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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Kellen Moore

There is one coaching vacancy left in the NFL and it seems like Kellen Moore is the favorite to land the Saints gig. Good for him if that happens. Assistant coaches all dream of getting a chance to be the head man. Moore has done a good job with the Cowboys, Chargers and Eagles so he might get his chance next week.

Kellen Moore is in the driver’s seat for the Saints head coaching job after a great in-person interview Monday night. He will be in the Saints facilities as the designated home team next week, but NO can’t contact him and nothing can be official until after the Super Bowl.

— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) January 29, 2025

Losing Moore certainly isn’t ideal for the Eagles. There are some critics who would like to see him go. I certainly get that. The offense has been odd this year. The passing game hasn’t been nearly as smooth and productive as it should have been. It feels like the Eagles should be better than they are on offense.

I don’t think enough people appreciate what a complicated situation the Eagles have. Nick Sirianni has an offensive background and will always have his say in the offense. Jeff Stoutland is in charge of the run game. Kevin Patullo is going to be involved in the passing game.

There is also the Jalen Hurts factor. You have to build the offense around his skill set. You also have to listen to what he wants. Hurts has strong ideas on what he wants to do and that affects the OC’s play-calling.

The offensive coordinator doesn’t have the freedom to run his system, his way. He’s got restraints. The OC has to be able to fit his ideas into what is already in place. Go watch the Dallas offense from a few years back and then watch the Eagles. Those game tapes aren’t going to be the same.

Moore just called his best game of the year in the NFC championship game. He called passing plays that gave Hurts quick reads and allowed him to get the ball to Dallas Goedert and AJ Brown. Moore mixed in the jet sweep to DeVonta Smith. Motion was used effectively.

They finally used this motion for a purpose. This is called DD (Deuce Deuce) in the Reid world, which is a numbers game screen, with Dragon backside as the 1-High beater (if you don’t have a numbers advantage, it’s likely because they’re in a 1 High structure). All the QB is… pic.twitter.com/c632fIstgy

— Honest NFL (@TheHonestNFL) January 28, 2025

Moore shocked us all with two handoffs to Goedert. Those were great calls. DG is a good runner so why not find another way to get the ball in his hands. Moore was able to be creative and aggressive within the framework of the offense.

The other thing that has made this year so challenging is Saquon Barkley. He’s been so good as a runner that the Eagles don’t have to throw the ball. They were dead last in the league in passing attempts this season. Moore has done a good job with calling the right run plays to help Barkley post his insane numbers. Stoutland comes up with creative runs that stress a defense and Moore has called the right play at the right time more than once as you can see by all the long runs.

If Moore sticks around, I think he and the others will be able to get on the same page and develop this offense into something better than what we saw this year.

If he leaves, that means Hurts will have to adjust to a new OC again. In the last seven years, he has had 6 different OCs. Shane Steichen was the only guy to repeat. When did Hurts play his best football? In his second year with Steichen. It would be interesting to see Hurts and Moore get a chance to grow together.

I’m not going to get into potential replacement targets for Moore. We don’t know if he’s going to get the job or not. The Saints have had a hard time getting top candidates to show interest in the opening, which is never a good sign.

Will Moore’s situation affect the team heading into the Super Bowl? We know the Jonathan Gannon situation certainly didn’t help two years ago. I’m sure Sirianni and the team learned from that so this should be more of a minor distraction than a huge factor.

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Speaking of the Super Bowl…

Good morning. The Eagles will practice today, tomorrow and Saturday in South Philly before flying to New Orleans on Sunday for Super Bowl LIX.

This is an important few days of practice and install before the craziness of Super Bowl week.

— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) January 30, 2025

The Eagles have a lot to get ready for. The Chiefs have a complex defense that loves to blitz. They caught Buffalo off guard in the most critical moment of the game. The Eagles have to prepare for all kinds of looks and blitzes.

Andy Reid threw some new plays out on the field last Sunday so Vic Fangio has to prepare for what he’s seen and then try to have his guys ready for the unexpected. The extra practices will help a lot.

Health is a big question for the Eagles right now. They put out an estimate yesterday and it wasn’t great. That might be a case of them trying to play mind games with KC on who is good and who isn’t. We’ll get a better feel for the practice reports that come out over the next few days when the Eagles are actually practicing and the players need to be on the field.

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In case you missed it, here are my notes on Day 2 from the Senior Bowl.

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