Feeling the sting of an opening day loss in which his unit made too many mistakes to contend with a top-tier team like the San Francisco 49ers, Dom Capers had a choice to make.

The Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator could either stick with the veterans who had won their positions through training camp competition and underperformed against the 49ers, or he could roll the dice with a bunch of rookies.

He had roughly 24 hours to make a decision because the Packers played four days later against the Chicago Bears.

What Capers did is a testament to his ability to be honest with himself.

He very well could have convinced himself to give cornerback Jarrett Bush and safety M.D. Jennings one more chance before making a switch. He could have very well waited another week before crafting significant roles for rookies Casey Hayward, Jerron McMillian, Dezman Moses and Mike Daniels.

But he didn't.

And as a result, the Packers played their best defensive game since holding the Minnesota Vikings to 7 points and 266 yards in Week 10 of last season.

Capers' defense cut the Bears at the knees with seven sacks and four interceptions in a 23-10 victory at Lambeau Field Thursday night.

Six rookies - Hayward, McMillian, Moses, Daniels, Nick Perry and Jerel Worthy - played integral parts in a game the Packers couldn't afford to lose. It takes some guts to make that call.

It's clear that defensive coordinator Dom Capers is going to use a heavy dose of rookies this year to pump his defense. He made the gutsy move of incorporating six of them into his game plan against Chicago and it paid off with seven sacks and four interceptions.

The addition of Jerron McMillian at nickel safety and Casey Hayward as dime cornerback were two of the best moves. Both outperformed the previous starters, veterans Jarrett Bush and M.D. Jennings. McMillian is a better athlete than Jennings and Hayward is more of a natural pass defender than Bush.

SI  wrote: