It’s just preseason.

Green Bay fans and Brett Favre might want to repeat that mantra a few times. And then a few times more.

The first half performance by the entire Packers team was hideous. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the game was even a bit worse than that 34-7 halftime score might suggest. Turnovers didn’t help, poor defense didn’t help, and a generally inept offense that couldn’t buy yardage certainly didn’t help--but the truth is that one beautiful touchdown aside, Green Bay looked like they could be facing a season even worse than last year’s.

Cincinnati, in contrast, was sharp and aggressive in all phases of the game. Carson Palmer appears to be back in game shape and the Bengals--who scored on all of their first half possessions--looked like a disciplined, highly capable team. It would be shocking if they didn’t come out close to the top of their division this year.

So, Pack fans, repeat after me: “It’s only preseason.”

In other football news, how the hell is Jeff George coming back to the Raiders? Not only has he sat out the last few seasons, adding George is like adding hemlock to a team that’s swimming in arsenic. As skilled as he was--and he was a hell of a player--there is a reason that Jeff George has been employed by seven football teams: he has the kind of self-righteous personality that makes TO such a distraction to his team. Chris Mortensen wrote about George’s many deficiencies years back--I don’t think the situation has changed much.

That the Raiders are digging this deep for a quarterback shows how deeply disappointed they are with their current roster and just how desperate they must be in finding someone who will fit their team’s needs. George is unlikely to be the Raiders’ starter, but with the team picking up a guy who hasn’t thrown a pass in anger in something like five years, what is the message being sent to Andrew Walter and Marques Tuiasosopo? Let’s just say that it can’t be very heartening.

To Clarify: Jeff George, after being dumped by the Redskins back on 2001, signed contracts with both Seattle and Chicago, but didn’t actually play for either team.

Update: Does the rain delay with a little more than 9 minutes left in a 41-10 game signify God’s suggestion that there be a “mercy” rule for preseason games?

Just sayin’…