Commanders OC Explain Secret Sauce To A Vic Fangio Defense

The key to the highly-regarded Eagles' defense isn't the scheme, it's Vic Fangio's teaching skills.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - A week after lighting up the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury figures to have a much more difficult task in Philadelphia for the NFC Championship Game.

Instead of Aaron Glenn’s banged-up Lions unit who spent most of the season without superstar edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, Kingsbury and the Commanders will be trying to deal with Vic Fangio’s top-ranked Eagles defense.

Kingsbury was asked about the stylistic difference between Glenn’s ultra-aggressive style and Fangio’s more tempered zone-heavy approach.

“Both [are] great defensive minds,” Kingsbury said. “Vic's had one of the top defenses of the league. I think the thing that jumps out to me with him the most is just, I've never coached with him, but has to be an incredible teacher because whoever they plug in there, they play consistently. 

"They don't give up the big play. And everybody knows, they're spacing on defense as good as anybody I've ever gone against.”

Kingsbury is just the latest well-regarded NFL offensive mind to verbalize that Fangio’s defenses are the most difficult to deal with joining a group that includes Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Kevin O’Connell and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.

However, Kingsbury is one of the few who seems to have tapped into the sentiment that Fangio’s teaching ability is the secret sauce not the actual mechanics of the scheme which have been copied many times over the years. 

“They know where to be,” Kingsbury said of the Eagles’ defenders. “They know the drops, they know the depths of their drops. And so, [Fangio is] a challenge because you're not going to get any free ones. You're not going to get those big 80-yarders that they just busted coverage. 

“You're going to have to earn every deal and he's going to change up the looks on you.”

MORE NFL: Former Eagles' Coach Is One Of The Architects Of Jayden Daniels' Historic Season