Do You Realize?

[Hawks46]

It's important for all the above reasons...litmus test, confidence builder, and this is THE swing game to gauge whether or not we will have a winning record in the division this year. The Niners are tied with us for record, and this would knock them behind us, while also giving us the edge in a tie breaker with the head to head.

Also, we really need to serve notice to the division that our defense is here. The Niners served notice last year, now it's our turn.

The other nice thing is that the Niners have 6 out of their last 10 games in division. With the physical defenses our division has, they will definately be beat up at the end of the year. If we outpace them now, they will be playing catch up, and might be too emotionally drained to really give it to us in our house at the end of the season.

 

[Anonymous]

If the season ended today, we'd be the #6 seed in the tournament, ahead of SF. This is because we own the conference-record tie-breaker at this point in the season.

This game has numerous implications for us considering the way the upcoming schedules look for the other teams in our division. SF could easily run the table and we'd be screwed. We need this win and the win at home for the tiebreaker.

I know who I'm rooting for. Just don't make it quite as much of a nail-biter as the last one.

 

[kobebryant]

I'll paraphrase the old saying they use for NBA/NHL playoffs and apply it to the NFC West. "The division doesn't start until someone loses a home divisionl game"

 

[irocdave]

Being a " road team" for the Hawks usually means traveling through 3 time zones. Not the case tomorrow night. This is going to be an ugly game, close score and the loser will take heat from the fan base. If the Hawks would not have pulled it out against the Pat's, we would have lots of things we would be picking at this today. The Hawks are not an elite team, yet. If the O can consistantly move the ball and the D does what it does then we have a legit SB contending team. I love how are D turns the games into a crapshoot, ugly, but the outcome isnt decided until late.

On a side note, I see Tate as a young Hines Ward. I hate HW, and well, anything that has to do with the Stealers, but see the upside of having a guy like that on my / my kids team.