Saturday will mark the fifth game that Purdy will face a Macdonald-led defense — the first coming on Christmas night of 2023, when Purdy threw four interceptions in a 33-19 loss to Baltimore
Since Macdonald became the Seahawks head coach in 2024, Shanahan’s offense has averaged just 18.3 points per game in four tilts, the fewest among 16 head coaches that Shanahan has faced at least three times, including playoffs.
In their last meeting, Seattle held the Niners to three points, Shanahan’s fewest in a game since Week 1, 2017, and 173 total yards, the fewest in the coach’s career. Seattle has been able to slow down the 49ers’ run game while playing two-deep safeties to take away deep passes.
“It’s a huge challenge, but the challenge is on us,” Niners offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said. “We got to run the ball better; we got to be better on third down so we can get more ops to run the ball. That’s really the biggest thing is we got to stay on the field so we can keep calling runs then hopefully, you can get the defense to commit another guy in the box, which helps other things.”
The 49ers are 7-1 since Purdy returned from injury that cut out the middle of his campaign. The only loss came in Week 18 to the Seahawks. From Weeks 11-17, he generated a 111.5 passer rating, but has just a 73.1 passer rating over his last two tilts versus Seattle and Philadelphia.
Purdy is 4-0 on the road against the Seahawks in his career, tied for the longest QB win streak at Seattle at any point in a career all-time with Hall of Famer Dan Fouts.
