The fans are an important part of the Seahawks. When you think of games inside Lumen Field, one place many people's mind goes to is how loud it can get. Whether it be false starts or the Beast Quake, Seahawks fans have proven to have an impact on the atmosphere of the game. It's part of the reason why head coach Mike Macdonald adopted the phrase "12 As One," a nod to the fans, but a way to describe how he wants the players to play, with "connectedness" and "synergy."

When Leonard Williams was traded to Seattle midway through the 2023 season, he was joining a team that was 5-2 and preparing to travel to Baltimore to face John Harbaugh's Ravens and a defense led by then defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. His first game with the Seahawks was a 37-3 loss, thanks to a very dominant performance by that Ravens defense. While Williams remembers that loss very clearly, what sticks out from that day is the way the fans responded.

"The community is special," he said. "I noticed it in my very first game here…I remember getting home super late because it was a late East Coast game, I'm driving home from the facility at 3:00 a.m., and there's literally fans lined up out there and cheering us on. I'm just like, it's 3:00 a.m. and we just lost, and these people are taking the time to still cheer for us. I'm not used to that. I've been in stadiums where we're losing at halftime and our own fans are booing us and leaving the stadium."

That contrast is the difference between Seahawks fans and other fans across the league and why the players are eager to play in a home playoff game.

"It's just like a lifeline," linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. "We depend on them to keep us energetic and get us going."

Williams added, "Even from before I got here, knowing about the Seahawks and knowing about this stadium, Lumen Field, it was always referred to as the best stadium around. Now being here and being a part of the 12s and being a Seahawk knowing what it's really like, they really make it come to life and it makes me feel proud to be able to bring the playoff games here."

Last season, the Seahawks went 3-6 at home and this season turned that record around, going 6-2 at Lumen Field.

"That's something we've been putting an emphasis on all year from the start of camp," Williams said. "We knew it was something that we didn't do a good job of last year winning at home, and I think we did a better job of that this year, and the stadium has been on fire lately. I'm looking forward to seeing it even more on fire this Saturday. I can't wait to hear the 12s out there."

Jarran Reed, who's played the most games in Lumen Field as anyone on the roster over his 10-year career said, "I can't wait to see the fans. I can't wait to get out there and just feel the energy from the field. You know, we need our 12s out there. We need them as loud as ever. Trying to break the little sound meter. I think it topped at 109. We're trying to break it to where it can't record it. We need it loud, so the Dark Side can come alive. Especially if we're going into a situation in the Death Zone, just playing our style of football."

On Saturday, there will be six seismic sensors inside of Lumen Field to measure fan-generated shaking to record any seismic energy produced by the fans.

Pacific Northwest Seismic Network director, Harold Tobin at the University of Washington, said, "With these six seismometers, we have Lumen Field 'wired up' and we can record exactly how the excitement of the crowd leads to shaking of the ground, much like an earthquake does. We expect the massive crowd of 12s to generate measurable seismic energy. It's a fun way to show the world exactly how much, in a scientific way, and to learn something about the seismic waves in the process."

This wouldn't be the first time seismic activity was recorded in at a Seahawks game. In a 2011 playoff game, the very well known "Beast Quake" touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch registered as an "earthquake" by nearby seismographs and the crowd noise was recorded to be 137.6 decibels, which, at the time was a Guinness World Record.

The importance of the fans is not lost on the players. They realize the difference 12s can make.

AJ Barner said, "The intensity that I bring personally, I feed off the crowd. Our team feeds off the crowd. And good luck traveling all the way up here to Seattle and playing a football game."

Aside from the fans bringing energy, they also provide a competitive edge for Seattle. The noise of the crow can make it difficult for opposing offenses to communicate the play calls.

"When they're specifically loud while they're huddling, it makes it extremely hard for the offense," Williams said. "Sometimes it's even hard for us on defense to communicate, but I think we've been playing home, it's been loud all season, so we've found ways to communicate non-verbally on defense, and we want them to be as loud as possible this Saturday."

Jones IV added, "Opposing offenses are going to have to use different cadences."

In practice, the Seahawks practice with speakers that blare music and crowd noise, specifically while the defense is on the field, in preparation for playing a game at home.

Safety Julian Love said, "I think we know that our home crowd is a weapon, but on defense it affects our communication being so loud. So we fine tune it. I'm sure you guys are out there at practice when they have all 17 speakers blasting. Not a fan of that. But we just work all week. We know that that's just an advantage, but we have to make it an advantage. It's not something you can wake up and just do. It requires an extra effort defensively to be locked in."

Receiver Cooper Kupp who has played in his fair share of playoff games, including one in Lumen Field during the COVID-19 pandemic when no fans were in stadiums, said, "I'm so excited to see Lumen light up…Being able to see fans come into Lumen and create that atmosphere that's just so unique, so special to playoff football. Very excited about it. Very excited for the opportunity to experience that and see Lumen come alive."

And for players who haven't played a playoff game in Lumen Field before, they are "excited," to experience the atmosphere.

"I've never done it but I can imagine just how loud and how rowdy our fan base can get for playoff games," quarterback Sam Darnold said. "That's going to be a huge advantage for us. We're obviously treating every game just as another game. That's how we're going to approach every single game from here on out. Very excited to play in front of our fans."