Green Bay's Still Experimental Defense Shows Improvements in Week 3

Despite a 7-19 score during the Green Bay Packers' loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, their defense made some significant strides relative to their first two matches of the season. Their yards-per-carry defensively has steadily dropped.

Beginning in Seattle with a 5.6 yard-per-carry mark, it dropped to 3.9 yards against the New York Jets last week. On Sunday, the mark dropped to three yards flat, which would have been ranked in the top third of the league entering the weekend.

The running game wasn't the only aspect that improved, though. Overall, the defense allowed fewer touchdowns and created more turnovers than it was projected to. Coming into the game, the Packers had two turnovers for the 2014 season. Against Detroit alone, the squad notched three.

Those three turnovers were crucial. The first turnover on the game was a tipped pass turned interception to Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, the rookie safety. Since late in the 2012 season, no safety had came down with an interception for the team.

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The safety interception drought ends!

— Brian Carriveau (@BrianCarriveau) September 21, 2014"

The second and third turnovers came with the Detroit Lions driving. Davon House, a cornerback who's seeing more play in 2014 than ever before, caught an overthrown pass by Matthew Stafford in the end zone, killing his attempt to score some points.

House has become the Packers' third cornerback, bumping starting cornerback Tramon Williams into the slot during nickel looks. Previously to the season, it was assumed that Casey Hayward would simply play slot cornerback in the nickel.

The final takeaway Green Bay had came from recent rival Julius Peppers. Coming to Green Bay in free agency by way of the Chicago Bears, the former North Carolina Tarheel had a sack-fumble on Stafford. Creating and recovering in the red zone, he potentially could have taken points off the board by himself with the effort on that single play.

There were several reasons that Green Bay's defense looked better this week. Dom Capers started the game off with a 3-4 look, what he's historically ran, as opposed to the 4-3, which was used heavily in the first two weeks. As mentioned last week, Clay Matthews, one of Green Bay's premier defenders, was limited in a 4-3 scheme.

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Clay Matthews, a four-time Pro Bowl 3-4 outside linebacker who had received a $66 million extension in 2013, would be removed from a feature pass-rushing role.

Only a handful of 4-3 defensive ends played at a high level at his size, meaning he'd likely move to a "true" linebacker spot. The issue of relieving emphasis on unproven players becomes a different conversation when you're also effecting the cornerstone of the defense.

In the original defense Matthews had played in Green Bay, he was able to move around more. He was able to come at a quarterback with his ears pinned back from different angles. That's where he wins on a football field.

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Allowed to roam free, Matthews' impact on the game was increased. Instead of dropping into coverage, he became part of the pass rush, which had a combined seven hits on Stafford by halftime. The 3-4 had set the tone, and it wasn't going away against the Lions.

Moving from an even front to an odd front wasn't Capers' only drastic change; he also started throwing out interesting looks like safety/slotback Micah Hyde lining up at linebacker.

While Packer fans wanted to throw Dom Capers out after starting the first two weeks of the season averaging 30 points defensively, he's proved to at least attempt to adapt, and he's shown improvement, if not success, doing it. Dom Capers hasn't quit on the 2014 defense.

If Green Bay's defense really has improved, then why did the Packers lose the game? Well, the most logical explanation is the offensive side of the ball. The Green and Gold only allowed one touchdown defensively yet handily lost the time-of-possession battle.

There are opposite theories about the time-of-possession battle, but one thing's clear: You don't want to wear out your defense. Green Bay did just that on Sunday, keeping its defense on the field for nearly two-thirds of the game.

During the final drives, players started to fall out. Breakout cornerback Davon House was being worked on, while linebacker Jamari Lattimore, in for injured starter Brad Jones, was in the locker room.

Pass-rusher Clay Matthews was on the sideline with a groin injury with the man usually lined up across him, Julius Peppers, taking a breather. At the end of the match, the defense was beat up, but any defense would be if it played that much extra time on the field.

Green Bay's defense was beat up because the Packers offense couldn't hold on to the ball.

Green Bay's defense is still experimental, throwing out different looks to attempt to combat its shortcomings. The defense is also still young and improving marginally from week-to-week. None of those things is great, but one thing is Green Bay's defense hasn't quit. It hasn't given up in 2014 and shouldn't be treated as so. The great ones don't quit.