Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy made himself very clear Wednesday.

 "I don't want to talk about the bye week," McCarthy said after answering a few questions about the final game before Green Bay's "open week."

 MCarthy says any chatter that looks past this week's contest with the 4-4 Cardinals results in a loss of focus.

 "I think we have made the mistake of maybe looking forward to the bye week in the past," said McCarthy.  We're not going to make that mistake this week.  We're pouring everything we've got into this game."

 It's hard to find what McCarthy is referring to.  His record in games going into bye weeks in Green Bay is 4-2.  The two losses have come to teams with a combined 11-3 record at the time.  While the thought may not be based on factually truth over the last few years, players say they understand where their head coach is coming from.  layers say they understand where their head coach is coming from."

 "This is a big game," said tackle Bryan Bulaga.  "From our standpoint to finish half way through the season at 6-3 is going to be huge.  Then after the bye week we have a lot of division games."

 For Green Bay, five of the last seven games after the bye week are NFC North battles.

 The Packers also know this same Arizona team that's lost four in a row, also started the season 4-0.

 "This is a good football team, not far off from starting the year off 4-0," said quarterback Aaron Rodgers Wednesday.  (There is) A lot of pride, a lot of veteran leadership over there.  At this point of the season you start thinking about where you want to be at in December.  If they want to be where we want to be, this is an important game for both teams."

 Of course there are always other incentives to play well heading into the break in the schedule.

 "He (McCarthy) definitely has our focus on the Cardinals because he threw us a little bone if we win, we kind of get a little bit of extra time off," said wide receiver James Jones.

 Just don't let McCarthy hear you talk about the bye week.