I think you're right Aros, about the disappointment of being a Hawks fan for the entirety of the franchise. It seems like every time I've had high expectations, they've let me down and choked, while when I expect nothing, they come out of nowhere and give me higher expectations. Only to let me down.
This year just felt different. It wasn't one dominating facet of the game; ie: we didn't have a crushing running game to lean on, and therefor rely on, while the passing game just gets you by and the defense is barely good enough. Pretty much everyone called us the deepest team in the league, and most of us aren't used to the national attention.
My thing is that I don't look myopically at the Hawks alone. I look at the division in general. 3 weeks ago, the division looked like a train wreck, and we were looking beyond solid. Now, SF looks to be back on track, SF is showing they can win convincingly, and we already knew AZ was a tough, gritty team that seems to have our number down there.
I want us to go to the playoffs as badly as anyone else, and I'd love to see a home playoff game, so we need to win the division first. As fans, we don't have to just look and concentrate on next week. We have the luxury of analyzing our divisional rivals while all this is going on. I'm not liking what I'm seeing. We aren't going to automatically win at STL, at AZ and it's looking grim at SF already.
It's not over, but there's cracks in the armor. And all I can think about is "here we go again".
This year just felt different. It wasn't one dominating facet of the game; ie: we didn't have a crushing running game to lean on, and therefor rely on, while the passing game just gets you by and the defense is barely good enough. Pretty much everyone called us the deepest team in the league, and most of us aren't used to the national attention.
My thing is that I don't look myopically at the Hawks alone. I look at the division in general. 3 weeks ago, the division looked like a train wreck, and we were looking beyond solid. Now, SF looks to be back on track, SF is showing they can win convincingly, and we already knew AZ was a tough, gritty team that seems to have our number down there.
I want us to go to the playoffs as badly as anyone else, and I'd love to see a home playoff game, so we need to win the division first. As fans, we don't have to just look and concentrate on next week. We have the luxury of analyzing our divisional rivals while all this is going on. I'm not liking what I'm seeing. We aren't going to automatically win at STL, at AZ and it's looking grim at SF already.
It's not over, but there's cracks in the armor. And all I can think about is "here we go again".
