Bad playing, bad coaching, and what comes next: Eagles DC Vic Fangio assesses damage from Sunday’s loss

Vic Fangio stated the obvious when assessing the damage from Sunday’s defeat Tuesday: “Their pass offense was better than our pass defense,” the Eagles defensive coordinator said.

Tampa’s Baker Mayfield looked like the analyst in the Fox broadcast booth, Tom Brady, as he carved up the Eagles’ secondary with short, quick passes that exploited soft coverage. Mayfield, who was 30-for-47 for 347 yards, got the ball out, on average, in just 2.22 seconds. And even in the rare occasions when the Eagles were playing tight enough, they missed tackles and allowed the Buccaneers to gain extra yards.

“We weren’t close enough,” Fangio said. “We played a lot more man in those first three series than we usually do. Or we were in some tight matchup zones. We just didn’t play it good enough.

“They came out throwing real fast, real quick, and we weren’t tight enough. We fell behind the chains because of that and it just kind of snowballed. We couldn’t make the play to get them to second-and-10 or third-and-10. It just never happened.”

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Speaking of Brady, it was brought to Fangio’s attention Tuesday that the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback said during the broadcast that Fangio wasn’t comfortable playing in press coverage right now. Fangio disagreed.

“Our guys, particularly the corners, have the ability to press based on formation,” he said. “If they’re stacking receivers and stuff it’s hard to press then. On normal splits, they have the ability to press in almost all our calls.”

Why didn’t that happen?

“We tried to communicate that early, that we had to get tighter,” Fangio said. “But credit to them, they caught it better than we defended it.” Asked whether it was a coaching error or a player error, Fangio said it was “probably me not coaching it well enough.”

What’s the fix?

“Coach it better,” he said. “Do a better job during the week and then understanding that sometimes teams come out in different stuff, different tact than what you saw going into the game and we got to adjust.”

There are a lot of adjustments to make, and Fangio and the rest of the staff are spending the bye week reviewing what’s gone wrong in the Eagles’ uneven 2-2 start. Fangio’s defense appeared to be turning the corner during the Week 3 win in New Orleans, but Sunday’s showing was a major setback. The Bucs rendered the Eagles’ already listless pass rush useless. They exposed flaws in the Eagles’ scheme and targeted players who haven’t played well enough thus far.

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The sample size isn’t large, but the Eagles are giving up the fourth-most yards per game (365.8). The Eagles are among just four teams with six or fewer sacks. Getting a little more analytical, 65% of their defensive series feature a first down, a number topped by just seven other defenses in the NFL.

The lack of sticky coverage was one thing Sunday, but the missed tackles were even more worrisome for the Eagles. Next Gen Stats dinged the Eagles for 16 missed tackles, though Fangio said the staff counted 15.

“A lot of times we left our feet too early,” Fangio said. “Sometimes we didn’t wrap up well enough.”

It’s back to the drawing board this week. Head coach Nick Sirianni said the staff would evaluate the drills the team is doing in practice. Fangio said they will also emphasize the tackling problem through film study and coaching better technique.

Safety Reed Blankenship played 36 snaps Sunday — nearly half of the team’s defensive snaps — before being removed due to an illness. It was assumed that the illness was heat-related, but Fangio said Blankenship entered the game not feeling well, a matter he said wasn’t brought to his attention until Blankenship exited the game.

“They said he woke up sick that day,” Fangio said. “I think with some food poisoning, I’m not positive of that. But yeah, I was not aware of that.”

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The Bucs found a lot of success in the slot Sunday. One of their targets: Avonte Maddox, the Eagles’ slot corner who was thrown at a team-high eight times and surrendered five catches for 55 yards, according to Pro Football Focus. Maddox also missed an open tackle in space on a short throw to Chris Godwin, diving at the receiver’s feet as he easily evaded the tackle.

Maddox ranks 20th on the team in PFF’s run defense grading and 11th in pass coverage. Maddox was seemingly brought back to be a depth piece, not to be the starting slot corner. But with rookie second-round pick Cooper DeJean injured for most of training camp, it’s a spot Maddox won and a spot where Fangio has apparently felt comfortable having a veteran presence.

How much longer will that be the case?

“Cooper is closing in on being ready where we’ll just at some point put him out there,” Fangio said. “But Avonte has played fine in some areas and obviously he’s had some plays that he’d like to have back like all of us, including me.”

Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay heard Isaiah Rodgers’ curious explanation to why he pushed a Bucs player into his own punt returner, DeJean, and Clay said he took it “to heart.”

“I know he started by saying he’s been playing gunner a lot in this league,” Clay said. “If he’s talking from a gunner’s perspective, he’s a thousand percent correct. You can push the defender into the returner without causing a penalty. Where I probably failed him and the team is I didn’t differentiate when we talk gunner work and vise work what we want, obviously. If he has confusion on that, it falls on me as a coach.”

Safety Sydney Brown’s 21-day practice window is likely to open out of the bye.

“That has been the timeline over the last few months and I haven’t been told anything different,” Fangio said.

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Brown underwent surgery eight months ago to repair a torn ACL and started the season on the physically unable to perform list. It’s unclear where Brown, a 2023 third-round pick, will fit into the Eagles’ defense. He lined up in various spots last season.

“We all have to have some patience, which I know isn’t a big virtue amongst any of us at this time of year,” Fangio said. “The guy hasn’t played any football since his injury. … His OTAs and training camp are going to have to be squished together fast, which he is ready to do, mentally and emotionally, but we have to be careful ourselves to not overdo it with him from a physical standpoint and an expectation standpoint.”