McCarthy looks ahead to Patriots

Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy spoke to the media on Wednesday following practice, as his team prepared for Sunday's game against the New England Patriots at Lambeau Field. Here are some highlights:

Injury report

Did not practice: G T.J. Lang (ankle), OLB Nick Perry (shoulder), CB Jarrett Bush (groin). Limited in practice: G Josh Sitton (toe), TE Brandon Bostick (hip).

On Perry's progress:

Nick is getting better. Went through rehab phase today. We'll see how he is tomorrow.

On Lang's progress:

Lang is further ahead than in the past, but we'll see how he is tomorrow. Workload for the week will probably be similar to maybe less than last couple of weeks.

On the Patriots' rotating running backs:

New England, schematically and personnel, do well week to week and throughout the course of the game.

On Patriots quarterback Tom Brady:

Tom Brady, excellent quarterback. The ability to stress a defense comes in a couple different ways. His command at line, cadence, awareness. He has a ton of experience. Makes every throw from the pocket.

On overcoming slow starts:

You take it one game at a time. You look at games earlier in the season. I think our team has done a good job from learning from those moments. There's some things we weren't hitting on coming out of training camp. I think that was apparent early in the season.

On having a good performance against the Patriots:

We're focused on winning. We have a great respect for them. It's important to get to nine wins. There's importance of getting to 10 wins as quickly as you can every season. It's against an excellent football team that's playing well.

On linebacker Clay Matthews, who had been slowed by a strained groin:

Clay was a full participant today. He looks good.

On the offensive line:

Playing well. Doing a lot of good things. You look at the way they finished the game in Minnesota. Pass protection has been very good.

On the hype for this game:

I think it's our business. I look at hype and drama. You have real drama and made-up drama.

On quarterback Aaron Rodgers' stretch of good games:

I'm kind of spoiled. He's played at such a high level for a number of years. To compare and rank it, I could probably do a better job of that at the end of the season. He's in a groove right now.

On the Patriots' secondary:

You stay true to the video. They're focused on personnel matchups. The past few games will tell you that. We're going to run our concepts.

On the game being one of 16:

It has to be. You get to play one game a week and it counts as one win. That's the size of it. It's an excellent football team. You look at Mr. (Robert) Kraft (the Patriots owner) and what they've done the last 15 years. He's set the standard for an NFL coach the last two decades. At the end of the day, we're focused on getting win No. 9.

On his philosophy in dealing with Green Bay media:

I don't know how to put that in words. It's clearly the best part of my day. I have one thing I stay focused on and it's not to create questions for our locker room.

On Rodgers and Brady:

I think comparable questions are tough. Stay away from them. To add to it, I guess I'd say they're both from California.