In "NASCAR," Capers went without any traditional defensive linemen in what was a dime (six defensive back) secondary alignment. Instead, he lined up Matthews and Peppers -- his starting outside linebackers -- as defensive tackles on the interior of the line and flanked them with Nick Perry and Mike Neal as outside linebackers.

"It gets all four of our elephant types on the field at the same time," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "Yeah, it's been very productive."

Capers used it only in third-down situations. The first five times he employed "NASCAR" on Sunday, the Packers came up with third-down stops on four of them, including Perry's sack of Cam Newton on third-and-5 to end the Panthers' second series. Carolina converted just 4-of-12 third downs.

Rob Demovsky  wrote:

I suggested putting all four on the field at the same time 🙂 Though I was thinking the two former NFL DL (Peppers and Neal) would be on the inside but what ever works [happy]

Originally Posted by: beast 

Dom Capers and his NASCAR defense are the toast of Packernation today, and indications are the acquisition of Julius Peppers in the offseason made it possible.

“He gives you great diversity. He can rush, he can drop. Clay (Matthews) has always been able to do that. Julius gives us another guy,” Capers said when asked on Monday if Peppers has been the difference maker on a defense that is showing more schematic creativity.

This sort of reminds me of the "Psycho" package we ran in 2010 to win the superbowl with Cullen Jenkins as the solo DLineman.

Originally Posted by: stevegb