annarborhawk
New member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2013
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It's been YEARS since I posted, but I felt compelled to say my peace.
The sky is not falling:
1. We lost two games in a row. Of the last 9 Super Bowl champs (you know going back to that game which shall not be named) 6 championship teams (67%) have had at least a two game losing streak. (three had three game losing streaks, and one had a four game losing streak).
You reply: "But we look BAD, even in some of the wins."
2. I answer: "So what." The fact that we won it all last year clouds our memory. The way I see it, in 5 of last year's wins we looked bad or at least vulnerable. (@carolina, @houston, Tennessee, @St Louis, and Tampa Bay). If you only count the games in which we looked "Good," we were "deserved" to be 8-8. Which is of course ridiculous. It's the rare champion that goes through the whole season looking good in every game.
You say: "But this year we have major flaws - no pass rush, a horrible offensive line, and we traded our best playmaker."
3. I answer: Last year's dominant hawk team clouds our expectations of what it takes to win it all. Let's look at recent previous champs: 2012, Baltimore wins it at 10-6 -- great defense, but no one can say they didn't have flaws. Ditto the 2011, Giants - who were VERY flawed and won it on the back of a quarterback having a break-out playoff run. 2010 - the 10-6 Packers won it - despite having lots of questions on defense and an average running game. Ditto the 2008 steelers, the 2007 Giants, and the (gulp) 2005 Steelers.
My point is I'm reading some hyperbolic overreactions to these first 6 games here. A two game losing streak is not the end of the season by a long shot. I don't want to hear about lucky or ugly wins. They count. They fully count. This league is EXTREMELY competitive, and we had at least 5 ugly wins last season. There is a lot of parity. All teams have flaws. Even the team that ends up winning the Superbowl this year will have flaws. (And when they do, we will forget or discount those flaws).
I am not saying that we will repeat, or even that we will make the playoffs. What I am saying, is that what will happen at the end of this season is not yet written and cannot even be predicted with any degree of certainty based on the first 6 games. What matters is how we play in late November and early December. And we have no idea how that will unfold. if we are hot at the end, we will compete to go deep in the playoffs - if we don't we won't. It'll all depends on how this team grows. The season is a process that we are only a third of the way through. Just sit back and watch it unfold rather than stand on the ledge.
/end rant
The sky is not falling:
1. We lost two games in a row. Of the last 9 Super Bowl champs (you know going back to that game which shall not be named) 6 championship teams (67%) have had at least a two game losing streak. (three had three game losing streaks, and one had a four game losing streak).
You reply: "But we look BAD, even in some of the wins."
2. I answer: "So what." The fact that we won it all last year clouds our memory. The way I see it, in 5 of last year's wins we looked bad or at least vulnerable. (@carolina, @houston, Tennessee, @St Louis, and Tampa Bay). If you only count the games in which we looked "Good," we were "deserved" to be 8-8. Which is of course ridiculous. It's the rare champion that goes through the whole season looking good in every game.
You say: "But this year we have major flaws - no pass rush, a horrible offensive line, and we traded our best playmaker."
3. I answer: Last year's dominant hawk team clouds our expectations of what it takes to win it all. Let's look at recent previous champs: 2012, Baltimore wins it at 10-6 -- great defense, but no one can say they didn't have flaws. Ditto the 2011, Giants - who were VERY flawed and won it on the back of a quarterback having a break-out playoff run. 2010 - the 10-6 Packers won it - despite having lots of questions on defense and an average running game. Ditto the 2008 steelers, the 2007 Giants, and the (gulp) 2005 Steelers.
My point is I'm reading some hyperbolic overreactions to these first 6 games here. A two game losing streak is not the end of the season by a long shot. I don't want to hear about lucky or ugly wins. They count. They fully count. This league is EXTREMELY competitive, and we had at least 5 ugly wins last season. There is a lot of parity. All teams have flaws. Even the team that ends up winning the Superbowl this year will have flaws. (And when they do, we will forget or discount those flaws).
I am not saying that we will repeat, or even that we will make the playoffs. What I am saying, is that what will happen at the end of this season is not yet written and cannot even be predicted with any degree of certainty based on the first 6 games. What matters is how we play in late November and early December. And we have no idea how that will unfold. if we are hot at the end, we will compete to go deep in the playoffs - if we don't we won't. It'll all depends on how this team grows. The season is a process that we are only a third of the way through. Just sit back and watch it unfold rather than stand on the ledge.
/end rant
