-4 at the Washington 34, Kittle ran straight down the middle of the field where he ran underneath QB Brock Purdy’s throw just in front of wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud, who also could’ve made the grab. If it looked like the throw might’ve been intended for McCloud, it’s because it was.
“Ray-Ray,” Purdy said when asked in his post-game press conference who the throw was intended for.
“I saw George go down the middle, but I was just trying to keep the ball really down towards the middle to the left side of the field for Ray-Ray to run away from the corner that he beat,” Purdy said. “And then all of a sudden George like hit second gear and like stole it basically. But yeah, it was intentionally supposed to go to Ray-Ray.”
Jingle Bell Brock!@brockpurdy13 x @gkittle46
📺 #WASvsSF on CBS
📱 NFL+ https://t.co/KTh0i461x9 pic.twitter.com/sXz2V1FRMo— San Francisco 49ers – x (@49ers) December 24, 2022
The reason Kittle was in the same area as his teammate was a bit of improvisation from the veteran tight end.
“Ray-Ray,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said when asked in his post-game press conference who the play was designed for.
“Kittle was supposed to go across the field,” Shanahan said. “Ray-Ray was supposed to run a post. The middle of the field was wide open. Kittle’s natural reaction was to go to wide open spots and I think that’s probably why Brock hesitated a quick second because it just looked weird with two guys there, but he still let a rip and I’m just glad that Ray-Ray didn’t try to intercept it from him at that time.”
The touchdown catch was Kittle’s seventh of the year, which set a new career high. Kittle after the game didn’t have a ton of remorse for grabbing some Christmas Eve TD joy from McCloud.
“Why? Because I Grinched it?” Kittle said when asked if he felt bad. “No, I think I’ve had five touchdowns taken away from penalties, so I’m going to get them whenever they’re available.”
He explained his improvisation was borne from the bevy of space in front of him when he went out in his route.
“Wide open space,” Kittle said. “I think the other safety was outside the opposite hash mark and the other guy was not even on the field basically. I was like, well, I’m not going to run and get covered. That doesn’t sound like a good idea. It was funny too because [49ers Head] Coach [Kyle] Shanahan ran that route on Wednesday. He coached it on Thursday morning. He goes, even if there’s space, you got to run across the field so the post is wide open. I was like, touchdown is what it is.”
The 34-yard TD was the first of two for Kittle on the day. He finished with 120 yards and two scores on six catches. It was his first 100-yard performance of the season. McCloud didn’t have a reception, but he did rip off a 71-yard TD run for the first score of the game in the second quarter.
As long as the 49ers are going to hang up 37 points in a game, they won’t care who scores the touchdowns.
