NEW ORLEANS — Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is familiar with Patrick Mahomes. That’s not necessarily a plus leading up to Super Bowl LIX.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has gone against a Fangio defense eight times. The Chiefs won all eight matchups.
“He’s won the chess match against me, the final score,” Fangio said this week. “We’ll see if we can come up with something,”
Fangio, like his counterpart Steve Spagnuolo of the Chiefs, is one of the great defensive coordinators in NFL history. His schemes are respected. His first NFL job was with the New Orleans Saints as a linebackers coach in 1986, and he has been an NFL coach almost every season since. But he has never won a Super Bowl.
It’s funny that the Fangio has the chance to close the one hole in his professional career, in the city where his NFL coaching career started, and it happens to come against the one quarterback he hasn’t figured out yet.
Patrick Mahomes looking forward to the chess match
This week, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was asked who were his biggest rivals were when it came to calling plays.
“This guy we’re playing this week is a pretty good defensive coordinator,” Reid said, referring to Fangio. “I feel like I can’t get rid of him.”
Many of Fangio’s experiences against Mahomes and Reid came during Fangio’s three seasons as Denver Broncos head coach. Fangio couldn’t get Denver a win over Kansas City, but it’s not like the Broncos ever had a comparable roster in that stretch.
Still, it has to matter that Mahomes hasn’t been bothered by Fangio’s defense. In the eight meetings (six against Denver, two against the Miami Dolphins including a playoff game when Fangio was defensive coordinator there), Mahomes had 10 touchdowns and two interceptions. He posted a 100 passer rating in four of those games and rating of 93.9 or better in two others.
Even though Mahomes has done well against Fangio’s defenses, he knows it’s always a challenge.
“Every time I’ve played Coach Fangio, there has been different changeups and different things that he has thrown at us and I think that’s what makes him so great,” Mahomes said. “He’s not going to just do exactly what you saw the last time. I’m sure there will be blitzes in the game, I’m sure there will be times when they play coverage. It’s going to be a chess match. You want to go up against the best and he’s one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. It’ll be a great challenge for us as an offense, and as a football team.”
Fangio will try to come up with a plan to contain Mahomes. It’s just not easy to beat him, as he well knows.
Vic Fangio’s defense has been elite
This time, Fangio has a team that can compete with Mahomes. The Eagles are 15-1 since the end of September and a big part of that is Fangio’s defense, which allowed the fewest yards in the NFL this season.
Philadelphia got off to a bit of a slow start, but it was Fangio’s first season with the Eagles and it isn’t easy to pick up his scheme. But at some point, it clicked.
“Once we picked it up, we took it and ran with it,” Eagles safety Reed Blankenship said.
The Eagles have played well against some good quarterbacks, but Mahomes is a different challenge. Fangio can try to confuse Mahomes, but he said that’s difficult.
“I think the one thing about Mahomes that gets overlooked and not appreciated because of his great talent and everything he does that’s visible to everybody, his knowledge in pre-snap processing and post-snap processing is elite,” Fangio said. “I don’t think he gets enough credit for the intelligence part of the game that he has mastered.”
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Instead, Fangio said it comes down to fundamentals. To not lose a pass rushing lane and give Mahomes an opportunity to hit a big run on a scramble. To not make any big mistakes in coverage. And he’ll presumably have some well-timed blitzes that could perhaps produce a big play.
“I’ve always said the definition of a great quarterback, which he obviously is, there is no one way to play him,” Fangio said. “So you’ve got to mix it up, because he’s tremendous and if he can settle in on what you’re doing, he’ll figure it out.”
There’s clearly a lot of respect from the 66-year-old coach to the quarterback who has already established himself as an all-time great and has the championships to prove it. Fangio has a great, talented defense and will throw everything he can to finally beat Mahomes.
“There is no secret,” Fangio said. “This is what, his seventh or eighth year as a starter? Nobody has gotten the formula to beat him one way.”
The Eagles hope this time, Fangio has the answer.
