My biggest fear... That this team puts too much pressure on themselves to win this game, which leads to stupid penalties, drops, missed assignments and missed tackles. If you look at our schedule... This team performs poorly in games they're under a lot of pressure to win.
Arizona - The Hawks were expected to win that game and their was a lot of pressure on the team to win that game. We should've won that game, but the entire team came out flat and made the Cardinals actually look like a contender before they were exposed.
St. Louis - Hawks were expected to win against St. Louis and they came out flat. Our offense made the Rams average defense look like a top 10 defense and our defense was not on top of their game.
San Fran - Hawks were under pressure to win against the rival and take the lead in the division. Our passing game and run defense fell apart due to mental errors; such as missed assignments, missed tackles, dropped passes and drive killing penalties.
At Detroit - Expected to win that game and our defense came out flat. Stafford had a breakout game against our secondary after performing poorly for the majority of the season.
The games we won
Green Bay - Not expected to win and under no pressure to win against Green Bay.
New England - Not expected to win and under no pressure to win against New England
At Carolina - Weren't expected to win against Carolina in Carolina, but the Hawks played solid mistake free football and won the game.
Dallas - Weren't expected to win against Dallas and the entire team played great football.
This week we're facing a Vikings team at home that our team is under a lot of pressure to win, so we can maintain a winning record and try keeping pace for a playoff spot. Based on the games we've played so far, I see this being a real tough game for the Hawks to win. This team has to get better at playing under pressure and winning games they're pressured to win. I'm hoping our staff is seeing the trend here and tries to minimize the pressure the players and fans are putting on themselves to win this game. I just want to see our guys come out, get in a comfort zone, establish a rhythm and play some solid mistake free football. While the Hawks are under a lot of pressure to win, I'd like to see the Hawks play like they're not under any pressure to win, as they seem to perform better under those circumstances.