The San Francisco 49ers suffered their first loss of the season on Sunday to the Atlanta Falcons.
In their 29-20 loss, the team dressed only four receivers, as they have been riddled with injuries at the position.
Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel, Ricky Pearsall, and rookie wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling were all ruled out and could still miss more time in the future.
Despite the loss, tight end George Kittle, who is usually the positive guy in the room, was his usual self and credited Kyle Shanahan with putting together a game plan to allow quarterback Brock Purdy to throw for 288 yards and one touchdown while completing 27 of 40 passes, with two interceptions.
“Look, I’m always going to stand up for the guys we have on the field. Like, did I go into that game with four active receivers? Which I don’t know if we’ve ever done that in the Kyle Shanahan era. Like, usually we have five,” Kittle said. “I had belief we were gonna win the game. That they weren’t going to hinder us at all.”
Kittle acknowledged during his presser that the game plan was different “when there’s not a Mike Evans â a Hall of Famer,” as well as Pearsall, Stribling, and Samuel.
“It’s entirely different. There’s no Deebo on the sideline over there. There’s no wide receiver taking running back snaps,” Kittle said. “Mike Evans is one of the most unique wide receivers I’ve ever played with.”
The two-time first-team All-Pro said that Shanahan and offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak do a good job putting together a game plan for the rest of the team to succeed and highlighted Brandin Cooks and Jordan Watkins as key contributors for them.
Watkins was one of the bright spots in the 49ers’ receiving game, as he had six targets with three receptions 56 yards.
In the second half, Purdy and Watkins appeared to have had a 23-yard touchdown reception when he found him matched up on a one-on-one in the endzone.
Watkins reached out to bring the ball down, but his foot would just barely hit the sideline, ruling him out of bounds.
During the game’s live broadcast, Fox color commentator Greg Olsen said Kittle told him earlier in the week that Watkins was someone to watch out for.
“We can still win with it, it’s just going to look different,” Kittle said.
