Tag: Vic Fangio

Vic Fangio didn’t want to point a finger at any one player for the third-quarter Chicago Bears touchdown Monday night that put the Eagles in a two-score hole during their eventual 27-7 defeat, but he did take the blame for the overall effort.

“I thought our guys were ready to play mentally and physically,” Fangio said Wednesday. “Our details were off a little bit, especially when they were throwing it quick, so that’s on me. Didn’t have them ready to execute better.”

The Eagles weren’t beat up on the ground the way they were vs. Chicago in Week 13 last season, but they didn’t have enough answers to limit 38-year-old third-string quarterback Case Keenum from causing damage in the passing game. The Bears dialed up quick throws and used play action to their advantage, as Keenum threw for 247 yards and two touchdowns while running in for another.

Keenum’s 41-yard touchdown throw to Kalif Raymond was a backbreaker. Raymond was open in the middle of the field with no Eagles defender within 10 yards of him. Cooper DeJean followed Luther Burden III, who motioned to Raymond’s side of the field where Riq Woolen was also lined up. DeJean stayed with Burden and Woolen did not cover Raymond.

“It was between Cooper and Riq, had a miscommunication on that,” Fangio said.

The coordinator said the fix is correcting it and to “make sure they understand it, which we thought they did,” he said. “That wasn’t an uncommon motion from that team.” Asked what was supposed to happen on the play, Fangio said: “Well, those two guys have to sort it out. I’m not going to point blame.”

DeJean and Zack Baun both mentioned communication being an issue in the locker room after Monday’s game. Asked if there were overarching issues there, Fangio said he thought the players were just talking about that specific play.

But shortly after Fangio spoke in the auditorium at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, DeJean talked to reporters at his locker stall and elaborated a bit.

“I would say our biggest thing right now is there’s not enough talking on the field — between everybody, myself included,” DeJean said. “To the corners, to the safeties, linebackers, everybody just needs to communicate a little bit more so we’re all on the same page. We made too many mistakes that were unforced that shouldn’t happen, that are easy things that we’ve repped many times.

“In this defense, communication is key. There’s a lot of moving parts.”

Safety rotation will continue

The Eagles will continue the rotation they used at safety on Monday night, Fangio said Wednesday.

Marcus Epps started the game at safety in the non-base packages next to Andrew Mukuba, but he appeared to be benched after the first Chicago drive for Michael Carter II. Fangio said the plan was to rotate the players, which they did in practice last week.

“Those two guys are still going to man it,” Fangio said.

Is there any rhyme or reason to who is out there and when?

“We’re just kind of rotating them,” Fangio said. “It’s not so much situationally as it is rotating them.”

The goal, Fangio said, would be for one player to emerge as the obvious starter.

There’s a new body in the defensive backfield in Kenny Moore II, who was signed to the active roster from the practice squad on Tuesday. Moore has primarily been a nickel corner throughout his long NFL career, but the Eagles could try him at safety.

“He’s a down the line possibility maybe,” Fangio said. “He’s really never played safety in his career so that’ll be some heavy lifting for him.”

Fangio did reiterate that there’s no current plan to move DeJean to safety full time.

Zack Baun’s concussion highlights Wednesday injury report

The first injury report of the week had a bit of news Wednesday night.

The Eagles held a walkthrough on Wednesday that was not open to media. Had they held a regular practice, Baun would have missed it because he is in the concussion protocol. Baun was not on the field for the final Bears drive, but spoke in the locker room after the game.

The full injury report from Wednesday is below:

Did not participate

• LB Zack Baun (concussion)
• WR Hollywood Brown (ankle)
• TE Dallas Goedert (knee)
• T Fred Johnson (knee)
• RB Will Shipley (foot)
• WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring)

Limited participant

• LB Jihaad Campbell (knee)
• DT Jordan Davis (calf)
• DT Moro Ojomo (calf/elbow)

Full participant

• RB Tank Bigsby (abdomen)
• DT Jalen Carter (wrist)
• WR Darius Cooper (knee)
• OLB Jonathan Greenard (pectoral)
• DT Byron Young (toe)

Jalen Carter’s injury is a hairline fracture

Carter’s wrist injury is a hairline fracture, sources told The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane. Carter has been able to play through the injury with a cast on his right hand, but the injury and having to wear the cast may be limiting his effectiveness.

“Well, it’s a negative,” Fangio said. “There’s no way it can’t be, but to be honest with you, he’s done better than I thought he would with it.”

CHICAGO — The Eagles defense on Monday allowed 375 total yards to a Bears offense led by third-string quarterback Case Keenum, who last started a game 1,009 days ago.

Some of the blame can be placed on the Eagles’ safeties.

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio had a curious game plan for safeties Marcus Epps and Michael Carter II in the team’s 27-7 loss. It appeared that Epps — who has struggled this season — was benched for Carter on the second drive of the game, but he returned just five plays later. This was the start of a rotation that even left Epps confused after the game.

“I don’t really know,” Epps said when asked about the rotation. “Yeah, I mean, we kind of just go back and forth in practice. However, the coaches want to call it, that’s how they call it. And [we’ll] do whatever the coaches of the team ask us to do.”

In fairness to Fangio, Epps should have seen a demotion coming. The 30-year-old veteran had three missed tackles in Week 2, which prompted questions about his starting status, and then missed two tackles on the opening drive vs. Chicago. Epps spoke about this unprompted on Monday.

“You just got to tackle better,” Epps said. “We got to work on it in practice. So we got to take it upon ourselves to get better and continue to grow in that aspect.”

It wasn’t just the tackles. The rotation clearly led to communication issues in the defensive backfield, with Keenum, 38, routinely attacking the safeties downfield. On Chicago’s second scoring drive, Keenum connected with Luther Burden III for a 25-yard gain (with safety Andrew Mukuba in coverage), then hit Rome Odunze for a 22-yard gain (with Epps in coverage) one play later.

Epps and Mukuba were also at the center of two Bears touchdowns. Burden dragged a gaggle of Eagles defenders, Epps included, on Chicago’s opening drive touchdown. Mukuba slipped while in coverage late in the third quarter, which led to Kalif Raymond’s 41-yard score.

Keenum’s final stat line: 24 of 34 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns.

“It was an over route,” Mukuba said when asked about Raymond’s touchdown. “I was in a post [coverage] and I got broke whenever the ball was thrown.”

So, what’s the solution? Fangio said last week that he wouldn’t move Cooper DeJean — who starts at safety in place of Epps in base defense — to safety full-time. Perhaps he considers that after a showing like this.

If not, he could turn to 31-year-old defensive back Kenny Moore, a nine-year veteran whom the Eagles signed to the practice squad last week. Moore spent nine seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and primarily played nickel cornerback, but he does have safety experience.

One thing is certain: After Monday’s mess, the Eagles have to consider doing something different at safety.

CHICAGO — A year from now, maybe two, when Case Keenum is done playing and looks back at a Monday night to remember, in the twilight of his football career, when he played an NFL game for the first time in three years and led a blowout Bears win over the Eagles, what will be the lasting image?

The Eagles allowed him a highlight reel worth of them in a 27-7 defeat. Multiple plays have a case.

Will it be the flip pass to Luther Burden III to cap off a brilliant opening script? Burden bounced off three Eagles defenders, and then, with the help of a few linemen, was carried across the goal line. Maybe it will be Kalif Raymond with no Eagles defender within 10 yards of him over the middle of the field on his way to a 41-yard touchdown reception. Maybe it’s the sucker sneak Keenum ran in from a yard out to give the game its final scoring play — the finishing touches on an offensive game plan from Bears coach Ben Johnson that made suckers of those who pegged Vic Fangio’s defense as one of the league’s best entering the season.

Less than a year ago, Johnson’s Bears bullied the Eagles on the ground for 281 yards. On Monday night, a 38-year-old Keenum carved them up through the air for 247 yards while completing more than 70% of his passes.

“We just got beat, straight up,” said pass rusher Jonathan Greenard, who made his Eagles debut. “They had a hell of a game plan, came out of the gates slinging. We just weren’t on our P’s and Q’s, obviously the worst time to not be on your P’s and Q’s on Monday night primetime, but it is what it is, they came in with a good game plan and executed.”

The Eagles didn’t, and issues that have plagued the unit early in the season continued Monday night. Their safeties are struggling. They are missing too many tackles. They pressured Keenum just 10 times. Their vaunted interior front hasn’t been overwhelming. They still haven’t forced a turnover. They are, as Cooper DeJean said, not communicating well enough.

Johnson’s offense offers what Jihaad Campbell called “a variety pack of boots, receiver jets, screens, play actions” that can cause chaos and communication errors. On Raymond’s 41-yard score in the third quarter that upped Chicago’s lead to 20-7, DeJean followed a motioning Burden across the formation prior to the snap. But the Eagles then had DeJean and Riq Woolen both covering Burden while Raymond ran a crossing route over the middle of the field. Raymond then beat safety Andrew Mukuba in a foot race to the pylon.

DeJean said the play was a “miscommunication” but did not elaborate.

“We just got to get on the same page,” he said.

Linebacker Zack Baun had a similar takeaway. The Eagles, he said, did a much better job stopping the run than they did the last time they played the Bears. Chicago averaged 3.7 yards per carry compared to 6.0 last season. But stopping the run, Baun said, came with a price.

“When you do a good job of stopping the run, you bring your safeties down and it’s harder to read run-pass for the safeties and linebackers, and they got us on those play actions,” he said.

“As a defense, it just comes down to being on the same page.”

It is a worrying issue for a defense that entered 2026 with high expectations based in part on its continuity. Core players have been playing in Fangio’s system for more than two seasons. But communication issues and poor tackling have been a big part of a sloppy start.

DeJean said tackling after last week’s performance in Tennessee was a “big emphasis” for the Eagles in the lead-up to Monday night. The Eagles were credited with nine missed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus, after missing a dozen last week. Campbell said: “It’s as simple as it is, we got to get the guy down.”

It is one of the many issues Greenard said the Eagles need to clean up.

“We just got to wrap, man,” he said. “Wrap up. Fundamentals. I think that’s a want-to thing. Tackling is just a want-to thing. Wrapping up and driving legs. They had a lot of leaky yardage. We make contact and they gain an extra three or four yards. You go from potentially a second-and-8 to second-and-6. Those two yards matter. We know that.”

They also know that it’s early, and they’re still 2-1. But tougher challenges are ahead beginning Sunday when they host the Los Angeles Rams on a short week.

At one point in the locker room late Monday night, Jalyx Hunt turned to Baun and said: “Group film session when we get back?”

Baun planned to get a head start.

“I’m going to watch this tape on the flight back and I know I’m going to see some really, really good things that we did,” he said. “I thought we did a good job on the run. That was a big point of emphasis for us, especially with what happened last year against them.

“But then there’s other things that I know are going to be really bad. It comes down to communication, whether that’s hearing the call, playing the right thing, knowing the assignment. Those are the things we got to get better at.”