As the Seahawks welcome the division rival St. Louis Rams into Qwest Field this afternoon, terms like “must win” are getting thrown around more than a UW linebacker. As a football purist I know never to make judgments this early in the season, but when you hear that only three football team has ever started 0-3 and made the playoffs I realize that this season isn’t the time to start daring the football gods.

I think like most of the 12th man I came into this season with high hopes, and still carry this mentality. I still feel that Seahawks are the only legitimate team in the division, and basically the only reason the NFC West exists, but football is a “show me” sport, and the Hawks aren’t showing us a whole lot these days.

I’m not going to roll out tried and true excuses for this, shall we say, sputtering start. The whole country knows that the Hawks are signing receivers like an Army recruiter at a country high school, but we knew that Hawks were thin at receiver coming into the season and we still had high hopes. Then theirs the whole east coast road game curse that the Hawks can’t seem to shake. Hell, we knew the Hawks were starting the season in Buffalo, and many of us still prematurely notched that game in the win column. No, I’m not going to throw out any comforting facts that will help you sleep at night, all I can say is that the Hawks are who we thought they were. We just hoped they wouldn’t be.

Which brings me back to this week’s game. Regardless of all of the deficiencies this team brings to the table this week, there is no way that the Hawks shouldn’t convincingly win. In fact they better win, no excuses. If Matt gets hurt today, we better win. If our entire starting offensive line catches food poisoning and we have to snag five people out of the stands to fill their shoes, we better win. The Hawks have put themselves in a situation were they better win. In this fical town, if the Hawks let this game slide the loss of fervor and rowdiness amongst fans will be substantial. Although I hate to admit it, the entire country knows Seattle is filled with bandwagon fans, and if the Hawks don’t start resembling the team that the city embraced, then the city will spit them out.

Now although this will probably translate into me getting better season tickets next year, I certainly would never trade better seats for an inferior team. The fact is that I am already completely and utterly committed to this team. Good or bad I’ll be losing my voice each and every Sunday. It’s just that I know the rest of the fan base doesn’t feel the same. The Hawks feed off of the 12th man. It’s why they have been so dominant at home over recent years, and they need us as much as we need them. So when I call this a “must win” week. It’s because they MUST keep the fan base excited. They MUST keep Qwest Field the most feared destination in all of football. They simply must, because it’s hard to scream your brains out, all by yourself. Plus the football gods don’t like being double dared…Go Sqwaks.