BDL 2018 Week 1: Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Seoul Dragons

[ny92mike]

BDL 2018 Week 1

Vote for who you think would win the game.

Rules:
One vote per person, duplicate accounts will be banned and action taken against those attempting to rig the results.

One vote per team involved in the match. Co-owners may vote in every match up except their own.

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Players that have a (D) next to their name indicate that they are doubtful or unlikely to play. Players with (Q) are game-time decisions.

[ny92mike]

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos Lineup:
 
Starting Offensive Lineup 
QB- Andrew Luck
RB- Marshawn Lynch
WR- Brandin Cooks
WR- Robby Anderson
WR- J.J. Nelson
TE- Delanie Walker
LT- Eric Fisher
LG- Kyle Long
C- Jason Kelce
RG- Zack Martin 
RT- Rick Wagner
-----------------------------
QB- Marcus Mariota
RB- C.J. Anderson
RB- Jalen Richard
TE-  Jordan Leggett
WR- Devin Smith
TE- Vernon Davis
OL- Dion Dawkins
OL- Jake Fisher
 
Starting Defensive Lineup  
DE- Myles Garrett
3T- Maurice Hurst
NT- Dontari Poe
DE- Khalil Mack
SLB- Wesley Woodyard
MLB- Derrick Johnson
WLB- Kwon Alexander
CB- Tre'Davious White
CB- Malcolm Butler
S- Earl Thomas
S- Devin McCourty
-------------------------------------
CB- Adoree' Jackson
CB- Cameron Sutton
DE- Jordan Willis
NT- Da'Ron Payne
DT- Robert Nkemdiche
OLB- Mark Barron
S- Tony Jefferson

 

Seoul Dragons

Starting Offensive Lineup
QB Matt Ryan
RB Jordan Howard
WR AJ Green
WR TY Hilton
TE Travis Kelce
TE Jeff Heuerman
LT Ronnie Stanley
LG Kevin Zeitler
C Alex Mack
RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
RT Ryan Schraeder
__________________________________ 
Bench RB Kenyan Drake
Bench RB Ty Montgomery
Backup WR Jermaine Kearse (Q)
Backup WR Tyrell Williams
Bench WR Danny Amendola
Bench TE Antonio Gates
Bench OL Rodger Saffold
Bench OL David Andrews
 
Starting Defensive Lineup 
LE Chris Long
DT Gerald McCoy
DT Geno Atkins
RE Melvin Ingram
LB Anthony Hitchens
LB Dont’a Hightower
CB Darius Slay
CB Robert Alford
CB Kendall Fuller
FS Marcus Williams
SS Jeff Heath
________________________________ 
Bench Edge Bradley Chubb
Bench Edge Derek Barnett
Bench Int Xavier WIlliams
Bench Int Olsen Pierre (Q)
Bench LB Jordan Hicks
Bench CB Sidney Jones
Bench CB Jamar Taylor
Bench S Montae Nicholson
 

 

[ny92mike]

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos Game Plan:
 

Game Plan delivered at 9/09/2018 at 10:46 AM

@RuskieTitan

Offense
Single-Back Spread-  Even with Alshon Jeffery out, we are going to spread the field and give Andrew Luck the opportunity to find the right mismatch. Cooks, Anderson, and Nelson provide us with a lot of speed at receiver, and we feel that at least one will be able to find the hole in the zone or outrun the man coverage. We'll be using a mixture of 3 WR 1 TE and 2 WR 2 TE sets, with J.J. Nelson and Vernon Davis being the substitutes in each set. Our goal is to give the defense similar looks whether we run or pass, with Lynch and Anderson operating out of a single backfield with no lead blocker and trusting out offensive line. With the two TE sets, we'll be able to provide additional blockers when we run the ball, but also have capable receiving TEs in Walker and Davis when we use playaction. We feel that Walker and Davis will be able to take advantage of the linebacker mismatches and dominate the middle of the field for us. We activate Mariota as the backup in the event in the event that Andrew Luck experiences discomfort, and we trust Mariota to be able to accomplish the same tasks on offense.

Establish the Run- We want to ease Andrew Luck back into the starting role, and what better way to do so than to feed Lynch the ball. Seoul has a tough interior line, with Atkins and McCoy in the middle, but there isn't anyone we fear at linebacker. With a single back look, we plan on having our offensive line win their matchups up front, and letting Marshawn Lynch punish the defense, with C.J. Anderson spilling him. When we utilize the 2 TE look, Davis and Walker will be able to give us 7 blockers, more than enough to pick up solid yardage each time. After we wear them down, we will take advantage of playaction to give both our WRs and our TEs opportunities to find holes in the defense. We don't feel like they have any enforcers at safety that would stop our running attempts, and if the safeties start to cheat up to assist against the run, we have the receivers who can take the top off their defense.

Playaction Pass- Once the run is established and we've got a solid rhythm on offense between the run and the pass, we are going to hit the defense with some playaction passes. We believe that Walker and Davis are mismatches against their linebackers, and our receivers will be able to take advantage of any missteps that the safeties or corners take. We anticipate success when we do go with our playactions, and that'll allow us to continue to run the ball against a normal front. If Seoul insists on stacking the box, we feel Cooks, Anderson, and Nelson will be able to get open, and we will take our deep shots.
 
Defense
 
4-3 Defense- We plan on utilizing a hybrid 4-3 and 4-2-5 defense, with Wesley Woodyard at LB and Tony Jefferson at S alternating whether we want to focus on stopping the run on early downs or switching to more coverage ability on later downs. Adoree Jackson will be our primary slot corner, but we also plan on having him matched up on T.Y. Hilton whenever he's on the field, as we feel he's got the speed and athleticism to help neutralize that threat from Hilton. Tre'Davious White will be shadowing A.J. Green wherever he goes, and Malcolm Butler will take the other outside spot, or cover the slot if Jackson has to follow Hilton out side. Earl Thomas, along with Devin McCourty, will be able to take away anything over the top, help out against Hilton/Green as necessary, and ensure Kelce doesn't exploit anything deep down the middle. We'll give the safeties more freedom to operate compared to most weeks, but we feel with the matchups we have, doubling up on Kelce and Green with the safeties from time to time should help frustrate them. We feel our front 7 will be fine against their running game, and with the corners we have, moving the safeties up closer to the line to slow down any running game won't be an issue.
Neutralize Travis Kelce- We know what a playmaker Travis Kelce is, and it'll take a full team effort to make sure he stays contained. We will be using Kwon Alexander and Mark Barron (instead of Wesley Woodyard) at linebacker when we feel we need more coverage from the linebackers, and we'll play Devin McCourty closer to the box to assist in taking Kelce away. When we use a 4-2-5 look, Tony Jefferson will be primarily tasked with locking up Kelce, with additional help from the other two safeties as well. While we won't quite devote double teams all game long to Kelce, we want to make sure he works for any catch he gets, and constantly hit/jam him at the line whenever he tries to release.

Get in Matt Ryan's Face-  We love the edge rushers we have in Khalil Mack and Myles Garrett, and we feel those two will feast on their offensive tackles. We'll be sprinkling in additional blitzes from our linebackers and defensive backs as well, to keep Matt Ryan off-balance and not establish a rhythm. With White focused on Green, and our linebackers and safeties keying in on Kelce, we feel that we match up well across the board, and won't give Matt Ryan windows to throw into. We don't anticipate issues in stopping their running game, especially when we come out in our base 4-3, so focusing on putting Matt Ryan will be easier.
 
Summary TL;DR:
Offensively, we go single-back spread, taking advantage of our speed at receiver to get open, establish the running game with Lynch and Anderson, and allow our tight ends Walker and Davis to exploit mismatches and playaction. Defensively, we will focus on Travis Kelce, have Tre'Davious White follow A.J. Green with safety help over the top, and allow our front 7 to win their matchups to prevent their running game from rolling, while sprinkling in blitzes to rattle Matt Ryan.

 

 

Seoul Dragons

Game Plan delivered at 9/09/2108 at 7:05 AM
@TedLavie

 
Offense 
This week we’re going to put an emphasis on running the ball. We have a tremendous respect for Ivory Coast pass rushing duo, but their depth isn’t very good. We’re going to run a lot on the outside where we feel Stanley and Schraeder can be at their advantage. We’re also starting a duo of tight ends who are both effective run blockers. Howard and Drake will rotate, with the hot hand getting more snaps in the 2ndhalf. We’re also gonna often pull one of our athletic guards outside to manhandle the Rhinos’ linebackers.
 
Establishing a running game early will help in the passing game. Mack and Garrett won’t be able to be over aggressive, and will get tired at some point and that should give Matty Ice plenty of time to hit his targets. In addition to that, we will slide protection to the right to help Schraeder vs Garrett/Mack. We’re confident in Zeitler and Mack 1vs1 in this matchup.
 
We’ll involve heavily Kelce, Drake and Montgomery + Gates out of the bench. We plan on targeting early and often IC weak linebackers. Kelce will line up all over the LoS, as we want to isolate him vs a Derrick Johnson, who he can outrun easily, or Devin McCourty/Tony Jefferson, who he can outpower. We’ll run a lot of screens as well to give space to run to Drake/Montgomery. 
 
While they won’t necessarily be the first targets of Ryan, AJ Green and TY Hilton will probably command a double team. If IC brings a lot of bodies in the box, and we see an isolated Green or Hilton vs a corner, we will take some shots, especially vs Malcolm Butler. On passing downs, we will spread out the field with Amendola and Williams (Kearse if he can go), as they should have the upper hand vs IC nickel and dime corners.
 
Defense 
On defense we will alternate between a cover 1 and a cover 3 scheme. We’ll start with mostly cover 1 and as the game goes all along and hopefully we get a lead, we will use more and more cover 3.
 
Slay will defend vs Cooks. Alford will defend vs London WR2 (Anderson most likely). If Nelson starts in the slot, Fuller will cover him. In 2WR, 2TE sets, Alford subs out with Fuller getting the outside CB job, and Hicks subs in at MLB, with Hitchens sliding at SLB. In 2 RB sets, we will keep 3 CBs in the game with Fuller getting a RB in coverage
 
Jeff Heath will play in box, and will get RB duties in coverage, with Hitchens getting Walker and M.Williams getting deep coverage responsibilities, mostly on Cooks side. When V.Davis subs in for a WR, Hicks gets Walker while Hitchens gets Davis. Hightower will be our X factor. Whether IC is starting Luck or Mariota, they both are dual threats, so we will try to have Hightower key on them as much as we can. However, he will also blitz or compensate a blitz from time to time, or switch assignments with Hitchens/Heath, as we don’t want to be too predictable in our defense.
 
Heath playing in the box will help vs the run. We expect IC to run early and often behind their stout interior OL. We will rotate our DL a lot, especially outside. Inside, Williams will play an important number of snaps as NT, in order to keep Atkins and McCoy fresh. Pierre will come in for passing downs only to keep our starting duo fresh.
 

 

[Hockey5djh]

I went with the Seoul.

I think the Ivory Coast are just going to have a very tough time pounding the rock consistently with Marshawn and Anderson against McCoy and Atkins with D'onta Hightower filling gaps, I think they would have been better off going vertical and letting Luck sling it into that secondary or attacking the edges against the DE/CB depth. On the other side I like Seoul's playmakers much better, I think running against Mack and Garrett is going to be tough but pulling guards will help significantly because Poe and Hurst won't make them pay for it. I think that this is a pretty close match-up but the Seoul gets enough dink and dunk yardage to score a couple more points.

[DingoLadd]

I think this a closer game be Seoul just has a much better offense with a Rusty luck and old as balls Lynch being forcefed touches into a razorsharp defense that will hound Luck and shut down the run easily. The Rhinos defense keeps this close because of their amazing pass rush but Seoul is eventually able to grind out a win with their running game and a few key plays by their WRs.  28-21 Seoul.

[MD4L]

Perhaps the most surprising effort of week one is Ivory Coast. There are a couple things I would change schematically, but Luck certainly changes their outlook on offense. Goes without saying that pass rush is outstanding.

Seoul also has one major advantage in Tre’Davious White being roasted by AJ Green when they met IRL, and I think their running game could really impress behind such an impressive interior group. This game is much closer than Seoul expects and they could even find themselves down longer than expected. I think the overall talent and experience gives them advantage and after getting the lead late, Seoul does not surrender it. Seoul.

[ny92mike]

Ivory Vs Seoul

I like the idea of bringing Luck back slowly by pounding the rock most of the game using two TE sets, it’s a solid game plan.  I think Ivory will have success with this game plan but I don’t believe that they’ll be able to sustain it the entire game.

Seoul also looks to pound it out and imo have the personnel to provide a slightly better ground game.  Seoul opting to run heavy early in the game I expect a low scoring game.  As Ivory pulls the safeties inside to stuff the run and to slow the TE, it’s the end of the game where their passing game takes hold and scores some last minute field position to close out the game.

Great game plan by both teams, just wish that Ivory would have opened up the passing game a bit more.

[Whicker]

It's funny how much difference a QB can make. People slam OKC's WR group, but Ivory Coast is sporting a guy who played one snap as his WR3 and a guy who is a RL FA and who I believe ICBR cut Sunday morning as their WR4, yet people are saying positive things about their passing attack. Robby Anderson is a fringe WR4 in this league most likely, and Cooks isn't some elite option either. I don't see how Ivory Coast generates enough offense to win against Seoul's offense.

[RuskieTitan]

14 minutes ago, Whicker said:

It's funny how much difference a QB can make. People slam OKC's WR group, but Ivory Coast is sporting a guy who played one snap as his WR3 and a guy who is a RL FA and who I believe ICBR cut Sunday morning as their WR4, yet people are saying positive things about their passing attack. Robby Anderson is a fringe WR4 in this league most likely, and Cooks isn't some elite option either. I don't see how Ivory Coast generates enough offense to win against Seoul's offense.

Tbh when your #1 (Jeffery) and #3 (Samuel) are both out that week, you make do with what you have.

[Whicker]

3 minutes ago, RuskieTitan said:

Tbh when your #1 (Jeffery) and #3 (Samuel) are both out that week, you make do with what you have.

It wasn't a comment about your choices at all. You chose the best gameplan for this match.

Three of the four comments before mine said you should have opened up the pass game. I have to imagine that those comments were 100% about being excited about Luck, because I had a gameplan with a very wide open passing game with an objectively better group of WRs, but all of my comments were about how I didn't have the personnel to pull it off.

 

[WFLukic]

The current score doesn't do IC justice as I think this is a very close match, but when it comes down to it, Seoul's key advtange is what they've put around Ryan which is decisively better than Luck's support cast.

Seoul 24 - Ivory Coast 17

[Jlash]

I like Seoul's run heavy game plan, because IC is one of the few teams with a diverse and talented enough secondary to be able to give Seoul's passing attack a run for it's money. Seoul by hair and better game planning.

[SirA1]

Performance - IC, Game Plan - Seoul, Matchup - Seoul

I like what the IC players did this week and agree that opening up the passing game will help in game plans. It's tough dealing with all the injuries and I think once the Rhinos get healthy they will bounce back. Walker going down for the year hurts for sure though. It's part of the game though.

[Xmad]

I somehow skipped this game when voting, time to correct that.

Seoul as much as it pains me to vote them, is the much better team with a Rusty Luck, lacking WRs and issues at LT dragging the Rhinos down heavily.

[Ragnarok]

I have to agree with most of what has been said.  Valiant effort by IC, but even that pass rush isn't quite enough to get them over the top.