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The trick is having right playersfor Packers defense

MILWAUKEE — A Sports Illustrated story on the 3-4 defense quoted John Madden as saying, “Ultimately, it comes down to who your people are. If your fourth linebacker is better than your fourth lineman, then the 3-4 is better for you.”

Except that the article was published on Oct. 17, 1977, when the broadcaster identified by this generation as the guy on the video-game box was coaching the Oakland Raiders.

Oh, Madden had people, all right.

Ends Otis Sistrunk from the University of Mars and John Matuszak from the somewhat less exotic Oak Creek flanked nose tackle Dave Rowe. Behind them were Phil Villapiano, Monte Johnson, Willie Hall and that maddest of storks, Ted Hendricks.

And that’s not to mention one of the great secondaries of all time. With such players, Madden and the Raiders won Super Bowl XI with the 3-4 that had been introduced to the NFL a few years before by New England coach Chuck Fairbanks.

This goes to a couple of things as the Green Bay Packers begin conversion to a hybrid version of the 3-4 with their new defensive coordinator, Dom Capers.

It goes to Ecclesiastes, where it’s written that nothing is new. Believe it where it applies to defense. Rearrange the pieces like the Raiders and Patriots three decades ago, but it doesn’t matter unless someone is put on the ground.

And it goes to Dirty Harry (or was it Lindy Infante?), who once said that a man’s got to know his limitations.

Like some accomplished assistants, Capers was once a head coach. He brought a very good and confident Carolina team into Lambeau Field for the 1996 NFC Championship Game before things started getting sideways with the Panthers. He later took on another expansion gig in Houston, where he never got it going.

Yet as we’ve seen lately with all the comings and goings of the hot assistant du jour, not everyone has the organizational, foresight and big-picture skills to be a head coach. But as assistants, they’re dynamite. Accordingly, Capers, regardless of where he ranked on Mike McCarthy’s selection board, will upgrade a Green Bay defense—that, face it, can’t get much worse—if Ted Thompson can get him the right players to fit the system.

Sometimes, people get too hung up on names. Actually, what the Packers had to get was someone who can command practice-field attention, teach fundamentals and put players in positions to succeed. Capers has done that.

And sometimes, people get too hung up on schemes. Got to be the 4-3. No, the 3-4. Doesn’t matter. It could be the 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 as long as players make plays.

However the Packers arrange their front henceforth, something had to change. And you’ll know it’s working when running backs are no longer being tackled 12 yards downfield by safeties and the PA guy is calling A.J. Hawk’s name more than once a game.

Point being in the cyclical, highly derivative NFL, the 3-4 has come back around because teams like Pittsburgh are having success with it. What’s required are the proper assistants to motivate the grunts who will take a beating so that the outside people may be freed to greet the quarterback.

Well, that and players who can actually tackle.

So the pressure remains squarely on Thompson and McCarthy. Capers should be fine as long as he rents, doesn’t send out his dry cleaning and, in reviving a ’70s defense, doesn’t hang a disco ball in the locker room.

Michael Hunt is a sports columnist for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.