Mark Kiszla: Vic Fangio does Broncos Country a solid by making mincemeat of Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl

With NFL nation watching in disbelief, Vic Fangio did some strange voodoo and turned Patrick Mahomes into Paxton Lynch.

After Philadelphia trounced Kansas City 40-22 Sunday to win the NFL championship, we saw something from grumpy, old Uncle Vic that he almost never gave Broncos Country during three tumultuous seasons as head coach in Denver: A big, bright, winning smile.

Vic Fangio is the MVP," Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins declared, saluting the 66-year-old coordinator of the league's top-ranked defense.

Instead of America tuning in to hate-watch Kansas City achieve a historic three-peat on television, more than 100 million football conspiracy theorists were delighted to discover the Super Bowl wasnt rigged in favor of the Chiefs after all.

With a defensive game plan by Fangio that was pure magic, the Eagles ripped off Superman's cape, frazzling and frustrating Mahomes by refusing to let the Kansas City offense so much as cross midfield until the final three minutes of the third quarter, when the fat lady was already singing.

In the process, our old friend Uncle Vic achieved something that Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan could not.

He won a championship ring after being fired as head coach by the Broncos.

Hes old and grumpy, said outside linebacker Josh Sweat, credited with 2.5 of the Eagles half dozen sacks of Mahomes.

But I can tell hes deep down having a great time.

On the greatest night of a 46-year coaching career that began tutoring high-school linebackers in his hometown of Dunmore, Pa., Uncle Vic was Grumpmaster Flash.

Although Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who passed for 221 yards and ran for 72 more, was named the game's most outstanding player, Fangio was the most dominant force on this February night in New Orleans.

He did Broncos Country a solid by making mincemeat of Mahomes and the Chiefs.

It reminded me of Uncle Vic's finest moment as head coach in Denver.

In November 2021, as Fangio took a Denver team with a 4-4 record to Dallas, some knucklehead columnist wrote the Broncos could start auditions for their next head coach by scouting Kellen Moore, who was then the young wunderkind coordinator for a Cowboys offense which was averaging 32 points per game.

It rankled Fangio.

Irked him so much that after Denver recorded a decisive 30-16 victory, Uncle Vic texted me as the team bus rolled down the road to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport to needle me about crowning Moore an offensive genius.

When I asked Moore, who now coaches alongside Fangio on Nick Siriannis staff in Philadelphia, how vividly he recalled that beatdown from more than three years ago, he laughed out loud.

Vic beat us pretty good that day, and he loved it, Moore told me during a break in preparation for Super Bowl LIX.

And hell never miss an opportunity to take advantage to talk about it.

Believe me, its come up a couple times.

Thats Vic.

And thats why I love him.

As the Eagles built a daunting 24-0 lead at halftime, Fangio's scheme limited the Chiefs to 23 yards on 20 snaps before intermission.

Hit so often that Mahomes began to see ghosts, he hurried a throw that was intercepted by Philadelphia cornerback Cooper DeJean and returned 33 yards for a touchdown midway through the second period.

And the rout was on.

As a kid, I grew up a fan of Philadelphia sports teams.

This is where I wanted to be.

This is where I wanted to finish my career, said Fangio, who revamped and transformed what had been one of the leagues shakiest defenses during his first year on the job with the Eagles.

This masterclass against Mahomes and the Chiefs was the product of the school of hard knocks.

In eight prior meetings against Mahomes, Fangio had never beaten the K.C.

quarterback.

When somebody reminded him about that ugly history at the outset of Super Bowl week, he grimaced.

But he had a plan that worked to near perfection and made the Las Vegas oddsmakers that established the Chiefs as a 1.5-point favorite look foolish.

As we well remember in Denver, Uncle Vic does not like the blitz and did not blitz one time in the Caesars Superdome.

The Eagles, however, battered Mahomes with a four-man rush, and zone coverage took away the deep ball until he connected on a 50-yard touchdown throw to Xavier Worthy in garbage time, with under two minutes remaining the fourth quarter.

Fangio is now 1-8 against Mahomes.

But nobody can grind on him about those losses ever again.

On the other hand ...

If we played the Chiefs again, then Id be 1-8, said Fangio, who possesses an uncommon knack for finding the single cloud in the sky on a sunny day And they would still use the stat.

Although his default emotion might still be grouchy, hes now far more than our grumpy, old Uncle Vic.

In the 97th year of her life, Alice Fangio witnessed her son finally and forever become a Super Bowl champion..

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