GREEN BAY, Wis. — It was a fairly humdrum atmosphere in the Green Bay Packers locker room Sunday by the time media was allowed in. The vast majority of players behaved as though their win over the New England Patriots was just another day at the office. Aaron Rodgers even began his post-game press conference by responding "not really" when asked if this particular victory was any more meaningful.

The attitude of the players was much different from that of the fans, who filed out of Lambeau Field with some of the loudest, most enthusiastic "Go Pack Go" chants heard in recent memory.

On Monday afternoon, it became clear why there wasn’t more excitement emanating from inside the locker room. That’s because, before doors were opened to reporters, head coach Mike McCarthy gave the players what seemed like the best news they’d heard all day.

"I want you to treat these next couple days like a mini bye week," McCarthy said in his post-game speech to the team, revealed in a video on the Packers official website Monday. "Get fresh, get healthy, I will see you Thursday."

As McCarthy’s voice emphasized that final word informing the team that it would be three full days before they’d be practicing, the players reacted like they’d won the lottery.

"See you Thursday," players can be heard shouting and repeating in the background.

That reception is why McCarthy wasn’t surprised that most players didn’t come across too lively in their post-game remarks.

"I just think they were mesmerized at the fact that they got an extra day off," McCarthy said in his Monday press conference. "They were speechless. Yes, hey, it was a fun locker room. . . . They were probably tired more than anything."

With Green Bay not playing again until Dec. 8 on Monday Night Football against the Atlanta Falcons, McCarthy had the luxury of being able to surprise players with the gift of rest.

"I wanted the players to have an extra day off this week," McCarthy said. "You look at years past when you plan out your schedule, we’ve played on Thanksgiving day every other year. I always like that little break right before the fourth quarter of the season, so I tried to create that a little bit with the Monday night schedule."

Allowing players to stay home Wednesday rather than practice is a privilege. There’s been a level of trust earned throughout the course of this season that made McCarthy comfortable in making this popular decision.

"This is a very consistent football team," McCarthy said. "That’s something I told them Saturday night in the team meeting. Every year, you get to a point where you feel like you have an understanding of the type of team that you have and there’s always one characteristic that jumps out more than the others.

"I think this is clearly our most consistent football team in my nine years here, just from the fact that the way they prepare, you don’t have a bunch of personalities that go up and down. It’s a very focused, disciplined group."

Consistency, focus and discipline all helped the Packers in Sunday’s game as they took a 13-0 lead in the first quarter and held on down the stretch when New England got to within two points. It was a Patriots team that had won seven consecutive games and was coming off 20-plus-point victories over Denver, Indianapolis and Detroit.

Tom Brady’s frustration boiled over on the sideline as his expletive-laden shouting was caught on camera, and New England left Lambeau Field with its first loss since September.

"It’s the way you want to go into the fourth quarter (of the season)," McCarthy said. "It’s obviously an excellent win for our football team, to go up against an excellent opponent. It’s definitely something we can build off of. We talk about stacking success all the time, and we’ve had a very good month of November. So our goal is to play better in December than November."

McCarthy can feel good about how Green Bay won a home game in which Rodgers didn’t lead the offense to more than 50 points, as had happened in its previous two outings. Instead, the Packers’ defense held what was the NFL’s highest-scoring offense to just 21 points and came up with multiple timely stops, including a third-down sack that led to a missed field-goal attempt late in the fourth quarter.

"I don’t think anything breeds confidence like success," Capers said of his defense. "I think we’ve been able to make strides during the month of November. I like the progress that we’ve made. Now the challenge for us is we know we want to be playing our best football in December. We’ve got to continue to press on and find a way to improve."

After the players enjoy their next couple days off, they’ll be back to work Thursday to try to achieve what McCarthy and Capers are setting out for them. And if Green Bay can actually be even better in December than it was in November, upcoming opponents Atlanta, Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Detroit would need to play their best game of the season to beat the Packers.

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