A Different Beast

The Eagles made the Super Bowl in 2022 with a dynamic offense and a defense that led the league in sacks and fewest passing yards allowed. The defense was second in total yards allowed. Those guys were good, but the numbers need a bit of context.

The schedule wasn’t exactly full of great QBs. Here are some of the guys the Eagles beat that year.

Carson Wentz
Cooper Rush
Kenny Pickett
Davis Mills
Matt Ryan
Ryan Tannehill
Daniel Jones
Davis Webb

Wentz, Ryan and Tannehill were good starters in the past, but not in 2022. That is half the season playing below average QBs. Some of them were backups.

Let’s take a look at what happened when the Eagles played a talented QB or at least a quality veteran. You can see the results and the points allowed by the Eagles defense.

The Eagles were 8th in points allowed in 2022. They got lit up by some good QBs. Jonathan Gannon wasn’t a great defensive coordinator. He had enough dudes that his defense could bully mediocre or bad players, but they struggled with good QBs.

If you think back to 2021 when the Eagles didn’t have guys like CJGJ, Haason Reddick, and James Bradberry, the Eagles really struggled to stop good QBs. Derek Carr went 31-34 for 323 yards on them. Justin Herbert went 32-38 for 356 yards. Tom Brady was 29-37 for 271 yards in the playoff loss. Gannon’s bend but don’t break scheme both bent and broke that year. When the talent improved, so did the results. But Gannon still struggled against good players.

Vic Fangio is a whole other story. He is a great defensive coordinator. He has a ton of experience. And he has some dudes playing for him.

There are three bad games. Cooper DeJean wasn’t starting in two of them. In the third game, CJGJ got ejected. When Fangio has had all of his guys, they have shut people down or limited them in a big way. You can see a real difference in the two seasons.

The Eagles allowed the fewest yards in the league this year (278.4 per game). The 2022 defense allowed 301.5 per game. That is a serious difference.

Fangio has faced three good QBs in the postseason. Jordan Love, Matt Stafford and Jayden Daniels are all high quality passers who have won playoff games and put up big numbers in the postseason. The Eagles beat all three and limited them to 23 points or less.

Under Gannon the Eagles struggled to beat good QBs. Facing a guy like Mahomes in the game of the year was a scary proposition. Fangio has taken the defense to the next level. The Eagles have answers for good QBs. That doesn’t guarantee they will beat Mahomes, but they won’t lose 38-35. If the defense just could have made one key stop in the last Super Bowl, the Eagles win. But they couldn’t.

Fangio’s defense has played in some close games. They couldn’t come up with key stops in the loss to Atlanta or Washington, but they did that in plenty of other games. The defense was huge at the end of the Rams game.

#Eagles ran 11 stunts yesterday (2nd-highest total of the season, they ran 12 vs #Rams earlier this year), including a handful of T/T twists with both DTs looping inside

Watch Jalen Carter play ‘cat and mouse’ with the center here on 3rd and 4th down to seal the victory pic.twitter.com/pWLjh6sqvV

— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) January 20, 2025

This defense is much better prepared to get the key stop that could be the difference in the game. Mahomes isn’t a guy who is lighting people up this year. The Chiefs only scored 30 or more points three times in 19 games, and one of those went to OT. To be fair, they have had a lot of injures on the offensive side of the ball. Mahomes hasn’t had ideal circumstances. That’s why they’ve had to win so many one-score games.

When you’re in those games, one play can make all the difference in the world. Buffalo couldn’t make that play last week, on offense or defense. Mahomes did make those plays and the Chiefs won.

Look at the top QBs the Eagles have beaten over the past two years.

Matt Stafford (three times)
Tua Tagovailoa
Dak Prescott
Patrick Mahomes
Josh Allen
Jordan Love (twice)
Joe Burrow
Jayden Daniels (twice)
Lamar Jackson

I covered both years because Sean Desai was running a version of Fangio’s scheme and had Jalen Carter to work with. Having a guy like Carter on the inside affects even the best QBs.

We know Andy Reid will come up with some new wrinkles and creative plays to try to get the best of Fangio. We also know Fangio does a great job of having his guys prepared and adjusting within games.

Beating Mahomes and Chiefs in the biggest game of the year won’t be easy, but this defense has the talent and the coaching to get the job done.

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