I didn't put this in the bitch thread because... it's a reality check.

There's no way this last game was a must-win game to get in the playoffs, it's not week 17 and there's still a ton of games left over.

Let's look at the 'Hawks losses so far this year:

1.  Buffalo on the east coast... this team has consistently gotten blown up on the road in the eastern time zone by interior teams, and it was a predictable loss

2.  49ers loss.. eerily similar to Hasselbeck & Alexander running in to eachother to gift AZ the win a couple years ago.  The game could have easily gone either way

3.  NY Giants on the east coast... see comment #1.  Also, Giants may be a lot better than anyone expected, regardless, they were clearly on a hot streak.

4.  3rd string QB against last year's NFC runner up?  I'm surprised it was as close as it was.  I wrote that game off when I heard Beck was scratched.  That holding call on the guard on Jones' long run was terrible -  you could call that every play against a jumbo line like Dallas or Pittsburgh.

We still have a pile of divisional games left, including some against Arizona where we can start to close the gap.  Some predicted losses (New England, AFC East in gen'l) may actually be winnable games, especially if these early losses get us to rally together.

We are in the division race, regardless of if paper thin AZ as the leader now.  They have a surgically repaired origami swan for a quarterback and it's only a matter of time until he goes down.  The 49ers are who we thought they were.

GO HAWKS!