Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Getting Better

Posted December 22nd, 2025 | 4 Comments »

We overuse the word great. This team is great. That player is great. Jimmy Bama’s article is great. Most of the time we mean good or really good. Great is something special. Vic Fangio is a great defensive coordinator. Truly great.

Coming into the season I hoped the defense might be a Top 10 unit, but wasn’t sure. They lost a lot of talent in the offseason.

Josh Sweat
Milton Williams
Brandon Graham
Oren Burks
CJ Gardner-Johnson
Darius Slay
Isaiah Gardner

That group alone is the foundation of a pretty good defense. Losing all those guys and replacing them with rookies and role players made for some challenges. Last season the Eagles defense took a month to go from solid to juggernaut. This season it took a bit longer. After 15 games the defense is one of the best in the league.

3rd in points allowed
12th in yards allowed
1st in TD passes allowed
1st in opponent completion percentage
2nd in opponent passer rating
2nd in 4th down defense
4th in red zone defense
5th in defensive EPA

Those are impressive numbers when you think about the difficulty of the schedule this year. The Eagles have shut down some star QBs and really good offenses.

It took a while for this group to come together. Part of this was due to youth. You had rookie Drew Mukuba playing a key role. He had some struggles early on that led to blown coverages and big plays. Rookie Jihaad Campbell was starting because Nakobe Dean was working his way back from injury. Jalyx Hunt had to adjust to having a bigger role on defense.

There were also some key players to replace. CB2 was a question mark. The replacements for Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham weren’t as productive as hoped. Remember when Za’Darius Smith retired out of the blue? Milton Williams left in free agency. Moro Ojomo was ready to replace him, but did have adjust to becoming a key player and occasional starter.

Injuries are a problem for all 32 teams. The Eagles defense had their share. Nolan Smith got hurt and missed five weeks. Jalen Carter hasn’t been 100 percent for most of the year. Adoree Jackson missed a couple of games. Marcus Epps spent time on IR.

Vic Fangio got the most out of his unit. The Eagles were winning, even if the stats weren’t good. Over time the defense started to improve. The young guys got better and cut down on mistakes. Adoree Jackson started playing like the CB they expected. The front office traded for Jaelan Phillips. They talked Brandon Graham into coming back. Nolan Smith returned from IR. The defense of December looks a lot better than the group from September.

This group is becoming quite a juggernaut. If the offense does a better job of sustaining drives, this team is going to be dangerous in the playoffs. As we saw in the Bears game, the defense can’t shut people down forever. The offense has to do their part. When there is balance, the defense makes life challenging for opponents.

Fangio has been masterful this year. When his pass rush wasn’t good enough, he blitzed more. He played more man coverage for part of the year. He had Quinyon Mitchell travel with the best receiver for a while. Fangio has been patient with his players when they needed it. He never gave up on Adoree Jackson. He gave Mukuba time to learn. It took a while for Hunt to become consistently disruptive.

Phillips came to town in a trade and Fangio used him right away. Phillips was an instant impact player. BG has played more DT in recent weeks and has 3 sacks in the past two games. Fangio had to deal with the absence of Carter, his best defensive player.

I’m sure Fangio would credit DL coach Clint Hurtt and the players, but I think the old man deserves credit for knowing how/when to use his guys. He has done a good job of building their confidence while also being tough on them. Jordan Davis has gone from underachiever to possible Pro Bowl player. Davis doesn’t get there without tough love from Uncle Vic.

Fangio is special because he understands players and schemes. Think about the vision he had for Zack Baun. He took a role player edge rusher and turned him into an All Pro LB. Cooper DeJean was an outside CB at Iowa. Some thought he might be best at safety. Fangio put Coop in the slot and he’s become an elite player. As for scheme, he’s brilliant at taking simple ideas and getting his players to execute them at a high level.

Eagles fans don’t need to look any further than Jonathan Gannon. His scheme and ideas were based on Fangio’s philosophy. The problem is that Gannon wasn’t able to disguise coverages so QBs had a lot of success when the pass rush didn’t get home. Fangio gets his guys to do creative things and cover at a high level.

The Eagles have had some of the best defensive minds in NFL history running their defense. Buddy Ryan, Bud Carson and Jim Johnson are all legends. Fangio deserves to be mentioned right there with those guys.

I’m curious to see how this defense will do in the postseason. They might be peaking at that point. If so, that will be bad news for anyone they go up against.

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Consistency

Posted December 21st, 2025 | 4 Comments »

The Eagles have made the playoffs in all five of Nick Sirianni’s seasons as coach. They have won three division titles in the past four years. They have been to a pair of Super Bowls and won it all last season. Sirianni can be frustrating for a variety of reasons, but the man wins. Don’t ever overlook that.

Winning in the NFL is hard. The Chiefs have been on an amazing run, but are going to miss the playoffs this year. The Ravens and Lions are both alive, but barely. All three were seen as Super Bowl contenders back in the summer. Injuries have hurt all three teams, but they have also underachieved. Those teams have star QBs and veteran coaches.

Todd Bowles had Tampa at 6-2 this season. They lost on Sunday to fall to 7-8. Going into halftime a reporter asked Bowles if the Bucs gameplan was too conservative since they were trailing 13-10 and hadn’t thrown many passes. He said no. He pointed out that Tampa was winning the time of possession battle and the scoreboard would reflect that eventually. Huh? That is some serious 1985 football strategy. This is 2025. That’s coaching malpractice.

Dan Quinn did an amazing job of turning Washington into a winner last year. They went 12-5 and reached the NFC title game after having gone seven straight  seasons without a winning record. The Commanders thought they had an elite QB and really strong nucleus. They decided to focus on winning now and traded picks for veteran players. This season has been an abject failure for Quinn and his team.

The Commanders are 4-11. They have the oldest team in the league and lack the resources to add the kind of young talent that roster needs. I thought Quinn’s comments after the game were odd.

He and his team feel disrespected by the Eagles going for 2 late in the game. So now Washington is going to be really fired up for the rematch. Is this Ray Rhodes? One of Sirianni’s strengths is that he preaches for his team to live in the moment. They don’t play harder in the Super Bowl than Week 4. One of the ways you reach the SB is by playing hard every week and focusing on that team. Coaches who try to get their teams up for big games are inadvertently sending the message that you don’t have to get up for every game. You want consistent effort and performance.

Think about Dallas. They were 3-5-1 at midseason. They had a lot of issues, especially on defense. Jerry Jones traded for LB Logan Wilson and DT Quinnen Williams. They signed DE Jadeveon Clowney. A couple of key defenders came off IR. Suddenly the dreadful defense was mediocre, even solid at times. Dallas won three straight games to get to 6-5-1. The media fell in love with them. It sure felt like Jerry Jones and Brian Schottenheimer started to believe the team was legit.

Oops. Dallas lost three straight games to fall to 6-8-1. The defense allowed 37 points a game in that stretch. I don’t think Jones and Schotty (as Kirk Herbstreit annoyingly calls him) realized they had some luck in their win streak. They believed the team was different. Part of being a good organization is being honest with yourself. Dallas struggles with that and it is a big reason they haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 1995.

I think Cowboys fans have heard that speech before.

Being a consistent football team doesn’t mean there won’t be ups and downs. Any time human beings are involved, there are going to be inconsistencies. The key is to limit those and to be consistent overall. Sirianni always preaches process over results. A lot of coaches struggle with that mentality. They live and die with results. Sirianni’s messaging has worked well overall, especially the last four years.

I don’t know how this season will end. The Eagles could be the #2 seed and make a Super Bowl run. They could be the #3 seed and lose in the opening round. This has been a wild season around the league and the Eagles are an odd team. I am thankful that Sirianni was able to deal with some ups and downs and still get his team to win the division. They have killed off the comparisons to the 2023 team.

Any time you have Vic Fangio running the defense and a star-studded offense, I think you have the potential to be a problem in January. It also helps to have that Sirianni guy running the show. His teams win.

*****

This is great news. There will be some debate about whether those guys should play. As long as the #2 seed is on the table, you play to win. I want those guys out there. The game is at Buffalo, a tough place to win. The Eagles will need every bit of talent they can muster.

Depending on how things go, the Eagles may be resting players in Week 18.

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