Finley arrived at coach Mike McCarthy’s door, the boss was waiting for him.
“I walked in, and he said, ‘Sit down right here.’ You know how he talks,” Finley said. “He said, ‘Look at this.’”
McCarthy pushed play on his remote, and a video began.
FINLEY … THE BEAST the opening credit read, followed all six Aaron Rodgers passes that Finley caught in the Packers’ loss to the Arizona Cardinals in the 2009 NFC Wild Card Playoffs – a game in which Finley set a Packers franchise postseason record with 159 receiving yards in a 51-45 overtime defeat.
“The playoff game of ’09 against Arizona, I was attacking the ball, not letting the ball get to my body,” Finley said. “I thought it was pretty sweet that he called me up (to his office to watch that). But it was also, ‘(Expletive), what happened? Where did it go?’ I’m the same person. I just don’t know where it went, man.”
And that’s one of the things McCarthy’s video illustrated to Finley: That he’d become more of a body-catcher and stopped plucking the ball out of the air with his hands, as the best pass-catchers do.
“You go out and drop a couple when you know you can catch the ball, I mean, the next play you’re going to switch your hands up a couple times,” Finley admitted. “It’s a confidence thing, but I’ve got to get it back, get that swagger going again.”
In an effort to do that, Finley met with Rodgers last Saturday night for roughly 45 minutes at the team hotel before bed check, and vowed to do so not only this Saturday night but the night before every game the rest of the year.
While it’s incumbent on Finley to take what Rodgers says and put it to use in the game, the fact that the two are getting together regularly can’t hurt.
glad to correct you on your YOTTO problem!
