Eagles' Vic Fangio Brought Back His 6-Man Front To Stymie Saints

The Eagles' veteran DC dipped back to his days in Chicago to deal with the New Orleans running game.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Most remember Bill Belichick putting a befuddled Sean McVay on blast with a six-man defensive front in the New England Patriots 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII.

The footnote to that is Belichick was playing copycat that February night in 2019, emulating Vic Fangio, who had just been named the head coach of the Denver Broncos about a month earlier after a very successful stint as the defensive coordinator in Chicago where he came up with the 6-1 front in December of 2018 to slow down the Rams’ outside zone rushing attack.

During an 11-1 start to the 2018 season, McVay’s high-flying Rams scored at least 30 points 10 times, topping out with a 54-spot against Kansas City with a low-water mark of 23 at Denver.

Fangio went into the lab with the Bears hosting the Rams in Week 14 and the result was a stunning 15-6 Chicago win where the mighty McVays were held to 214 total yards with only 52 on the ground.

Things went back to normal for the Rams after that with a less-than-stellar but still acceptable 23 against the Eagles and games of 31, 48, 30, and 26 en route to the big game when Belichick decided to make McVay prove he could adjust to what Fangio did.

The wunderkind coach could not and was visibly shaken after the Super Bowl.

Enter Week 3 of the 2024 season with little hope that an Eagles’ defense allowing 157.5 yards on the ground against a New Orleans team champing at the bit to get at that after averaging 185.0 yards using a zone-stretch attack and 45.5 points per game in an early season sample size. 

Here is some info on the fronts Fangio used Sunday that hadn’t been the prior 2 weeks in any significant way. These are both older diagrams but still apply. https://t.co/VJVVfP1vVn pic.twitter.com/5uOBtidCtG

— Honest NFL (@TheHonestNFL) September 24, 2024

Fangio wasn’t about to stay status quo and dug into his past for the 6-1 front, featuring two interior players in 2-technique, two more in five-technique roles, and two wide-9 edge players with mike linebacker Nakobe Dean off-ball.

In a credit to the Saints’ offensive coaching staff led by OC Klint Kubiak, the potential of the Eagles playing that front was in the game plan with quarterback  Derek Carr audibly alerting his offense with the sounds of “6-1. 6-1.” at the line of scrimmage. 

Fangio’s adjustment was disguising things by shifting into the look as late as possible and using a few surprises in the front, most notably slot corner Avonte Maddox in a wide-9 look.

The result this time was 219 total yards of offense for the Saints and only 89 on the ground at a poor 3.1 yards-per-clip.

Fangio, meanwhile, downplayed his latest conquest like it was just another day in that laboratory.

"It's a front that we'll mix in some when we feel we need it,” the Eagles DC said matter-of-factly while trying to hide in plain sight from the next copycat.

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