A Rare Misfire By Eagles’ Vic Fangio?

PHILADELPHIA - There was a lot not to like in an ugly Black Friday loss to Chicago, and some of it was tied to an uncharacteristically poor performance by the Eagles' defense, which allowed an unacceptable 281 yards on the ground.

That was by far the worst performance stopping the run in the Vic Fangio era in Philadelphia, and a lot of it can be chalked up to poor performances by a host of top-level defenders that likely will not carry over moving forward.

“Biggest issues were, one, [the Bears] run the ball very well,” the Eagles’ defensive coordinator said. “I didn't do a good enough job of preparing our squad for the quality and the diversity of their run game. We didn't play the run and the blocks the way we had been playing.”

Problematic Injury

Defensive tackle Jalen Carter had one of his worst performances of the season, on a day the other interior defensive linemen also didn’t deliver to their usual standard.

Clarity to Carter's step back came Thursday when it was revealed that the star DT underwent a procedure earlier in the week on both of his shoulders which have been an issue since training camp. Carter is expected to miss Week 14 at the Chargers and be week to week from there.

The poor play on the interior up front against the Bears impacted the linebackers as well, with Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean each struggling, with Chicago's physical blockers getting to the second level.

Mixed into that was Fangio not being able to get talented first-round rookie Jihaad Campbell on the field despite a season-high 87 snaps of defense.

That’s the first time that the Alabama product didn’t get on the field at all.

“Probably should have gotten him in there for a few [reps]. That'd be my fault there,” Fangio said. “But, obviously with the run game, the way it was happening, that's been a strength of the [LB] Nakobe’s [Dean]. We wanted to leave him in there.”

Admittedly, Dean is typically a better run defender and a far more instinctive linebacker. Against the Bears, however, of the 15 defenders who played, Dean was credited with two missed tackles and given the worst run support grade on the defense (a dismal 29.6), other than backup defensive tackle Byron Young.

Over 118 run defense snaps through the season, Dean is also graded as the worst Eagles’ run defender with over 100 run support snaps this season.

Campbell, despite his perception as an athlete more than a cerebral LB, is No. 2 in 201 run-support snaps.

Perhaps it’s time to stop relying on reputation, an idea that would serve many areas of the Eagles right now.

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