Pete Carroll has described the Seattle Seahawks' playoff victory over the New Orleans Saints as a "tremendous accomplishment".
The NFC West champions are into the NFC championship game for the first time in eight seasons following the 23-15 win.
The head coach told reporters: "We're really proud to get the win and be coming back home next week, that's a tremendous accomplishment, and we're thrilled about that. We know we just played a fine football team and players and coaches and all that.
"We have great respect for that team and to get this win at this time is huge. I thought we had a lot of cool things happen in this game and I like that we took care of the football on a day like this, throughout, and we ran the football like we wanted to.
"As we look at it, we're thrilled to be going on, with areas to get better and things we can continue to improve, and we'll continue to work at it in that manner."
The Seahawks will face either the Carolina Panthers or the San Francisco 49ers next weekend for a place in the Super Bowl.