Vic Fangio channels Matt Patricia’s worst moments in disastrous Eagles home debut

Monday night’s late collapse was reminiscent of the second half of 2023.

The Eagles should have paid Haason Reddick.

The good news? It’s not too late. (Make the call, Howie.)

If you were expecting to see a different Eagles defense than the one that fell apart over the second half of the 2023 season, Monday night’s infuriating 22-21 come-from-ahead loss to the Falcons does not leave you encouraged.

Everything you’re about to read should absolutely be taken with the caveat that we are only two games into a 17-game, 18-week NFL season. As last year’s Eagles showed us, what you see early is not necessarily what you’re going to see months down the road. There is a new defensive coordinator calling plays from the press box, a lot of new players running around on the field, and one of the youngest defensive rosters the team has put on the field in many years.

That being said, the pass rush has been utterly inept, they can’t stop the run, and haven’t been generating turnovers. After a number of key red zone stops early, the supposed bend-but-don’t-break defense shattered into a thousand pieces on the inexplicably easy game-winning Atlanta drive.

Last year, the Sean Desai/Matt Patricia-led defense was one of the worst we’ve ever seen. No one knew what their assignments were, the pass rush disappeared over the final 10 games of the season, and late blown leads became their calling card.

In Week 15, the defense was asked to protect a 17-13 lead in Seattle on Monday Night Football, with back-up Drew Lock starting on his own 8-yard line, 1:52 to go and just one time out. Lock went 92 yards in 10 plays in just 1:24 to put Seattle in front 20-17.

Two weeks later, Kyler Murray and the Cardinals had the ball on their own 30 with just over two minutes left and two timeouts, trailing 31-28. Murray marched them right down the field in front of a hostile Lincoln Financial Field crowd for the go-ahead TD with just :32 seconds remaining.

Last night was worse, of course.

Much of the conversation following Monday night’s epic meltdown will focus on Nick Sirianni’s game management, and that is valid. His inconsistencies in terms of aggression and passivity are mystifying for a coach of his experience and lack of other actual coaching duties, but at the end of the day, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s defense was given a six-point lead with 70 yards to defend against a middling Falcons offense with no timeouts and just 1:39 left in which to score a touchdown.

Since Sirianni became head coach in 2021, the Eagles have tried to run the Vic Fangio, bend-but-don’t-break defense with guys from his coaching tree. Jonathan Gannon had success, mostly due to the otherworldly pass rush generated by the ‘22 defensive line, while Desai and whatever it was Patricia was doing last year was an abomination.

Fangio, the architect, was brought aboard to run the defense the right way, but after his secondary stifled Jordan Love in Week 1 in Brazil, they were bad once again against Atlanta. Over the first two weeks, they look a whole lot like last year’s group.

Kirk Cousins entered the game a wounded animal. In the wake of his Achilles surgery last year, he simply cannot move. Last week, Pittsburgh pressured him 12 times. Any kind of pressure by the defensive line would have put the Atlanta offense on ice, and yet, Cousins was sacked just once, for eight yards. Even worse, on the final drive, he had all day to throw as Fangio continued to rush just four on every play.

Shouldn’t the front four be able to get to a statue like, Cousins? Absolutely. But when it became clear they couldn’t, shouldn’t something else have been dialed up?

Eagles fans are still waiting for the investments made along the defensive line to pay off. Jalen Carter was the talk of camp this summer but, through two games, he’s barely made it onto the stat sheet. Jordan Davis is invisible, which is difficult for a man of his size. Nolan Smith had one solo tackle last night, otherwise he’d have been shut out, too.

And then there’s Huff, the young edge rusher who received a three-year, $51 million contract to replace Reddick along the defensive line this summer.

That’s not ideal.

The Eagles also need more from their superstar corner Darius Slay, who got torched on Drake London’s game-winning TD. Slay admitted he messed up after the game, which is commendable, but it still can’t happen.

Let’s also not overlook the Eagles’ porous run defense, which has been gashed each of the last two weeks against two admittedly good backs. Against Josh Jacobs and Bijan Robinson, Fangio’s group has given up 315 yards on the ground, 8th-most in the league. The departure of Fletcher Cox certainly hurts, but isn’t Jordan Davis supposed to be a run-stopping phenom?

Howie Roseman entered the season depending on his high-profile and much-lauded defensive draft picks to produce. They continue to underachieve.

Some fans will look at the fact the defense only gave up 22 points on Monday night and say they were fine, but bear in mind the Eagles dominated time of possession 35:39-24:21. In the second half, Atlanta had just THREE possessions. They scored on all of them. The only reason Atlanta didn’t score more is because of Jalen Hurts and the offense’s ball-control offense. Fangio’s group did not force a single three-and-out, and only made Cousins & Co. punt twice.

One of the craziest numbers from Monday night’s debacle was this — the Falcons generated 22 first downs, but only three of them came on 3rd or 4th downs. In other words, for 19 of Atlanta’s 22 first downs, they didn’t even NEED a third down in order to get it.

With one of the youngest rosters in the NFL, it’s possible this unit just needs more time to gel. But they better do it quickly, as the hottest offense in the league, David Carr’s Saints, await them for a suddenly difficult match-up on Sunday in New Orleans.

Fangio has just six days to figure some stuff out or it’s going to be an awfully rough week in The Big Easy.