After a two-decade hiatus, I began watching the Seahawks again this year. I grew up here and used to watch football—I even played it until my sophomore year of high school, when I quit to take up smoking pot.

This year I mainly started watching again because my brother, who lives three blocks away from me, bought a football cable package for his television. He promptly forgot about the games as soon as snow started falling in the mountains, but I stuck with it, thankful for a distraction that ultimately has no bearing on my life. I like to think it's just coincidental that the Hawks happen to be kind of ruling it this year, but at the same time, I'd probably be lying if I said I would have finished the regular season with them if they were still terrible.

Which brings us just about up to today's game. First though, it must be said that if there's a common thread among Seattle's professional sports teams, it's that they're prone to choking when it matters most. For the Hawks, that could be at the Super Bowl this year or it could be today. Or it might not happen at all. And let me be completely clear: I do not want it to happen. As my esteemed former colleague Bradley S. posted to the internet last night, it's "that moment as a Seattle sports fan when you feel both excitement and sheer, brutal dread." Let's hope the Hawks don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this time around.

And now to today: As has been pointed out, the Hawks caught some crucial lucky breaks the last time the Saints were in town, but they won handily, 27-3. Still, their performance throughout this season has been nothing if not inconsistent, having clutched threadbare victories against even some of the worst teams in the league, and then other times effortlessly decimating more worthy adversaries. And while they closed the season with an impressive 13-3 record, two of those losses came in the last four games.

I won't pretend to know enough about the nuances of this match-up to speculate any more than that—I just know I'm hoping for the best and fearing the worst. But enough about me. What do you think will happen at the game today, Slog?