George Kittle cited a hilarious meme during his postgame interview

The San Francisco 49ers erased a huge deficit on Sunday night to advance to the Super Bowl, and George Kittle summed up the legendary comeback by citing a perfect meme.

Kittle was interviewed by FOX’s Michael Strahan after the 49ers came back to beat the Detroit Lions 34-31 in the NFC Championship Game. The star tight end began with, “They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.”

“They had us in the first half not gonna lie.” 😂 @gkittle46 pic.twitter.com/ffrY5LZQw6

— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2024

For those who are unfamiliar with the “they had us in the first half” meme, it stems from a viral 2014 interview with an enthusiastic Texas high school football player. The comment has since been turned into a popular meme and is often used in the context of when something sounds good at first but then takes an unexpected turn.

That is how Lions fans felt about Sunday’s game. Detroit jumped out to a 24-7 lead in the first half and then completely collapsed over the final 20 minutes or so. The game was so lopsided early on that one Lions player even felt confident enough to troll the home fans in San Francisco (video here).

Kittle only had 2 catches for 27 yards, but his postgame meme reference made up for the lack of production.