Arrowhead Pride
Kansas City and Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio are very familiar with each other at this point.
In Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles for a championship for the second time in three seasons. Two years ago, the Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII. Philadelphia then defeated Kansas City 21-17 during the teams’ last meeting in the 2023 regular season.
In Tuesday’s team media conference, quarterback Patrick Mahomes discussed what previous meetings with the Eagles taught him.
“You take a couple things,” he explained, “just because there’s a lot of the same players. Obviously, they have new players, but [they have] a lot of the same players and a lot of the same coaches, but you have to learn from what they’ve done this season, obviously. So, you look at the tape, you get what you can from that, and then you move on to what they’ve done this season.”
When assessing the defensive additions since the Chiefs last saw the Eagles, Mahomes noted the youth that has been added.
“I think they lost some great players as far as the older guys,” said the quarterback, “but they’ve gained a lot of other younger guys as well. The young guys that were in the game, they’ve gotten even better, so it’s going to be a great football team, and we know that, and it’s going to take our best football to try to find a way to get a win. They’re going to be hungry, and they’re going to go out there, and it’ll be a great game for everybody to watch.”
Mahomes is very familiar with Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
Fangio was the head coach of the Denver Broncos from 2019-21 — and Mahomes and the Chiefs were victorious in all six meetings during the tenure. Fangio was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins last season — with the Chiefs getting the best of his unit both in an international regular season game in Germany and in a generationally cold Wild Card matchup.
Fangio was also a consultant for the Eagles for Super Bowl LVII.
Mahomes knows the challenge ahead with this Philadelphia defense.
“They’re talented,” he observed, “at all three levels: the line, linebackers, and secondary, and they know how to play well together. That’s what makes Fangio’s defenses so great is that everybody has a part, and they have to do their job in order for everybody to have success. That’s what they do, and when they’re asked to play man, they play man well. If they play zone, they make sure to be in the right spots at the right time, so, it’ll be a great challenge.
“You’ve got to be patient, and when those opportunities come, you’ve got to go out there and execute on them because there will only be a few of them in the game.”
Although Mahomes has a career 8-0 record against Fangio as either a head coach...
