{image1}Despite the general proximity of their home stadiums and overlap in fan affiliations, any relation between the University of Wisconsin's defense and that of the Green Bay Packers is purely coincidental.

While UW has yet to allow an opponent to score more than seven points in any one game, the Packers allowed Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts to score 35 in the first half Sunday on the way to a humbling 45-31 defeat. At least Brett Favre's preseason proclamation of "Super Bowl or bust" is proving to be halfway correct.

Because of the weak defensive outing, the Packers now sit precisely where they were last year after three games: 1-2. Needless to say, this wasn't part of Mike Sherman's master plan, especially after Green Bay won its road opener against Carolina in impressive fashion.

It now appears, however that the Carolina win masked a lot of ills. While the Packers held the NFC champs to just 14 points, they needed some help to do so. Brad Hoover coughed up a ball deep in his own territory while the game was still close after halftime, and Steve Smith juggled an easy catch that Nick Barnett ended up intercepting to kill a probable scoring drive. Those two plays and an onslaught of blitzes against a very mediocre offensive line gave Bob Slowik's defensive unit an over-inflated sense of accomplishment.

That was evident last week in Green Bay. Yes, Ahman Green's fumble probably decided the game, but while things were still competitive at 14-3, the Packers allowed Chicago to drive 79 yards in six plays -- five rushes by Thomas Jones and one completion to him -- to open the second half. The drive gave Chicago a 21-3 lead and forced Green Bay to abandon what until then had been an effective rushing attack. Game over.

This week was even worse. Tony Dungy and his coaching staff completely out-foxed Mike Sherman's brain trust. Indy passed on its first 22 snaps of the game and scored four touchdowns in the game's opening 17 minutes. But Slowik failed to employ the team's dime package consistently until the third quarter, by which time the Packers were down by 18.

The Colts had gotten deep into Green Bay's defensive psyche by then. Afterward, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning said the Colts had an aggressive game plan of passing to set up the run, "but it took us a while to set up the run." Indeed.

To Slowik and the defense's credit, halftime adjustments helped hold the Colts in check over the last two quarters. Indy didn't get into the end zone until the final two minutes of the game -- and only after Javon Walker's fumble gave them the ball at Green Bay's 36.

Of course, the Colts were also nursing a double-digit lead throughout most of the second half. While Indy ran 22 plays, all passes, in the first quarter, the Colts ran the ball on 18 of their 27 plays in the second half (not including penalties and the final kneel-down).

It all added up to 45 points and 453 total yards of offense. The sad part is the Packers wasted 31 points and 457 offensive yards of their own.

Defensively speaking, it's not time to panic. But we now know a couple things we only suspected during the preseason.

First, you can't blitz your problems away, not with this secondary. Piecemeal offensive lines like Carolina's are susceptible to linebacker, corner and safety blitzes, but if you bring the wood against guys like Peyton Manning, you had better get him. Otherwise, the result is long TD passes like the ones he threw on Sunday. While the Packers blitzed less against the Colts, they also generated zero pass rush with the front four, barely pressuring Manning all day.

Second, the defense is not deep. With nose tackles Grady Jackson and James Lee out, the Packers not only have no interior pass rush, they also can't stop the run. Thomas Jones showed that by shredding the Pack for 152 yards in Week 2, although Edgerrin James -- in a supporting role -- was held to 62 Sunday.

More importantly, injuries to corners (Mike McKenzie and Ahmad Carroll did not play in Indianapolis) leave the Packers dangerously thin in the secondary. That's pretty evident when Reggie Wayne (11 catches, 184 yards) goes Terrell Owens on you without them. And the fact that a healthy Joey Thomas sat while free agent corner Jason Horton took his licks all afternoon is another bad sign for the defensive backs.

But there is some good news in all of this. Randy Moss doesn't appear on the schedule until mid-November. I'm guessing Sherman and Slowik are at least thankful for that.