Solace

They say that misery loves company. In the wake of this past Sunday's miserable performance, therefore, you've got to love the company we're keeping this week.

Going into both Week One and Week Two, Don Banks (SI.com) listed the Packers at #3 in his power rankings. Ahead of us, in his judgment, were the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers. After Week One, Banks observed that all three top teams struggled to get their victories (Pittsburgh over Tennessee, New England over Buffalo, and Green Bay over the Bears), but he kept them all in their top perches.

Now, in Week Two, all three of those teams lost. The Bears bested the Steelers, the Jets outlasted the Patriots, and the Bengals upset the Packers.

While I'm genuinely troubled, therefore, by the Packers' performance last Sunday afternoon, I am trying to keep it in perspective. After all, if we follow the trajectory of the Patriots and the Steelers all season long, I'm guessing that I'll be happy with that. Those are the two teams almost universally chosen to make it to the AFC Championship Game, and they both struggled to win in Week One and then lost in Week Two.

Meanwhile, the other team that often entered the preseason discussion of AFC elite teams was the San Diego Chargers. And guess what... They also won their first game and lost their second.

One final word of perspective to give grieving Packer fans a bit of consolation... The team that owned the league's best regular season record in 2008 -- the Tennessee Titans -- is 0-2 so far in 2009.

It's early. It's a long season. And the St. Louis Rams are next on the schedule.