Vic Fangio Says We Shouldn't Expect Sacks and Pressures Until the Eagles' Run Defense Improves
Vic Fangio did his midweek press conference on Thursday. He gives short answers and doesn’t reveal much, but sometimes the bluntness results in interesting responses, like this one:
I wanted to ask you specifically about the three Georgia guys: DT Jalen Carter, DT Jordan Davis, and OLB Nolan Smith. We kind of look at them together because they’re all first-round picks from the same school, they’re friends. That group, their production hasn’t been, I assume, what they were hoping for, what you were hoping for. What have you seen from those three guys as they work through your scheme? (Reuben Frank)
VIC FANGIO: Yeah, I think when you talk production, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re talking sacks and pressures and stuff, and until we do a better job of playing the run, those aren’t coming. That’s for sure.
We all have to do a better job, starting with me, of playing the run better.
The Eagles have the worst run defense in the league after two games. They’re giving up almost six and a half yards per carry and 157.5 rushing yards per game. Fangio noted earlier in his press conference that the Eagles are running a lot of five-DB nickel sets because teams are showing them three receivers, so guys like Josh Jacobs and Bijan Robinson have been able to run against relatively light boxes.
To Fangio’s point above, until the Birds stop the run, they’re not going to put themselves in 2nd and long or 3rd and long, or any obvious passing situation. The Falcons finished with almost a 50/50 run-pass split on Monday night, even after Kirk Cousins threw the ball exclusively on the final drive. Green Bay’s split was more of a 60/40 in favor of passing, but they averaged 7.8 on the ground when they did hand it off.
Fangio was also asked about Bryce Huff, the $51 million dollar man who didn’t register a statistic on Monday night and therefore didn’t appear in the box score:
“He’s still learning how to play the total game and not just rush situations. But he’s working hard at it, and we’re going to stick with him.”
They paid a lot for a pass rush specialist. Hopefully they can turn a corner in New Orleans, because if not, it could get ugly.