SEATTLE - Shaun Alexander and his Seattle teammates emerged from the locker room after their big win against Indianapolis and saluted the fans who waited so long for this day to come.

Seattle (13-2) clinched a conference top seed for the first time and home-field advantage in the NFC Saturday behind Alexander, who tied Priest Holmes’ NFL record for touchdowns in a season with 27. But the Seahawks realize they need to improve if they are going to make it to Detroit and the Super Bowl.

“We are not there yet. We still have a lot of work to do,” fullback Mack Strong said.

Foremost, the Seahawks must repair a sometimes fractured defense, specifically an injury-depleted secondary. Sure, Seattle’s defense looked great with successive wins over Philadelphia and San Francisco by a combined 83-3. But the Eagles and 49ers together are 9-21.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning riddled the Seahawks defense for 116 yards passing on the two drives he played Saturday. The New York Giants rolled up 490 total yards on Seattle last month. The Colts and Giants are a combined 23-7. Seattle could see those two teams again in the postseason.

Even lowly Tennessee and fading quarterback Steve McNair passed for 417 yards and had a 24-14 lead — until the Seahawks rallied with two touchdowns late to win two weeks ago.

There have been injuries to starting defensive backs Kelly Herndon, Andre Dyson, Ken Hamlin and now Marcus Trufant. He bruised his lower back Saturday and may not play in next Sunday’s finale at Green Bay.

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That is partly why Seattle has allowed four 300-yard passing days this season — and likely would have given up a fifth had Manning made more than a Christmas Eve cameo.

All the starters but Hamlin are expected back for the postseason.

“It’s very critical in the playoffs that you have a good balance of offense and defense,” said coach Mike Holmgren, who won one Super Bowl and appeared in a second while coaching Green Bay in 1996 and ’97.

“I think we will have a chance to play even better defense when we get some of our guys back.”

They must — if this season is to become truly different than all others in a city that hasn’t won a major men’s professional championship since 1979.

“We haven’t accomplished anything yet,” defensive end Bryce Fisher said. “But this town deserves a winner.”

Home-field advantage should help. At least one top conference seed has reached the Super Bowl in 31 of the last 35 postseasons, including 11 of the last 12 and in each of the last seven.

“It’s going to be a fun time in the playoffs,” Alexander said.

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Now, the Seahawks hope to ride Alexander for more fun in the postseason. Their last playoff victory came on Dec. 22, 1984. Since then, it’s been five losses in five games over 21 long, frustrating years.

But the road to the Super Bowl has never detoured to the Pacific Northwest. It has never included the rain, the chill and the often deafening roar of over 67,000 championship-starved fans.

It does now.

Strong has been with Seattle for the last 13 seasons. Last week, he made his first Pro Bowl, recognition for clearing the freeway-sized running lanes for Alexander.

Strong has had almost a career’s worth of accomplishments in one season.

“It is a dream come true,” Strong said.

“This is what I had always hoped for when I first started playing. You win a lot of games. You want home-field advantage. You want to be able to go to the Pro Bowl and have the opportunity to put yourself in a nice position to hopefully ... get into the Super Bowl.”