Coach Lovie Smith discusses preparations for Sunday’s NFC divisional playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks exclusively on ChicagoBears.com:

I certainly think that we gained some valuable playoff experience last season. Anytime you’ve gone through something, it has to help you the next time around. You think you know about something, but you really don’t until you’ve gone through it.

Lovie Smith has led the Bears to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1990-91 under Mike Ditka.

We had a chance last year to prepare for a playoff game, see the excitement leading up to it and then play it. We came out on the short end against the Panthers, but then you make adjustments from there. Most of the time, it’s better the second time around.

Just look at a typical season. The second game of a football season is normally a lot better than the first, so we’re hoping that will be the case with us Sunday against the Seahawks.

I wouldn’t say that we weren’t prepared for the intensity level in the playoffs last year. We felt the excitement leading up to it and we thought we knew what it was like going into it. I think it’s just as simple as experiencing everything that goes on, from game day to the actual game to the agony of defeat after the game. We had a chance to go through all of that.

In terms of whether we’re going to prepare any differently than we did last year, I believe that you stay with your plan whatever your plan is. You change some minor things. We practiced in pads one day last week and we might run a few more plays in practice—minor things like that. But for the most part, I believe that you stay with what you do. We went from 5-11 to 11-6 to 13-3 doing the same thing. We’re doing the same plan, only better.

It was critical for us to secure home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. This past weekend, all four home teams won. I got a chance to feel the excitement from one home team in Indianapolis, and believe me, that had as much to do with how the Colts started the game and how they finished it as the offense, defense and special teams.

That’s why we talk so much about the “fourth phase.” The crowd can really affect the game. Look at the Giants playing at Philadelphia Sunday. The Giants’ offensive linemen continued to jump offside because of the crowd noise. The fans really can have an impact on what we do.

We’re hoping that we’ll get the same thing from our great crowd; them screaming from the pre-game warm-ups until the end of the football game. But we have a part in that too. We have to give them reason to cheer, and that’s what we plan on doing.