On The Other Hand...

The old joke tells of a man with one good hand and one mangled hand. He went to a plastic surgeon and said, "I want my one hand to be just like the other hand." When he awakened from surgery, both hands were mangled.

We came out of Week One with one good hand (our defense) and one bad hand (our offense). Our hope was that the one would be like the other in Week Two, but not quite like this.

After the Packers' opening drive stalled, the Bengals took the ball and gained twelve yards per play on their way to a touchdown. It looked way too easy. And Cincinnati continued to show an ability to move the ball on us throughout the game.

I think the Bengals' coaching staff saw in their film study that the Bears gave up on the run too easily. They responded by pounding Cedric Benson at us, and he performed very effectively against our defense. I hate to think what Adrian Peterson is going to do to us.

From the first play -- a well-executed rollout that resulted in a dropped pass -- the Packer offense was never in sync. The protection for Rodgers was no better than it had been against the Bears. And the running game, to which McCarthy always says he is committed, never really got on track.

On the defensive side, meanwhile, the Bengals beat us the old-fashioned way. They ran it, ran it, ran it, and that made us vulnerable to the pass. We forced a few punts, but we never forced a field goal. Cedric Benson broke tackles right and left. And we let the Bengals convert 9 of 14 third down opportunities.

And, like the Bears did last week, the Bengals beat us in time of possession by some seven minutes.

So the team that looked like a Super Bowl contender in the preseason now looks more like last year's 6-10 squad.

Of course, it's a long season. That's good news for the team. But it may be bad news for Aaron Rodgers, who can't withstand the kind of weekly beating that he has endured against the Bears and Bengals.

Finally, a football team has a third hand. In addition to the offense and defense, there's also the special teams unit. Hmmm.... No better news there. We gave up a couple of big kick returns, our own punting was mediocre, and we missed another field goal attempt.

So between now and next Sunday in St. Louis, we have two or three mangled hands that need to get fixed. Fast.