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Kyle Shanahan vs. Vic Fangio.

Oh yeah, this is The Good Stuff.

The most influential offensive mind of the past ten years (although he probably shares that designation with Sean McVay and other members of The Mike Shanahan Coaching Tree) against the most influential defensive mind of the past ten years. The whiz kid offensive savant against the crusty defensive genius, the Platonic ideal of each role.

If you watched Fangio and Shanahan’s press conferences from the past few days, there is a lot of mutual respect. Shanahan said, “Vic schematically has always been the best to me.” That statement comes as no surprise. If you will recall, John Keim wrote an ESPN article in 2019 about the Shanahan Coaching Tree and all of the key figures independently singled out Fangio as the toughest defensive coordinator to go against.

What I did not know previously is that Shanahan tried to hire Fangio as his defensive coordinator, first upon taking the job in San Francisco in 2017 and then two more times. The timing was never right, Fangio always had another job. And Fangio has had success against Shanahan: 11, 6, 15 and 9 points for Shanahan’s offenses the four times they faced off against Fangio’s defenses. But take that number with a big grain of salt. The last time they faced off was back in 2018, when Fangio had the league’s best defense and the 49ers had still not taken off. Kyle Shanahan had not yet become Kyle Shanahan.

Alright, now that our history lesson is over, let’s dig into this weekend. And the amount of ball talk in this video below is unmatched. Film breakdowns, stats, and plenty more.

This is a matchup of two units that were pretty much lights-out in November and December. Forget all of your DVOAs and EPAs for a second, and just look at the points…

Imperfect cherrypicking, but both Shanahan and Fangio’s teams were playing good ball. Now, there were still hiccups mixed in there for both teams. The Eagles got run over by Chicago, while San Francisco got shut down by Seattle. Those are the conference’s top-two seeds, after all. But overall, the recent run of form does paint a picture of a matchup where both units are gonna have to earn it.

I feel great about this Eagles defense. The full-season numbers paint the picture of a unit that is ranked in the 6-9 range, but after the trade deadline, this group was a different beast with Jaelan Phillips, Nolan Smith and Brandon Graham back. That performance against Buffalo told me everything that I need to know about this unit, with the defensive line getting after Josh Allen in particular.

(Speaking of which, is it possible to feel any different about the offensive and defensive lines after the Buffalo game? If they played against each other, it feels like it would be a complete beatdown.)

Anecdotally, this defense has performed at its worst when it has been tired:

Well, they are not gassed after RestGate. Jalen Carter looks like he is fully healthy.

Listening to the guys on the podcast, what struck me is how much San Francisco’s offense has changed from previous seasons.

The Niners do not get YAC anymore: Crazy stat from Deniz: The Niners are fourth in plays of 10+ yards, but only 25th in plays of 20+ yards. That tells me something.

It is shocking to see Brock Purdy so low in terms of yards after the catch. In 2022 and 2023, Shanahan created YAC with his schemes and the Niners had a bunch of YAC monsters: McCaffrey, Deebo and Kittle in particular. Well, they do not have the same level of explosiveness this season.

It seems like Shanahan is still scheming stuff up, but the Niners do not have the same firepower as past years. McCaffrey is their leading receiver by quite a bit. After that, it’s the trio of Kittle, Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall. Speaking of Pearsall…

The Niners have two major injury question marks: Pearsall did not practice on Wednesday, nor did Trent Williams. The latter is a big deal potentially, with both Williams and Lane Johnson’s status in question. Like Lane, even if Williams can go, what will he look like?

Purdy does not play like a system QB anymore: One of the single best plays of the NFL season was Purdy’s scramble against Chicago. Excellent stuff.

When Purdy’s career first started, it felt like he mostly got rid of the ball quickly, like Shanahan was telling him, “Throw the ball here, someone will be open.” But of the 37 quarterbacks with over 250 plays this season, only Shedeur Sanders and Caleb Williams held on to the football longer on the average dropback than Purdy.

As Fran pointed out, Purdy has been money on third downs and deep throws so far this season. That stuff is all impressive, and it’s not how you remember Purdy from 2022 and 2023. It’s also a dangerous way to live.

One thing that has not changed: Purdy throws the ball over the middle a ton. In this way, he plays quarterback the exact opposite way from how Jalen Hurts does.

Deniz pointed out that five of Purdy’s 15 throws to receivers between the hashes have been intercepted this season. And those throws can be a risky proposition, which is part of why I think Jalen avoids that area of the field. You also can create huge plays and stress out the defense with those.

We will still see lots of motion, still see lots of condensed formations and still see lots of Kyle Juszczyk on the field. And you would imagine that Shanahan is gonna do his best to target Adoree’ Jackson.

I think this Eagles defense is ready for the challenge. Cannot wait for this one.

Injury report: In good news, Lane did practice.

Injury updates: From Charlie, at the top of yesterday’s Flyers show…

Charlie’s detailed breakdown of the controversial Christian Dvorak extension is below. Saving this one for later today.

Sixers 131, Washington 110: Except, yet again, the Sixers. Kyle’s observations are here.

A much more professional effort than the other night. As Joel Embiid said deadpan after the game, the Sixers did not play with their [redacted]… an homage to his former head coach, Doc Rivers. Some quick takeaways…

Credit to Devon, who pointed out that CJ McCollum was sitting for the first time all season for The Wiz. Well, something was afoot! McCollum got traded from Washington along with Corey Kispert to Atlanta for Trae Young. Weird fit for Washington.

And oh, how the mighty have fallen. The Atlanta Hawks basically had to salary dump 27-year-old Trae Young. No picks involved or anything for Young. And yes, that 2021 Sixers-Hawks series is still aging absolutely terribly. They seriously lost to Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and John Collins!

Big one tonight for the Orange and Black against Toronto (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). The Flyers have been better and steadier than Craig Berube’s always-scrutinized Maple Leafs thus far this season, but they did not show it in their first meeting. Time to get two more points at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

And for football fans, this weekend is probably the best one of the year. We have this stretch coming up…

A smorgasbord of pigskin! 🏈🏈🏈🏈

Last year, this was the night of the Penn State-Notre Dame game. Methinks Delco and Northeast Philly will be a little less juiced for Ole Miss-Miami, but it will be a good one nonetheless. Miami edge-rusher Ruben Bain Jr. is No. 6 overall on Fran’s big board, and the Hurricanes whipped Ohio State in the trenches last time out. On the other side, how can you not be wrapped up in this Ole Miss story? I am wondering if Trinidad Chambliss is a potential draft pick this year. He also has one more year of college eligibility. Dude can sling it.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at PHLY:

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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