• Finley, Finley and More Finley

Leading up to the season-opening matchup with the Bears, the buzz building around second year tight end Jermichael Finley had gotten completely out of control (perhaps with a slight assist from your faithful blogger). The Sunday night matchup ended up being a complete washout for Finley due to the Packers' inability to protect Aaron Rodgers for anything more than a three step drop (and even that was an adventure). This led to Finley being used as a blocker on the edge against Adewale Ogunleye. As most of you will remember, Finley used his new assignment to take out a bunch of frustration on the defensive end:

Of course, a lot has changed since opening weekend, most notably the return of Mark Tauscher to the starting right tackle position, the emergence of T.J. Lang, and the relegation of Alan Barbre to the bench. All these developments are positive and will enable Finley to do what he should have been doing in the opener.

Namely, dominating the suspect safeties of the Chicago Bears.

We saw it last week against the Ravens, we saw it three months ago against the Vikings and we'll see it again this Sunday. To put it simply, the Bears don't have a player on their roster, let alone in their defensive secondary, who can matchup against Finley. The only hope they would have in slowing him down would be to assign Lance Briggs to shadow him, which is unlikely to happen, unless Lovie Smith is looking to completely junk his favorite Tampa-2 coverage. Somehow, I don't see that happening.

And Smith's adherance to his beloved Tampa-2 will only open MORE avenues for Rodgers to get Finley the ball, as the Bears are presently using Hunter Hillenmyer at MLB, the position charged with running down the middle in coverage. I'll take Finley cutting through the heart of the Bears' Tampa-2 with Hillenmyer in coverage all day and, yes, twice on Sundays. And when they start to pack the middle? Easy - McCarthy splits him out wide:

Big game for Finley Sunday. Big. Game.