RENTON, Wash. (AP) — For the Seattle Seahawks to host another playoff game and move closer to the fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, they will have to dispose of a familiar foe.
Very familiar.
The top-seeded Seahawks (14-3) host the San Francisco 49ers (13-5) in the NFC’s divisional round on Saturday night. It'll be the second meeting in three weeks between the NFC West rivals and the third time they have squared off in the playoffs.
Seattle won the division and secured the No. 1 seed with a dominant 13-3 win over Brock Purdy and the host 49ers on Jan. 3. That was the lowest scoring output for the Niners since they lost 23-3 to Carolina in coach Kyle Shanahan's debut in 2017.
Purdy said San Francisco will have to make adjustments against the NFL's top-ranked scoring defense.
“We just played them two weeks ago, so looking back at the other game plan as well and having it sort of fresh in your mind,” Purdy said, “picking it up where you left off and obviously making some changes where you need to. But yeah, it feels like we just played them.”
Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams recognizes it will be a challenge to slow down San Francisco’s 10th-ranked scoring offense, even with Seattle's recent success against the Niners.
“They’ve clearly shown that they have a good offense,” Williams said. “But at the same time, I trust our team.”
Seattle finished the season with seven straight wins to finish with a franchise-record 14 victories. However, one of its losses came at home against San Francisco in Week 1.
And the Seahawks' offense had some fresh concerns on Thursday when quarterback Sam Darnold injured his left oblique in practice. He was listed as questionable but said he's confident he'll play.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald doesn't expect to see much that's different about the 49ers, given that they've only played once since the last meeting.
“You’re really going off how you felt like you played the game, things you did well, maybe where you think they might take things,” Macdonald said.
The 49ers played their final two games of the regular season with one fewer day of rest than normal, including the Week 18 loss to Seattle. They're in the same situation this week against well-rested Seattle after playing their wild-card game on Sunday.
Coach Kyle Shanahan had lobbied for a Sunday game this week to no avail, leading to the team limiting practices and changing meeting times to give players as much rest as possible.
“We can’t control that kind of stuff,” linebacker Eric Kendricks said. “At the end of the day, we’re playing meaningful football. We want to play meaningful football. These games mean a lot. We know what’s at stake, so we better get ready for it.”
Niners wide receiver Ricky Pearsall has not played since Dec. 28 due to a knee injury, but returned to practice this week in a limited capacity. A return by Pearsalll would be a boost for San Francisco, especially after All-Pro tight end George Kittle tore his right Achilles tendon in the 49ers’ 23-19 win at Philadelphia.
Macdonald and the Seahawks expect to see Pearsall in the lineup.
“They have a lot of talented receivers, but he’s definitely one of them,” Macdonald said. “He definitely complements the rest of the guys well in terms of what he does in his skill set and how they use him.”
Macdonald, who calls the Seahawks' defensive plays, got the best of Shanahan in the last meeting, but the Niners coach — long regarded as an elite play-caller — out-schemed Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio last week.
Seattle allowed a combined 20 points to San Francisco in two meetings this season. Macdonald also beat Shanahan in 2023 when he was Baltimore's defensive coordinator and the Ravens intercepted Purdy four times.
“They have a very good scheme that’s very balanced and they can hit you in any way,” Shanahan said. “I think the personnel not only is talented for any scheme, but is perfectly talented for their scheme. I think they’ve been playing with, not the exact same group, but close to the same group, for two straight years. When you have a talented group with a very good scheme that’s been playing together for two years, they get pretty good.”
AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in Santa Clara, California, contributed to this report.
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Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald speaks at a news conference after an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
San Francisco 49ers' Eric Kendricks reacts to defensive play in the third quarter of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran lashed out following the killing of one of its top leaders in an airstrike with attacks on its Gulf neighbors and Israel on Wednesday, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defenses and killing two near Tel Aviv as the war in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing.
Israel kept up intense pressure on Lebanon with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least six people.
In Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a projectile but there were no injuries and the plant suffered no damage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said after receiving a report from Tehran. The IAEA’s leader, Rafael Grossi, reiterated his call “for maximum restraint during the conflict to prevent risk of a nuclear accident.”
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 per barrel in early trading on Wednesday, up more than 40% from the start of the war.
Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran to start the war on Feb. 28, Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, as well as military bases, as part of a strategy to drive up oil prices and put pressure on Washington to back down.
Iran’s judiciary announced a man had been executed on charges that he spied for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Kourosh Keyvani and alleged that he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to Israel.
Activists and rights groups have warned since Iran’s nationwide protests in January that the Islamic Republic could begin conducting mass executions. Iran violently suppressed the protests through violence that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.
New attacks were reported in multiple Gulf countries early Wednesday, including on Saudi Arabia's vast Eastern Province, which is home to many of its oil fields, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a projectile caused a small fire at its base in the UAE near Dubai but caused no injuries. His comments appeared to correspond with explosions heard near Al Minhad Air Base, used by Western nations as a transit hub for the wider Mideast.
Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile targeting the area of the Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American forces and aircraft.
Iran has also shown no sign of relenting in its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world's oil transits, giving rise to growing concerns of a global energy crisis.
U.S. Central Command said the U.S. military fired multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator bombs Tuesday on Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the strait.
Responding to Israel's killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful figures, the Republican Guard said Wednesday it had targeted central Israel with multiple-warhead missiles, which have an increased chance of evading missile defense systems and can overwhelm radar tracking systems.
Israel reported at least two salvoes of incoming fire and the country's medical service said two people were killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the force launched the Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr multiple-warhead missiles to avenge Larijani’s killing. Footage filmed by The Associated Press showed at least one missile releasing cluster munitions over Israel.
Larijani, a former parliamentary speaker, was a senior policy adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration. He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in January for his role “coordinating” Iran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests.
Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, was also killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday. Soleimani was sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union and other nations, over his role in suppressing dissent for years through the Basij.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also came under fire for the second day in a row early Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.
Further details were not immediately available, but pro-Iran militia groups have been regularly attacking American targets in Iraq since the start of the war. On Tuesday a drone cashed inside the Baghdad embassy compound.
Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut about an hour after issuing an evacuation notice. It was the fourth time the building has been targeted, but three strikes last week failed to bring it down.
Israel's military claimed the building was being used by Hezbollah to store “millions of dollars intended to finance its activities,” without providing evidence.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but other attacks on apartment buildings in central Beirut have killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
The Israeli army also said it had begun a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “in response to firing into Israeli territory.”
Israel’s strikes have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese — roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 900 people have been killed. In Israel, 14 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict started Feb. 28, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
Rising reported from Bangkok, AlJoud from Beirut. Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this story.
Smoke and flame rise from a residential building following an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Israeli authorities hang Israeli and U.S. flags at the site struck by an Iranian missile that killed two people, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A view of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - Commander of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
Fire and plumes of smoke rise after a drone struck a fuel tank forcing the temporary suspension of flights. near Dubai International Airport, in United Arab Emirates, early Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo)
FILE - Ali Larijani, center, head of Iran's National Security Council, gestures as Hezbollah supporters throw rice to welcome him outside Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
