The Green Bay Packers made too many mistakes and were too ineffective on both sides of the ball in a 26-24 loss to Cleveland at home. This drops the Pack to 0-2 on the 2005 season.

The running game has not done much in the first two games, possibly due to the Packers having to replace both starting guards this season. This puts more pressure on Brett Favre and as great a player as he is, football is a team sport and there is only so much one player can do...even one who had his ticket to Canton punched several years ago.

The defense appears somewhat better than last season, which is not saying a lot because they basically stunk last season. Still there are too many penalties (especially pass interference) and two long touchdown passes by Cleveland yesterday put the kibosh on Green Bay's chances.

We will see what we will see...last season the Packers looked much worse than this at times yet still managed ten wins and the NFC North title.

Which brings me to the rest of the NFC North which looks not much better than the Packers after two weeks.

The Supposedly New And Improved Detroit Lions appear to be neither, as the woeful Chicago Bears sent them home to Motown with a 38-6 pounding. The Detroit papers have the by now routine gloom and doom headlines and this is all looking too familiar to Lions fans. The Bears probably are not as good as the Lions made them look.

Finally there are the Minnechoka Crykings, as I love to call them. They, like the Packers, also fell to 0-2 but put up much less of a fight than Green Bay. The Cincinnati Bengals pounded the hapless Crykings 37-8, with Minnechoka's only score coming late in the fourth quarter after Cincy had tallied all 37 of theirs. And recall my preview of a few days ago when I predicted at least one touchdown for the Bengals' T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Well, the Player With the Longest Last Name in the NFL had not just one but TWO TD's against Minny!

Bottom line is that the NFC North is pretty much up for grabs as far as I can tell, and if the Packers can just get their act together they have as good a chance as any of the other three teams.

In other NFL news, Philadelphia routed San Francisco 42-3, just another chapter in the decline of the once-proud 49er franchise. Pittsburgh also looked good in a win over Houston...could we possibly have an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl in Detroit this coming January?