Seattle Seahawks' Mike Macdonald Draws on Past Experience vs. San Francisco 49ers

Mike Macdonald shut down the San Francisco 49ers last season, and now looks to do the same with the Seattle Seahawks.

Oct 6, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald stands on the sideline during pregame warmups against the New York Giants at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Following two straight losses, Mike Macdonald and the Seattle Seahawks must now turn their attention to the rival San Francisco 49ers on a short week.

It's the first divisional game of the Macdonald era, and facing a 49ers team equally desperate for a win is a very tough task. However, Macdonald has proven he can beat the 49ers before.

Last season, Macdonald led his Baltimore Ravens defense to San Francisco for a primetime showdown on Christmas night. His defense proceeded to put on a clinic, scoring five interceptions — four on Brock Purdy and one on Sam Darnold — in a 33-19 win that was even more lopsided than the score would indicate. In fact, Purdy's 7.4 quarterback rating in that game is the worst of his starting career, excluding the 2022 NFC Championship Game when he suffered an early injury.

Ahead of Thursday's showdown, Macdonald wants to build on what worked last year and apply it to his new team.

"We took the ball away and made the plays when they came to us in that fact," Macdonald told reporters Monday. "Those guys played extremely hard that game. They played together for the whole game. The score doesn't dictate it, but it came down to the last drive. It's the same story. It comes down to the last drive.

"Fortunately, we were able to make a play there at the end. Anytime that you're plus in the takeaway margin, it's going to put you in a great position to win games. That's something here that we need to do a better job of in Seattle."

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is one of the top offensive minds in the league, so Macdonald, one of the top defensive minds in the league, is very familiar with him at this point. Still, it's never easy going against the highly-accomplished coach.

"They've been working on this scheme and it's been evolving for a long time, 30 years. In Baltimore, we've gone against Kyle when he was in Cleveland and then since he's been in San Francisco. So, We're both familiar with each other's schemes. It's almost like it's a division opponent to a certain degree up to this point now that it is.

"They do a great job. Runs and passes out of the same looks. The quarterback is able to play really fast in that system. The run game is complementary and they do a great job. They know what they're doing, they target stuff right. This game is a 60-minute battle of who's going to outplay who for the length of the game. It's always been that way for whoever they play, and we got a great challenge ahead of us."