They say that practice makes perfect and the Packers proved that to be true in their game against the Lions on Sunday. All preseason they have been practicing playing sloppy and making mistakes, and in Detroit they were in prime form. Green Bay committed 14 penalties (for 100 yards) and turned the ball over in a game where nobody looked sharp. Now, if you think you can go out and play against any team in the National Football League and make that many mistakes, and turn the ball over as many times at they did and still win, you are sadly mistaken, my friend.

One might even say crazy.

It was a lesson learned the hard way at Ford Field in Detroit. The Green Bay Packers found out no matter who you play, if you don't bring your "A" game, you're going home with a "L" in the record book.

But there's no need to blame any one player, there was plenty of blame to go around. Fourteen penalties were only the ones that were accepted, there were others that were declined. And anytime you make that many mental mistakes it's proof positive that nobody was ready to play, nor wanted to put forth the effort to win. Even the coaches and their game plan seemed a little suspect. None of their adjustments during half time seemed to help straighten out the path the game was going down.

Besides their miscues, the Packers were completely inconsistent, ineffective and out of sync the entire game. There was no way they were going to beat anybody playing the way they did. How ineffective were they? Green Bay didn't have a first down in the second half until its sixth drive. Even Brett Favre was guilty as he started forcing things. Of course, that's nothing new for Favre who always seems to put the weight of the world on his shoulders once he feels the game getting away from the team. He's done it his entire career. But his two interceptions and one fumble led to 10 Lions points in a game where scoring was scarce.

The Packers ended up with a poultry 216 yards and just three points. Even the kicking game wasn't up to par as the first field goal attempt failed when B.J. Sanders muffed the snap and couldn't get the ball down properly for Ryan Longwell. As I said, from the coaches to the last man on the roster, it just didn't appear that the Packers were ready to play Sunday in Detroit.

But then the real question is why?

This season, Favre's 15th and more-than-likely his last if the protection doesn't get any better, won't get any easier down the line. At the beginning of the year, you may have looked at the schedule and picked out the games against the Saints and the Browns thinking those games were going to be easy wins. . . . However, after watching those two teams play on Sunday you might change your mind. I know I did. The Saints could use this entire season as an emotional steroid. They took down the Carolina Panthers, the very team I picked to win the NFC South, and there's no reason to think they can't continue that artificial high all year. But even if they don't it will surely last a little while and considering Green Bay plays them October 9th, there's a real good chance that adrenaline will still be running high.

And as for the Cleveland Browns, they put up a good fight against a much better team and only lost to the Bengals 27-13. And I'm sure we all saw the way Tampa Bay handled the Vikqueens so there won't be any easy time had when the Buccaneers come to town either. If Green Bay can't win at least one of those games, they will start the season out even worse than they did last year heading into the bye week.

Anybody got any aspirin? It's going to be a very long season.

And if those of you who thought our defense was the main problem this year, Joey Harrington was 15-of-28 for 167 yards with two TDs, and no turnovers. Kevin Jones ran for 87 yards and Marcus Pollard caught five passes for 58 yards, including a 9-yard TD. All in all that's not that bad. Yes, some of the 14 penalties came on the defense, Ahmad Carroll had four himself, and I'll get to that in a second, but again the pass rush was there and the linebackers were where they needed to be most of the time.

The defense for the most part didn't look that bad, considering the situation they were continually put in by the offense. Now getting back to the secondary, more specifically the problem at corner, how much longer will Ted Thompson wait before he tells Sherman to get Carroll and his grab, grab, grabbing off the field and start Joey Thomas? This kid is not getting any better with his shoddy coverage. As a matter of fact, now he's added "illegal hands to the face" or "illegal use of hands" to his bag of favorite penalties.

And I say Ted Thompson because we've all seen how long it takes for Sherman to make a roster change when it is one of the players he's responsible for. All we have to do is think back to Cletidus Hunt and how long Sherman let that fat slob hang around and then remember, Sherman was the guy who ignored a lot of other people's advice and drafted Carroll because he was fast in college. He wasn't a good corner, he was just fast. . . . I personally think they should have kept Chris Johnson and traded Carroll to the Rams.

And if that weren't enough, news out of Packer camp concerning the Walker injury; the kid might be out for the season with a torn ACL. If that happens, look for the Packers to sign another receiver, perhaps sign Craig Bragg or Chad Lucas off the practice squad. They're going to need a deep threat receiver and pray that Driver stays healthy. That deep threat could be the rookie, Terrence Murphy although he missed a lot of the preseason with an injury and there's no telling how well he knows the offense. On the other hand, maybe this is the prime opportunity for Furguson to step up and get his wish of being more involved in the offense.

One final note, the three points scored by the Packers were the fewest in a game since they lost 31-3 to Minnesota early in the 1992 season, Mike Holmgren's first year as head coach. Hmmmm.... Can you say rebuilding?

Forget the aspirin, pass me the hootch...

Until next time, Keep Driving Forward.