BEAUMONT — The improvements in Lamar’s defense are obvious in terms of results.

Since the Cardinals’ off week, they have not let a team total 400 yards of offense or score more than 14 points. The complete opposite occurred in their first three games.

“In the bye week we had a chance to do old school banging and tackling,” first-year defensive coordinator Trey Haverty said. “We’re going to continue to do that early in the weeks.”

The recent victories over Southeastern Louisiana and Abilene Christian have been pleasing to senior defensive end Koby Couron of Nederland.

“Really, we just practiced a lot and we were missing fits,” Couron said. “We changed from a 3-4 to a 4-2-5, and there’s a lot of different stuff you have to learn. The linebackers early got to see how stuff is supposed to fit. So, we just worked on ourselves.”

In the past two games, senior cornerback Brendan Langley intercepted four passes, three of them against a SELA team that went on to defeat defending Southland Conference champion McNeese State. Lamar (2-3, 2-1 Southland) has also continued to lead the conference in passing defense, holding the opposition to 173.2 yards per game through the air.

Yet, the defense, in its first season under Trey Haverty, is still what Lamar head coach Ray Woodard called a work in progress. Lamar has not been as fortunate at limiting teams in the rushing game, ranking dead last at 262.4 yards allowed.

“We still need to get better at stopping the run,” Woodard said. “We still need to get better at stopping the run. We’re pretty good pass defenders. When we get up on people, I think that plays to when teams have to throw the ball on us. If we can stay ahead and take teams out of running the ball, obviously we’ll be a better rush defense. I think that kind of goes together.”

If any run game has helped the Cardinals defensively, it’s been their own. Lamar owned the ball for more than 38 minutes at Abilene Christian last Saturday.

That’s more than fine with Couron.

“The front seven is a big deal, but when the offense moves the ball along, we get that rest,” he said. “It’s easy to play when we rush, but they’ve been helping us a lot by keeping us off the field.”

The Cardinals changed from the 3-4 set under now-retired Craig McGallion to the 4-2-5 under Haverty during the offseason, and it was plenty for many of the Cardinals to take in.

Not Couron. He played in that set at Nederland High.

“I really had to adjust to a 3-4 when I came in [to Lamar],” said Couron, one of 10 three-year lettermen on the roster. “When we went to a 4-2-5, I was like, ‘I already know how to do this.’”

There’s plenty of improvement for Lamar’s defense, Haverty said, as the Cards try to win three straight games for the first time since relaunching the football program in 2010 — and beat Northwestern State for the first time since then.

“You just got to be accountable,” Haverty said. “Every play you call up, every guy’s got to do their job. It all goes together, run fits and the pass game. That’s the biggest deal, is to get guys to understand, you’re not going to make a tackle every single play. Your job may be to make a guy bounce a certain way, but if we play good defense, it’s got to be accountability.”

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews