49ers' George Kittle addresses bouncing back from Ravens debacle

Star tight end George Kittle wasn't surprised the San Francisco 49ers put the 33-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas night behind them before they clinched homefield advantage for the playoffs thanks, in part, to a 27-10 victory at the Washington Commanders on Sunday. 

"This is something I like to point out — I learned last year in the NFC Championship game, when we didn’t have a quarterback, just the fight that our guys have," Kittle explained during a chat with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. "The most important thing in football, besides winning, is your résumé, what you put on tape, what the camera sees, what the entire league gets to see when they watch your tape. You can turn on the tape from the NFC Championship game last year or the Ravens game last week, and everybody just fights their tails off ... When you’re part of a team like that, that mindset, no matter what’s going on and you have the will to fight, it makes it really special." 

Besides the Baltimore debacle, Kittle referenced how the Niners lost quarterback Brock Purdy to a torn ulnar collateral ligament during last January's NFC Championship game loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. More recently, Purdy dealt with concerning stingers in back-to-back contests, and he tossed four interceptions versus the Ravens on Dec. 25. 

Purdy and the 49ers bounced back in a big way on the final day of 2023, as the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft completed 22-of-28 pass attempts for 230 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in the win over Washington.

"He’s gone through the highs," Kittle told Breer about Purdy. "He’s gone through the lows. He never gets too high and he never gets too low. He’s very even-keel. That’s one thing that people on the outside don’t see about him. He’s the same guy every day. He can throw for four touchdowns, he can throw four interceptions. He’s the same guy every single day. He doesn’t get in his feels or anything like that." 

While it seems a lock that Baltimore's Lamar Jackson will win the Most Valuable Player Award for the season over Purdy and all other contenders, DraftKings Sportsbook showed on Monday afternoon that the 49ers ended Week 17 as the betting favorites at -120 odds to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVIII. 

Purdy likely won't mind losing out on MVP if he's able to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy come February.