The San Francisco 49ers held a light practice on Wednesday. According to tight end George Kittle, you probably couldn't tell by how he and his teammates were flying around. The 49ers are eager to get to Sunday and are doing everything they can to ensure they are sufficiently prepared for their NFC Championship Game matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles.
One more win sets the stage. During the 2019 season, the 49ers just missed their opportunity to earn the franchise's sixth Lombardi trophy. Here they are again, on the doorstep of another chance to redeem that heartbreaking loss.
"It's what you dreamt about since you were a kid," Kittle told reporters on Thursday. "You dream about it when you're in high school and college. You dream about it when you're in the NFL. You dream about situations like this, and whether it's a hunger or starvation, a desperation, you do everything you can to make sure, at the end of the game, that you're going to win it."
49ers on the practice field in Santa Clara gearing up for Sunday's NFC Championship Game. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/HlEAZ7joxT
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) January 26, 2023
The 49ers are in the NFC Championship Game for the third time in four years. Last year, they came up short against the Los Angeles Rams. That defeat, within reach of their goal, left the team eager to make amends.
"This brand of football that you've got to play, when you get this deep in the playoffs, it has to derive from a place of hunger because it's hard," tackle Trent Williams said. "I mean, what are we? Including preseason, 20-something odd weeks, and we're right at the end of it. So it's tough. Guys are banged up.
"It's been a long season, but when you have the pinnacle of the game, which is the Super Bowl, dangling right in your face, I think, yeah, the starvation to get there is what's going to push people through. It's going to push people to focus a little harder down the stretch, to treat their bodies right during the week to be ready to go, to play until the whistle."
Williams added, "I think starvation has a lot to do with that. We're all starving to win. Everybody wants that ring."
Kittle believes the starvation has the 49ers ready to do whatever it takes to win on Sunday and continue on to face the AFC champions at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
"I think we have a team that understands the situation we're in," Kittle said. "We have a lot of guys on this team that have played in the playoffs before and understand what it is, and what it means, and what every single rep means. So we're going to be very mindful of each and every single rep throughout this entire weekend on Sunday."
