Seahawks have no need to fear the Kittle monster repeating his destruction of the Broncos
The Seahawks face the league’s hottest tight end Sunday, 49ers George Kittle. There should be no worries of a Denveresque performance.
When the Seattle Seahawks defense lines up across from the San Francisco 49ers, history will be on the line as well. No, not the Seahawks making the playoffs with a team many projected to be in contention for the top draft pick. Niners George Kittle could be the first tight end in league history with back to back 200 games.
Yeah, that’s not going to happen, for a lot of reasons. First, there’s the simple reason he’d be the first to accomplish this feat. It’s kind of hard to do. Second, Kittle’s amazing 210 yard game was all in the first half of play against the Broncos. Yes, that makes his game even more amazing. It also means he was shut out in the second half.
Kittle has been very good all season. It isn’t like he caught 15 passes all year, then Stephen A. Smith proclaimed him an impact player like the unstoppable Virgil Green. (Just for reference, Kittle had more yards against Denver than Green has had in 14 games). This was Kittle’s third game with over 100 yards receiving in 2018. He had 70 yards against the Seahawks just two weeks ago.
But that Denver game made people notice. One thing they should have seen is the Broncos are really bad at defending tight ends. Well, make that good tight ends. Our own Will Dissly (who frankly is a better player than Kittle) torched them for 105 yards and a score in the season opener. The Broncos also gave up 78 and 79 yards to Travis Kelce, and 80 yards to the thousand year old Antonio Gates.
On the other hand, Denver has several games on their resume where they allowed less than 30 yards to the tight ends. On close examination, they hold their own against tight ends you’ve never heard of, like… oh, Virgil Green. They just aren’t very good against actual receivers, players like Kelce, Dissly and Kittle.
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Kittle will get his yards against the Seahawks, to be sure, especially with K.J. Wright still out of the lineup. Austin Calitro has played pretty well as Wright’s main fill-in. In fact, he had his best game against these same 49ers with 10 tackles. I’d be happier if Wright was back, but with Bradley McDougald as the linchpin of the secondary, Seattle’s got this.