I love the optimism. But let's be real.
Teams are going to stack the box and force either of our terrible QBs to beat them over the top. Which they won't.
Call me a hater or a troll. Whatever you want.
Heck I wish the Hawks destroy Denver week 1 as well. They're not that great of a team either.
But our QB situation right now is an abomination. Let's be real about that.
Being real. Our defense doesn't give up big plays. Russ lives off of big plays. To beat us even last year, you had to dink and dink. Russ can't dink and dunk.
We know Russ inside and out. No OC or QB in the league knows our D.
Russ, in high stakes games (playoffs) in the last several years, has not played well.
If Russ trues to go back to his scrambling ways, he's no longer fast enough to escape guys like Brooks, Taylor, etc. The D is too fast and they know his tendencies.
Our D will be primed to destroy their offense.
Shane, Pete and the O will be primed to prove that the scheme they want to run and should have last year actually works.
The QB ? Well Geno was far from an abomination when Shane and he finally got on the same page. And he wasn't an abomination in the 3 games prior.
And Lock looks to be markedly better lately.
He also runs play action really well and has a big arm. You know what's effective against a stacked box? And you know what play has been a staple of our offense for 10 years?.
It's not optimism, and I'm telling you, it won't be a surprise.
This team is going to be geeked out of its mind to prove the NFL and even its own fans wrong, and i think they have just enough talent and a big enough chip to do it. It's pretty plain to see if you can get past the knee-jerk, Lock and Geno suck and Wilson and Bobby are gone... but Pete stayed... so we have to suck, mindset.
There's a unity building that hasn't been here since we were great. And that, maybe above the talent, was what set the Hawks apart back then.
...I am my brothers keeper.
... we're all we got, we're all we need.
It won't be a surprise.