Green Bay Packers getting ready for busy stretch after bye

GREEN BAY -- The Green Bay Packers missed out on playing the first weekend of October.

Yet, after taking their bye week in early fashion, they will be busy in a month that has propelled them to big things in recent years.

Green Bay begins a stretch of three games in 12 days when it hosts the New York Giants on Sunday night.

Thankfully for the Packers (2-1), they will stay at home for all of those games. Green Bay has won 10 in a row at Lambeau Field in October, last dropping a home game in the 10th month on the calendar in 2010.

And, thanks to getting a full week off after playing only three games, the Packers should be close to fully loaded when they go against an injury-ravaged Giants team that is playing on a short week and traveling back to the Midwest.

"I'm not going to sit here and say that a (Week 4) bye is the best, but it is what it is," veteran right tackle Bryan Bulaga said Wednesday. "We got through it. We have to go straight through here (for the rest of the season), but (it's) one week at a time. That's really the way you've got to look at it.

"For the guys who were nicked up a little bit, that was a great time for it. They were able to rest up, get treatment, get healthy and get back out here."

The Packers are hopeful to get some key defensive players back Sunday. Outside linebacker Clay Matthews, nose tackle Letroy Guion and strong safety Morgan Burnett missed the pre-bye win over the Detroit Lions on Sept. 25 because of injury.

Top cornerback Sam Shields is likely to miss a third straight game because of a concussion, and veteran tight end Jared Cook is sidelined indefinitely because of a severe ankle sprain.

Still, the Packers are in good shape to start racking up victories and push the unbeaten Minnesota Vikings atop the NFC North.

Following Sunday's game, the Packers host the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 16 and then close an unusual four-game home stand that started before the bye week when they play the rival Chicago Bears in a Thursday night game Oct. 20.

The well-rested players aren't concerned about having to play too much football in less than two weeks.

"I think coach (Mike McCarthy) does a good job of giving us time, whether it's starting late on a Monday or obviously Tuesday is our off day or tailoring it back on Wednesday," defensive back Micah Hyde said. "Our Thursday night games, he usually gives us, if we play well and we win, we get the weekend off. So, that kind of feels like a mini-bye."

The Packers aren't taking Sunday's matchup with the short-handed and potentially fatigued Giants (2-2), who lost 24-10 at Minnesota on Monday night, for granted, however.

"I think it's different on a Sunday to Thursday game than it is on a Monday night to a Sunday night," Bulaga said. "I think they'll be fresh and ready to go. I don't really look at it as an advantage (for us) or disadvantage (for them). They're going to be ready to go."