Man, I’m obviously just incredibly proud of our team. All the things that we’ve been working at since we walked in the door, especially this year, are coming to life. I’m just incredibly proud of them. They played incredibly hard. They played together. They played complimentary football. Each phase picked the other up. It was a great game, so I’m really proud of our guys. Injury-wise, on everybody that got out of the game, I think [Seattle Seahawks S] Josh [Jones] was able to return, and we’re optimistic about [Seattle Seahawks S] Coby [Bryant] and [Seattle Seahawks S] Charles [Cross] coming back. Having an extra week is going to be really great for those guys. I just told our team that we’ve gotten to this point because of our approach every day. Everybody wants to tag all this meaning to games, but our guys just worry about our process and attack what’s right in front of us every play. I believe that that’s why we’re sitting right here. We’re going to keep that same mentality over the next two weeks.

Did your gameplan tonight exceed your expectations?

Our coaches put together a great plan, but our players made it come to life, they really did. We had some bad calls in some moments and the other team had some good plays, but our guys did it. They played incredibly well. They were determined to win the game, and are just such a resilient bunch.

Could you feel the difference having Seattle Seahawks S Nick Emmanwori more available in this game as opposed to the first time you faced the San Francisco 49ers this season?

We played the first game a lot with [Seattle Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon] at nickelback, and he did a great job. We didn’t lose that game because we didn’t stop the run. I’m really proud of Nick. I mean, he had a great game. He had a bunch of tackles and he earned this. He’s a great player and it’s obviously great to have him. He definitely helps our defense for sure. Yeah, I messed that up. I should have taken a timeout. I was thinking about other things at the moment. That said, the guys did incredible. I mean, that was what, 15 plays over several minutes? [Seattle Seahawks QB] Sam [Darnold] did a great job extending plays today, and that really helped us win the game. The third-and-long run conversions were incredible. I think [Seattle Seahawks WR Jake] Bobo had a great block on one of them, and [Seattle Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker III] had a great run. Those were big-time plays for us.

The interception by Seattle Seahawks LB Drake Thomas was obviously huge. What did you think about that?

“Look, we’re going to defend a blade of grass. The 49ers popped a few plays on that drive, but our guys stayed with it. [Seahawks Defensive Coordinator Aden Durde] AD was telling me in the headset to stay calm and keep playing. It was a team effort, and [Seattle Seahawks LB] Boye [Mafe] had an assist on that play. I think it was one of those moments where the ball finds energy. Drake has been playing great football for us, and he deserves a massive shout-out. [San Francisco 49ers RB Christian] McCaffrey is obviously a great back, so to make a play like that was big.”

You’ve had three straight games with 163-plus rushing yards. Are you happy about the way that is trending?

Yeah, it’s great. Honestly, it’s easy to feel good about it right now. That said, some of the counters they had gave us trouble, and I think we need to do a better job countering their counters, and we will. We’ve done a great job throughout the season making second-half adjustments. It was great to start the game the way we did with the run game. Now we want to shoot for a four-quarter run game.

Do you feel like the run game would have been capable of this type of performance earlier in the year?

Absolutely. I think it’s just that gradual attack. We know who we are and what our core competencies are, and we just keep attacking it. The offensive coaches hear from me every once in a while, and they’ve been great, solving problems and keeping the attack going.

You talked a lot about games presenting themselves. With that first drive on your decisions inside the 10, did you know it was the type of game that you didn’t plan on giving up many points?

It was an aggressive model, and normally it’s par for the course to be ready to go for it in that situation. Obviously, the result wasn’t great, but their average starting field position was really high too. The value of field goals was kind of lower in this game, and we felt like having a bad starting position was actually helpful for us.

You guys laid out incremental goals throughout the year, what’s it like accomplishing them?

That’s it. We’re just one game at a time. Keep stacking them. This is what we’ve been saying for a while now: if we want to go where we want to go, and we’re a young team with an idiot head coach in his second year trying to figure it out, that’s our mentality. We’re just going to keep attacking day by day, one thing at a time, and worry about that. Let everybody else come up with all the stories and stuff. I’ll try to give you some good info, but we’re not really worried about all that stuff.

Have you been able to give it any thought about being able to possibly host two playoff games at home?

I’m glad you brought that up. Of all the things we’ve been thinking about over the last 30 minutes or so, that’s definitely a point of pride that we can have at least one home playoff game in front of the 12s. They’ve been dynamite this year. They’ve been absolutely incredible. We’re really excited to be able to stay home.

Can you allow yourself to take some pride in all that you’ve accomplished in your first two years here in Seattle?

I’m really proud of our team. You can hear them in there—they love each other, man. It’s so much fun to go to work every day and to coach this team. It’s an absolute honor to coach these guys. I just talked to AD on the plane. I was like, ‘I don’t want this to end.’ Ultimately, the season’s going to end at some point, but I just want to keep going. I want to do whatever this is. Every day has been a massive blessing, and I love these guys.

How’d you feel about the way that your pass rush was married with your secondary guys in the back end today?

They’re a tremendous offense, probably top whatever in the league and have been doing it for a long time. They have great players, they have great coaches, and the numbers back it up. Our guys played great complimentary football today. They really did. I can’t say enough, but I can’t wait to watch the tape. There’s a lot of assists going on in there, guys rushing unselfishly to free somebody else up or to let somebody else have a two-way go so they can cover for them. How we played in the back end, it felt like we were ahead of plays. These guys did a great job. I’m looking forward to watching it. I won’t watch it on the plane, but I’ll watch it tomorrow.

Do you like what you’ve seen out of the run games over the last few weeks?

Like I said earlier, I love how we started the game. It felt like we really set the tone, but I’d like us to finish. I felt like we kind of started the game the right way and finished the right way. We need to find some more answers. I thought they did a good job of finding some counters to slow us down a little bit. It’ll be interesting to watch it and come up with some solutions to that.

How big is that to just have the ball security you guys did in a game like this?

Our guys did a great job. It goes back to, like, ‘Hey, what do you say about the takeaways?’ Nail the process. We talked about it. Let’s just be us when it comes to finishing plays. Anybody that had the ball, I thought did a great job.

Did you have a cigar, Mike?

No, I’m an amateur when it comes to that kind of stuff.