Three Coverage Concepts That Helped Win the Super Bowl
Eagles defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, put on a masterclass in coverage usage behind a dominant front four. The Chiefs, and Mahomes, had no answers.
Most pundits and fans will look to the Eagles’ front four, which dominated the Chiefs’ offensive line, as the sole factor in Philly's shutting down of KC’s offense. To an extent, that is true. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio bet his defense could play the Chiefs’ game better than they could, and it paid off in a big way.
For the past several years, the Chiefs offense has shrunk. The long bombs and explosive plays before 2020 began to disappear. Andy Reid and Mahomes shifted their offensive focus after 2021, when the KC offense had arguably their worst seasonal output together. From ‘22 to ‘24, Mahomes’ average throw dropped from 8.1 to 6.8 this past season.
In part, because of the Chiefs’ offense, NFL defenses shifted away from man coverage and leaned more into zone, creating a blanket on top of exploding offensive numbers. Instead of looking downfield, Kansas City doubled down on passing into the lower zones, creating one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL, throwing into space underneath zone coverage. In a world where being a ‘Checkdown Charlie’ is seen as a label of disgrace, Kansas City doubled down on the philosophy of ‘take what the defense gives you.’
Kansas City still took shots, but they were often well-timed or when the defense made a critical error, voided a deep zone, or gave KC an advantage in man coverage. For the most part, defenses have played Mahomes with a two-high shell and rarely pressured him. This year was a little different.
Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice, and rookie Xavier Worthy were all supposed to change how the Chiefs attacked defenses. The speed at which each receiver played was supposed to restore the explosiveness lacking in the past several seasons. But that didn’t happen. Brown was injured most of the year, and Rice was lost early in the season.
Defenses started to test the Chiefs with more man coverage and closed-post zones. Kansas City saw the sixth-highest rate of man coverage in the NFL last season. Defenses weren’t afraid of the receivers Mahomes was throwing to. Still, Kansas City adjusted and succeeded.
Reid and Mahomes' overall response in the past few years was primarily due to a defensive trend started in '20 by Vic Fangio, the Chiefs’ counterpart in this year’s Super Bowl. Along with protege Brandon Staley, Fangio played his secondary from a majority of two high safety looks. The philosophy had not been attempted at volume in the NFL.
Soon, the entire NFL shifted from a man-centric defensive play style to one that favored zones. More teams started experimenting with two-high coverage shells and different disguises. The Chiefs, who had a year's head start on the rest of the NFL following their offensive explosion in ‘18 and ‘19, began shifting their passing game lower in the zone.
The Fangio style of play demands a lot of mental capacity from the back end and a strong rush in the front four. Fangio’s system is unlike other defenses that don’t blitz at volume, like the one Shanahan favors in San Francisco, in that it plays a complicated coverage system, not just ‘country’ Quarters, Cover 3, and Cover 1. Fangio prefers to utilize simulated and replacement (Creepers) pressures when blitzing and coverage rotations to mask what he is trying to leverage in the backend.
Philadelphia’s defense wants everything to look the same pre-snap and force the quarterback to work through muddy reads when the D-line is finally unleashed. The Weak Safety, which has generally been used as the key component for a quarterback’s read, stays in the same place because of Fangio’s weak rotation (away from the Nickel) coverage system.
Even in Fangio’s split-field system, he uses ‘rotations’ or ‘targeted’ coverage to leverage the opposing offenses’ best threat. In this year’s Super Bowl, that was Travis Kelce. On numerous occasions, the Eagles leveraged the future Hall of Fame TE by using coverage.
Blitzing Mahomes is often known to be a death knell for most defenses, but how do you succeed against the best quarterback in the league, who doesn’t mind turning into a ‘Checkdown Charlie?’ That is where the Eagles' front four comes into play. You push the middle of the pocket.
