Brock Purdy's big night sets up 49ers-Seahawks showdown for NFC's top seed - ESPN

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — On a night when the San Francisco 49ers were without All-Pro tight end George Kittle and had All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams for one snap, the weight of their playoff positioning fell on quarterback Brock Purdy.

Purdy was up to the challenge. Behind his five total touchdowns (three passing, two rushing), the Niners outlasted the Chicago Bears 42-38 in a wild shootout on «Sunday Night Football.» It's the first time San Francisco has scored 40-plus points in back-to-back games since November 1995.

The 49ers improved to 12-4 and will host the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night with the NFC West division title, the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs and home-field advantage throughout the postseason on the line. That could mean even more for the Niners with Super Bowl LX set to be played at Levi's Stadium.

To achieve any of those goals, the Niners will look to Purdy to continue performing like one of the league's best and most efficient quarterbacks.

«It's his best [football] right now,» 49ers right tackle Colton McKivitz said. «And it's when his best is needed. This is what this team needs is this offense to come in and score and score a lot.… The way he's playing, it's awesome. To have a leader like that go and command the huddle and playing at that level, it's a great confidence builder for us.»

Though Purdy has had some hot streaks since taking over as San Francisco's starting quarterback in 2022, he's arguably playing better than ever now on a team that doesn't have the skill position star power of his previous teams.

Purdy's importance was on display Sunday night in a game that nearly came down to which team had the ball last. After throwing a pick-6 on the first play of the game, Purdy rebounded