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Packers TE Jermichael Finley

Jermichael Finley is a subject for heavy debate among Packers fans.

When a player is under performing, it’s acceptable to be critical of him. And through nine games, Finley’s seven drops and lackluster performance were certainly deserving of criticism.

But when that same player turns in a key performance that helps his team win, credit is due.

In the Packers’ 24-20 win over the Detroit Lions, Finley enjoyed likely his best game of the year.

His three-catch performance is by no means a “breakout” game, but it’s certainly nice to see him catching the ball and making the most of his opportunities.

Finley caught all three of the passes thrown his way Sunday, and each play had a significant impact on the game’s outcome. Most notably, Finley scored the Packers’ lone first-half touchdown.

The most impressive part of Finley’s 20-yard touchdown was not the catch-and-run, but rather, the play call by head coach Mike McCarthy.

Rodgers took the snap and looked in the direction of running back James Starks for what appeared to be a screen pass. The Lions defense flooded towards Starks, while Finley snuck to the middle of the field. Finley was wide open on the play and didn’t get touched until he lunged into end zone.

For those scoring at home, yes, Finley did do his usual “YOTTO” celebration following his second touchdown of the season. And yes, it appears the “year of the takeover” is now in its third year, following its “debut” during the 2010 season.  Read more... (458 words + 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

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Sundays are rough without football, especially after how the Packers season ended.

I love Sundays, but I love Sundays more when football is on. Football makes you forget about your hangover from Saturday night and the fact that you have to go back to work on Monday. Football also makes you feel less guilty for lazing around on the couch all day, eating food that raises your cholesterol and swearing at your TV.

Now we’re stuck with the NBA, NHL, MLB and golf on Sunday for the foreseeable future. I like all of those sports, but none of them makes a Sunday like football. Those other sports are for the other six days of the week.

Sunday is for football.

To kill the time on these offseason Sundays, I’m going to publish Surviving Sunday: Packers New, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived.

It’ll be a regular notebook-style column that opens with a random thought or rant (like the one you’re reading now), followed by some quick opinions on a couple of key issues related to the Packers that I didn’t have a chance to cover with a full post during the week. From there, I’ll include links to must-read/must-see stories, videos and blog posts from the previous week and a preview of possible Packers storylines for the upcoming week. I’ll close each Surviving Sunday with a few words on a subject unrelated to the Packers.  Read more... (914 words, estimated 3:39 mins reading time)

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Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley has opened his mouth again.  At least this time, it’s nothing too controversial.

On Monday, Finley made it known he wants to “retire a Green Bay Packer,” and be a “Packer for life.”  He went on to “compliment” the city of Green Bay by saying there is nothing to do there so there is a much smaller risk of him getting into trouble.

There’s no doubt Finley has the skills of a superstar. Anyone who has watched him play agrees he is a freak of athlete, a wide receiver in the body of a tight end.   He is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.  Just his height of 6-foot-5 gives him a big advantage over an opponent’s secondary.

He’s also one of quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ favorite weapons.  All offseason, Rodgers talked about excited he was to get No. 88 back on the field and that Finley had the chance to become a truly special tight end.

So Finley wants to stay a Packer and the franchise quarterback agrees with him. That’s fine, but what do the people that truly make that decision, general manager Ted Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy, think?

No clue.  Like anything with those two, they’re holding their cards fairly close to the chest.  Some word has gotten out of talks between Finley’s agent and the Packers, but there hasn’t been anything concrete.

The question then becomes: Should the Packers bring back Finley long term?  Read more... (858 words + 1 image, estimated 3:26 mins reading time)

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"The Playmaker"

It was just a week ago that Jermichael Finley was upset about not being thrown the ball enough in the Denver game. Here were his comments:

“For sure, they took me out of the game. I don’t know what I came out with, but hopefully we can go back and dial something up for the double teams. We’ve got to have something for it. We’ll have to go back, not being selfish or nothing, but go back and dial up something so you can get your playmaker the ball in games like that when it’s close.”

From reading that quote, one would think that he was totally ignored in that game. Not having seen the game live, it’s certainly the impression that I had. But looking at the game stats told a different story. Finley had been targeted 6 times but caught only 3 for completions.

Fast forward to the Falcons game, which I did see live. Finley appeared to me to be a big part of the game plan. He was thrown to 7 times and caught 4. He did not always display the excellent hands he possesses. In fact, Finley had a particularly egregious drop at the goal line just before the second half, which cost the Packers 4 points. Here it is:

Five out of the seven times Finley was thrown to in the Atlanta game, it was on a third down. Here’s the breakdown:  Read more... (558 words + 3 images, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

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Jarius Wynn's sacked Jay Cutler twice on Sunday and earned a spot on this week's stock report.

The Green Bay Packers showed why they are the best team in the NFL on Sunday by beating the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field and improving to 3-0. The Packers were by far the more talented team on the field Sunday, and should have won by more than 10 points.

The Packers stock continues to rise, but there are still a few things the Packers need to do in order to be considered dominant:

• Put teams away. Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers finally figured out how to win close games last season. Now they need to figure out how to not make games so close.
• Improve against the pass. I don’t know if it’s possible to be a dominant defense in today’s NFL, but the Packers need to do a better job against the pass.
• More consistency in the pass rush. I’m looking at you Clay Matthews. We can talk about containment and setting the edge all we want, but Matthews needs to get in the QB’s face and bring him down. He hasn’t done that so far.

Rising  Read more... (876 words + 1 image, estimated 3:30 mins reading time)

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Award #5: Green Bay Packer Most Likely to Win Comeback Player of the Year:

(Be sure to place your vote in the poll below.)

Adam: Grant — I’ve always like Grant, even though he basically just runs straight ahead as fast as he can. The Packers offensive line took a major step forward last season, which helps Grant’s cause.

Al: I really wanted to go with an off-beat pick here, and was leaning towards Mike Neal. I really think he was on his way to establishing himself as a full-time starter before being lost for the year. Then I was considering Grant, but with McCarthy’s token commitment to the running game and 3 options at RB, I don’t see Grant getting enough snaps. However, there’s one guy at a skill position that is sure to have more of an impact on the team if he stays healthy – TGIFinley. It can be nobody else.

Chad: When I started looking for a “comeback player” for 2011, I had to find someone who is a great player, had a drop in production the past year or two, and is in a position to return to his former glory next season. First and foremost, it’s a testament to the coaching staff and front office that I couldn’t find any players whose decreased performance wasn’t due to injury. So that left me with guys like Jermichael Finley, Donald Driver, and Ryan Grant who could fit the category. Of these three, I’d put my money on Jermichael Finley. He was on pace to have over 1,000 yards receiving before his injury last year, and you can bet he’ll be coming back strong in 2011. He’s just too good of a player to be a disappointment.  Read more... (583 words + 3 images, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

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When Jermichael Finley found out the final bad news about his knee injury suffered in the week five game against the Redskins, he turned to twitter to let Packers fans know that, “YOTTO has been rescheduled for the 2011-2012 Green Bay Packer Season.”

Of course, whether Finley likes it or not, the Packers’ “Year Of The TakeOver” continued on just fine without him in 2010. In fact, it continued on just fine without more than a dozen Packer players lost for the season. I’m still amazed by that…

But getting back to Jermichael Finley, he’s talking about his knee again, but this time it’s all good. Back on April 22, Finley tweeted, “Today was the first time since Week 5 that I caught a ball & ran routes. An my my my I look good.” (never one afraid to kiss the mirror is Finley…)

Yesterday, just 20 days later, Finley let Packer Nation know, “I just thought to myself that its May & this knee feels brand new already. smh. This what my Pack Fans been waiting 4 huh.”

So here we are in this spring of much discontent in the world of the NFL, and the Packers’ star tight end is obviously healthy and chomping at the bit to get a piece of that championship feeling. Sadly, at a time when Finley could be running routes on Ray Nitschke field and we would all be hanging on every tweet about how good Finley looks in OTAs, we have nothing.  Read more... (413 words + 3 images, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

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