The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions, and that is in no small a result of an incredible game plan by former Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
Fangio's defense was nearly perfect against the high-flying Chiefs and that makes what happened in 2023 harder to stomach.
Miami had Fangio as their DC for one season in 2023, but the players didn't want to buy into his no-nonsense philosophy. Fangio held his players accountable, and the Dolphins apparently couldn't handle it; the Eagles did.
While it wasn't clearly publicly said that Miami wasn't buying into Fangio's system, it didn't take much to put it all together after he left Miami. Cam Smith spent his rookie season on the sideline and Jevon Holland was one of the first players to release a video that many took as being a statement regarding Fangio leaving...he released a video of himself kicking rocks after Fangio left Miami.
Vic Fangio got the last laugh on the Dolphins in Super Bowl 59 masterclass
Under Fangio, the Eagles became the best defense in the entire NFL and against the Chiefs, a team that only lost one game in 2024, they made them look like they were a team not worthy of playing in the Super Bowl.
Fangio's defense swarmed Patrick Mahomes and took away his best outlet options often confusing the Chiefs offense. As a result, the Eagles hoisted the Lombardi Trophy while the Dolphins sat at home wondering if the players they had were good enough to play as physically on the field as the Eagles did.
In total, the Eagles' defense pressured Mahomes 25 times, recorded 11 quarterback hits, six sacks and forced three takeaways, including a pick-six from Cooper DeJean in the second quarter that felt like the dagger.
The Dolphins are a long way from winning the Super Bowl, and it starts inside the locker room, where they need to hold each other accountable; they need to buy into the program and put their own personal goals behind them.
They did in Philadelphia, and clearly, it wasn't Fangio's fault.