SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Two of Brock Purdy’s worst performances in an otherwise stellar career came when he matched up against a Mike Macdonald-coached defense.Now thanks to one of his more memorable moments when he led the short-handed San Francisco 49ers to a fourth-quarter comeback in a wild-card win at Philadelphia, Purdy gets another chance against Macdonald’s defense.The 49ers (13-5) will take on Seattle (14-3) on Saturday night in a divisional round matchup two weeks after the Seahawks clinched the division title by shutting down Purdy and the San Francisco offense in a 13-3 win.“He just does a good job of making the quarterback have to earn everything,” Purdy said. “I feel like there’s not a lot of easy gimme plays out there. You have to play quarterback for four quarters, be smart with the ball and go through your progressions truly. Then on top of that, the front, how they coach up the front with the push in the pocket, playing pretty deep to short on a lot of things and not allowing you to have a lot of explosive plays across the board. You have to go earn every single yard.”This will be the fifth time that Purdy and the 49ers will face a defense run by Macdonald with the first coming on Christmas night in 2023 when Purdy threw a career-worst four interceptions in a 33-19 loss to Baltimore when Macdonald was defensive coordinator for the Ravens.Macdonald turned that success in Baltimore into a head coaching job in Seattle starting in 2024, setting up two matchups each season against the 49ers.Purdy got the be …
