GREEN BAY, Wis. — Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers is coming up with different ways to get his assortment of playmaking outside linebackers on the field.

After establishing a rotation of starters Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers along with Mike Neal and Nick Perry early in the season, Capers pushed the envelope further Sunday in Green Bay’s 38-17 win over the Carolina Panthers.

The veteran defensive coach debuted a package that featured all four of them on the field at the same time — what Capers and coach Mike McCarthy call a “NASCAR formation” for the speedy havoc they wreak. Capers used that package five times on passing downs.

“We’re always trying to seek things where we can get our best athletes on the field or guys who we feel can generate the most pressure,” Capers said Monday.

The revved-up new look played into Capers’ aggressive game plan against Cam Newton. The Packers went into the game focused on containing the mobile Newton in the pocket and limiting how often he pulled the football down and ran with it.

Thanks in great part to Green Bay’s high-flying offense scoring touchdowns on its first three possessions to build a 21-0 lead late in the first quarter, the Packers didn’t have to deal with Newton trying to run much.

Instead, the defense forced him into an erratic passing line of 17-of-31 for 205 yards and one touchdown, with one interception and three sacks. Peppers added to his productive start to his first season with Green Bay by getting to Newton for 1 1/2 sacks.

Peppers shared one sack with Matthews. Perry had the first sack, doing so as the left end in the NASCAR package.

“We’ve sort of gravitated to certain calls you’d like to run your games with four outside linebacker/elephant-type guys on the field,” Capers said. “It worked well for us yesterday.”

–Packers rookie tight end Richard Rodgers summed up the day as “special.”

With more than a dozen family members in attendance, including his paternal grandmother on her birthday, Rodgers and his father, Richard Sr., were on opposite sidelines for the three hours of the game. Yet, a couple hours before kickoff, the young Rodgers and his dad spent time on the famed Lambeau turf talking and tossing a football to one another. The elder Rodgers is Carolina’s special teams coordinator.

The young Rodgers stopped short of likening the pregame experience to the father-son scene of playing catch on the Iowa cornfield-turned-baseball diamond in the hit movie “Field of Dreams.”

“But, yeah, it was fun,” Rodgers Jr. said. “It was just a good experience to be out there with him.”

About the only thing missing for Rodgers, a third-round draft pick by the Packers, was getting his first touchdown catch as a pro in front of his dad. That almost happened late in the third quarter, but Aaron Rodgers overthrew an open Richard Rodgers in the end zone.

“I’m going to be thinking about the one to Richard there for a while — disappointed about that,” Aaron Rodgers said. It was one of only three incomplete passes for Rodgers, who went 19-of-22 for 255 yards and three touchdowns with a near-perfect passer rating of 154.5 before leaving after three quarters.

“I really wanted to get him a touchdown playing against his dad on the other side and just to get Richard his first touchdown,” Aaron Rodgers said. “The ball kind of came out good and missed him by a couple yards.”

Richard Rodgers caught up with his father again on the field after the game and presented his game jersey to his him. “It’s probably the only time I’ll get to play against him. Maybe not, but if it is, then obviously that’s a special moment for him and for me,” Rodgers Jr. said. “He’s going to probably frame it, and we’ll have it forever.”