Getty The Seahawks became major Lions fans.
The playoff odds were not in the Seattle Seahawks favor heading into Week 18, but an overtime win combined with some Detroit Lions magic made the franchise the last NFL team to punch their postseason ticket. There are a lot of new Lions fans in the Pacific Northwest after Detroit pulled off an upset over Green Bay despite being eliminated from playoff contention just before kickoff. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll admitted that he was rooting for a “party,” and the Lions provided just that for anxious Seattle players.
“I know that everybody was connected all throughout the Northwest, and our staff and players were, too,” Carroll noted, per The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar. “As the game went on, you could feel Detroit was playing really well and they have a legitimate chance. You could just tell. It was so much fun for everybody.
“I was hoping it could be a party tonight. I hoped that everybody is enjoying it every way that they can.”
Seahawks Players Went Crazy After Lions Win
The Seahawks will kickoff the NFL postseason against the 49ers in the first playoff matchup on Saturday, January 14. Seahawks players reacted to the playoff news in various ways.
DK Metcalf posted a clip of the song “Let’s Go” paired with the Seahawks logo to his Instagram Story after Seattle’s postseason fate was decided. Geno Smith responded with a simple handshake emoji on Twitter.
During the game, the Seahawks Twitter account nearly broke the internet with a “Lion King” themed meme of Rafiki holding up Simba who was covered with a Lions logo. After securing a playoff berth, Seattle posted a “Thank You Lions” graphic telling Detroit, “Appreciate y’all so much.”
“LFG!!!!! All we need is a chance!” Seahawks pass rusher Uchenna Nwosu tweeted on January 8.
Ken Walker also took to social media to respond to a “crazy” end to the regular season. It was a particularly satisfying day for Walker who eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing on the season finishing with 1,050 yards and nine touchdowns during his rookie campaign.
“2 Dubs in 1 night is crazy,” Walker noted on Twitter.
Tyler Lockett was another Seahawks player to tweet through his feelings after the Lions’ upset victory.
“Let’s go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Lockett said in a series of tweets. “Thank you Detroit!!!!”
Carroll: ‘We Did Everything We Could to Make the Season Last as Long as Possible’
Experienced the moment together. 💙
After the Seahawks’ win, Carroll joked that the team provided fans with plenty of excitement by making “the season last as long as possible.” Not only did the Seattle-L.A. game go into overtime, but the team had to wait until the final Week 18 matchup to find out their postseason destiny. Carroll promised that the Seahawks would take the same approach if they made the playoffs.
“Well, we did everything we could to make the season last as long as possible,” Carroll said during his January 8 postgame press conference. “We squeezed every drop out of it. It was a really good finish to this season for our guys [to] get some wins and get something going here and feel good about it and doing the things we had to do with what we were faced with. This win is an important win for everybody on our team. We put everything we had into it.
“We treated this game like its the biggest game we could ever play, and if we get a chance, we’ll do that with the next week, too. But the guys rose to that thought and really everybody battled.”