BDL 2018 Week 8 - Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Portland Horned Owls

[ny92mike]

BDL 2018 Week 8

Match:  Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Portland Horned Owls

Away Owner: @RuskieTitan

Home Owner: @SwoleXmad

           

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.

For members, who have been following along, and wish to vote.  Please join the conversation and maybe give a reason you voted as you did. This will alleviate any suspicions of unusual voting and will promote discussion.

Note: 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.

Good luck to you both.

[ny92mike]

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

QB- Andrew Luck
RB- Nick Chubb
FB- Anthony Sherman
WR- Alshon Jeffery
WR- Brandin Cooks
WR-  Robby Anderson
LT-  Trent Williams
LG- Kyle Long
C- Jason Kelce
RG- Zack Martin 
RT- Rick Wagner

-----------------------------
RB- C.J. Anderson
RB- Jalen Richard
WR- Curtis Samuel
WR- Jarius Wright
TE- Vernon Davis
TE-  Luke Stocker
OL-  Dion Dawkins
OL- Jake Fisher

 

 

EDGE- Myles Garrett
DT- Da'Ron Payne
NT- Larry Ogunjobi
EDGE- Aaron Lynch
MLB- Wesley Woodyard
WLB- Jerome Baker
CB- Tre'Davious White
CB- Adoree' Jackson
CB- Malcolm Butler
SS- Tony Jefferson
FS- Devin McCourty

-------------------------------------

EDGE-  Dion Jordan
EDGE- Jordan Willis
DT- Maurice Hurst
DT- Robert Nkemdiche
NT- Dontari Poe
S-  Eric Reid
CB- Cameron Sutton
CB- Brandon Williams

 

Portland Horned Owls

 

QB1: Patrick Mahomes II
RB1: LeSean McCoy - (Q)
WR1: Davante Adams
WR2: Tyler Boyd
WR3: Martavis Bryant
TE1: Austin Hooper
LT: Alejandro Villanueva
LG: Clint Boling
C:  Matt Paradis
RG: Will Hernandez
RT: Laremy Tunsil 

Reserves:

QB2: Andy Dalton
RB2: Peyton Barber
RB3: Bilal Powell
WR4: Mohamed Sanu 
WR5: Zack Pascal
TE2: Charles Clay
OL6: Ben Jones
OL7: Kelvin Beachum

Portland's 4-2-5 Defense:

DE:  Brian Orakpo
3T:  Kawann Short
DT:  DaQuan Jones
DE:  Za'Darius Smith
WLB: Telvin Smith 
MLB: Blake Martinez
CB1: Desmond Trufant
CB2: Jimmy Smith
SCB: Brandon Carr
FS: Glover Quin
SS: Malcolm Jenkins

Reserves:

SLB: Zach Brown
RLB: Vince Williams
CB4: Kareem Jackson
CB5: Johnathan Joeseph
S3:  Jason McCourty
DE3: Shaq Barrett
NT:  Michael Pierce
DL:  Shelby Harris

[ny92mike]

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos Gameplan:

Offense
3 Wide "20" Personnel- For this game we will be coming out the majority of the time in our 20 personnel grouping featuring 3 wide receivers, a fullback, and a running back. Nick Chubb gets his first start of the season, and we'll be using him as the primary back, running the football and serving as a checkdown option for Andrew Luck. In the backfield with him will be Anthony Sherman, who will be primarily utilized as a blocker, but will also see a number passes in his direction, via routes to the flat and some screens. Brandin Cooks and Robby Anderson (as well as the other receivers rotating with Anderson) will alternate in the slot. With this personnel grouping, we feel we have enough receiving weapons for Andrew Luck to pick the defense apart, while also having a good opportunity to establish the run against a nickel defense and rely on our stellar offensive line - arguably the best in the league now with the addition of Trent Williams at Left Tackle - and Anthony Sherman leading the way.

Move Brandin Cooks Around- We feel we have a special playmaker in Brandin Cooks, so we're going to use a variety of ways to get the ball in his hands and in space. We'll use him in slot roughly 50% of the time, whether he's set in that spot or we motion him into it (or out of it). Motion will be used to help identify whether the defense is more likely in man or zone, and Cooks will be the primary man handling that duty. We'll give him some sweeps across the line of scrimmage, and use that as a fake as well to help take deep shots to our other speedsters or Alshon Jeffery. In the passing game we'll run a bunch of rub routes with him and the other receivers to try and get him into space, and also throw some quick screens to get the ball into his hands. If we notice the defense starts to cheat up and play him closer to the line, we'll throw some go routes and see if Luck can't get it over the top to Cooks.

Mix-up the run block assignments and Screens- We are going to take advantage of having a great offensive line to keep the Portland defense off balance with the different varieties of runs that we plan to run. We'll have a number of trap plays from both our tackles and our guards, pulls by our interior linemen. We'll get some counters based on whether Sherman lines up on the strong or weak side, and we'll get some pitch sweeps as well to get our backs on the perimeter. All of this mixture of running plays will keep the defense honest and allow us to win some power running plays up the middle with dives. We'll also use all that movement to help set up some of our screens to both our backs as well as receivers, as we'll have Luck lure the defense in before getting the ball into a playmaker with blockers and an open field.

 

Defense
4-2-5 Nickel Defense- Portland has used the 3 wide over the last few weeks, so that is what we initially prepare for, using an additional cornerback instead of a linebacker. If Portland uses a heavy formation, we'll adjust by subbing out one of the corners with one of our interior linemen to present a 5-2 front. For our base defense we'll use Myles Garrett and Aaron Lynch on the edges, with Lynch getting the start since Mack is out. However, we plan on having a constant rotation at the other edge position to keep guys fresh and giving maximum pressure. We'll have our young bucks Larry Ogunjobi and Da'Ron Payne continue to hold up the middle, with Robert Nkemdiche coming in for the 5-2 front. Our cornerbacks are Tre'Davious White and Malcolm Butler on the outside, and Adoree' Jackson in the slot. However, when we go with the 5-2 look Butler will be coming off the field. Safety will be predominately Devin McCourty and Tony Jefferson, with Eric Reid spilling them at times.

Cover 1 Man- The primary coverage we want to run against Portland will be man, with Cover 1 safety over the top. Devin McCourty will be handling the majority of the deep coverage responsibilities, while Tony Jefferson is going to play up closer to the line of scrimmage, handling Austin Hooper in coverage as well as assisting against the running game. Tre'Davious White will shadow Davante Adams, while Adoree' Jackson handles most slot responsibilities. We'll want to run medium-tight coverage, not looking to necessarily jam this game, but we do want our corners to be able to jump on any quick passes such as slants or receiver screens, and not give Mahomes and Portland any yards after reception opportunities. 

Get Creative with Pressure- With Khalil Mack out this week, we're really going to ask our other edge guys to step up. We'll have a steady rotation to keep those guys opposite Myles Garrett as fresh as possible. We'll also be liberal with rotating our interior linemen for the same principles. The defensive line is going to use a variety of stunts and twists to try and get immediate pressure on Mahomes. We'll be a variety of blitzes as well, with a 5th man coming on most plays, whether from linebacker, safety (Baker will cover if Jefferson comes on the blitz), and even a sprinkling of corner blitzes. With 5 defenders rushing the passer, 1 safety deep, and 3 corners playing man, we're usually left with either two linebackers or linebacker and safety, and those will be responsible for the Tight End and running back out of the backfield. If they keep the running back in, we'll have the defender spy on Mahomes in case he wants to scramble. While rushing 5 isn't ideal, it will give either Myles Garrett a 1-on-1 with a tackle to beat, and maximize his opportunities, as well as giving the other linemen a chance to penetrate and disrupt the play. We'd love to have a free blitzer really hit Mahomes in the pocket, but the main key is to get immediate pressure and try to disrupt their offensive game as much as possible. 

 

Summary:
Offensively, we spread the field a bit with 3 wide receivers, letting Andrew Luck read the defense and make the right call. We'll rely on our offensive line to provide running lanes for our backs, and keep Andrew Luck upright all game long. Brandin Cooks is going to be moving all over the field as a chess piece, which should help open up things for our other players as well, such as Alshon Jeffery. We'll keep the defense honest with the run packages we use and use some of that deception to run some screens at them.

Defensively, we will run man heavy coverage, with one safety over the top to help. We'll be primarily going 4-2-5 against their 3 wide set, resorting to a 5-2 look when they go with a heavy formation (I.E. just 2 WRs). We're going to be rotating our defensive linemen often to keep them fresh (Garrett will see most of the snaps as he does most weeks), and we'll be sending an extra man on most plays to assist with generating pressure. One of our safeties will typically play down in the box to help out in coverage against the tight end, stop the run, or rush the passer.

 

Portland Horned Owls

 

Motivation:

• IOU.

Portland Offensive Gameplan:

• We're gonna commit to a run heavy offense with the focus on letting Mahomes have a RPO on quite a few plays so he can make adjustments on the fly, Mahomes will have a lot of bootlegs and a moving pockets to minimize Mack+Garret's impact on this game. Davante Adams will command 15+ targets in this game and will be our main weapon here.

The Passing Game: 

• Mahomes has established himself as a top 3 QB in the NFL so we feel he can more or less do anything asked of him, Mahomes will be be allowed to audible and adjust plays as he sees fit and we'll focus on getting deep against an Ivory Coast secondary lacking the speed to cover our weapons.
• IC's edge rushers are quite the fearsome bunch especially since they're starting Khalil Mack+Myles Garrett, we'll try to counter their ferocuious edge rush with bootlegs, moving the pocket and play action/extra help at the line whenever possible.  If we can't get anything going deep we'll attack the middle of the field specifically targeting Butler, Davante Adams will be our no.1 WR and will be featured heavily, I expect White will cover him. 
• Boyd will be our slot WR and he'll see quite a few targets this week, he'll play outside in 2 WR sets and in the slot in 3 wide. In 3 and 4 WR sets  Bryant will be the no.3 and Sanu will be the no.4, we'll take a few deep shots to Bryant to try and take advantage of IC's issues in the secondary.
• Austin Hooper will get the nod at TE and will be a do it all TE but he'll mostly be limited to being a check down option for Mahomes and a blocker when needed, he'll get a bunch of targets since we feel he's a mismatch and is finally coming into his own this season after being a 5-50-1 guy for most of his career. Charles Clay will exist as the no.2 TE and will rarely see snaps unless we bring out 2 TE sets.
• We'll feature our RBs in the passing game a bit to keep IC guessing, McCoy is healthy and despite being stuck in the bill's "offense" he has played well. Peyton Barber will be our no.2 RB and despite what his stats suggest he is a functional RB who can do all the things required of him, we'll split the touches about 70:30 to keep McCoy fresh and healthy and get Barber some touches so he can shave off some yards on IC's defense. If McCoy is out then it's next man up.

The Running Game:

• LeSean McCoy and Barber will split carries 70:30 with McCoy receiving the major edge in carries and touches, we'll try and establish our running game early to help tire out ICs defense for later in the game, we'll leave a RB/TE in to pass protect as needed.

The Blocking:

• In case of injuries, Beachum will play LT/RT, Jones will play C/G. We'll also leave a RB/TE in to pass protect or give extra attention/blocking to a pass rusher if someone proves to be a problem, most likely we'll slide extra protection to Garrett/mack whether that's a double team or a RB/TE to help with a chip will vary throughout the game.

TDLR;

• No one reads these anyway, Attack IC's defense deep, focus on getting the ball to Adams, let Mahomes work his magic, commit to the running game, Win at the LOS, Double team Mack/Garrett when possible, Protect Mahomes.

Portland Defensive Gameplan:

• We're going to play 2 deep safeties to keep Jeffrey+Cooks from making big plays down the field. We'll mostly be playing zone coverage while mixing in some man with Cover 3 being our base zone defense and focusing on blitzing Luck quite a bit.

Pass Coverage: 

• We'll be playing zone defense on 60% of the snaps with a lot of blitzes, we'll probably blitz on at least 20% of the snaps to get after Luck and disrupt IC's offense. Trufant will shadow Cooks in both man and zone he'll also get some help over the with Cooks for a decent chunk of the game, Jimmy Smith will man the no.2 CB spot and should be able to handle whoever he is assigned to cover on the play. If Cooks/Jeffrey go into the slot the CB/Defender assigned to cover them will follow them into the slot, Brandon Carr otherwise will be the no.3 CB/Slot CB.
• IC's offense is pretty bare bones outside of it's top 2 WRs and at QB, they have nothing at TE and no depth at RB/WR. We'll look to take advantage of that with zone blitzes and a lot of different looks in coverage, Luck is no idiot but he doesn't have the arm he used to have and with no running game to support him he'll have to air it out to have a shot.
• As mentioned we'll be using 2 deep safeties and a cover 3 base zone defense for most of the game, Glover Quinn will be tasked with adjusting the pass coverage as needed, I'd expect my front seven should be able to put pressure on Luck and control the LOS.
• Telvin Smith will be the signal caller on defense and he'll make adjustments if IC tries something not outlined in the gameplan.  Orakpo+Smith will be able to get after Luck along with Barrett rotating in, Short+Jones should be able to keep IC's inside running game in check and Pierce will rotate in with Jones on running downs/goaline situations.
• Telvin Smith will make adjustments as the signal caller on defense as needed, we'll make sure to give equal attention to ICs top 2 WRs as well as try to take away Luck's passing game checkdowns, I assume IC will feature a RB a lot more heavily in the passing game this week.

Run Defense: 

• IC doesn't have any solid RBs with Lynch now on IR, Chubb is their best player but he's a rookie and even then he's not much of a weapon in the passing game. We'll shut him down relatively easily 
• Za'Darius Smith stepped up in a huge way 2 weeks ago with 3 sacks, he has earned a starting job opposite Orakpo and has already set/tied a career high in sacks, he'll be a big help in the run game and in getting after the QB.
• Our focus isn't in defending the run it's in defending the pass so don't expect us to sell out to stop it here however we will contain the run since IC's o-line has issues and their RBs have about as much talent as mine do. 

• Play Zone, Win our match-ups, Limit their weapons as much as possible, Blitz on 20% of the snaps, keep them out of the endzone, don't be afraid to give up big plays in favor of turnovers/sacks, Keep their WRs in check.

TLDR; Contain the run, Keep Luck from checking down, keep their WRs in check, Control the passing lanes, Get after Luck early on, get turnovers.

[bcb1213]

this would be a fun game to watch, i just don't think portland can keep up with ic this week, especially considering they are all but ignoring the run game

[TedLavie]

I just like IC running game better in this one. Not necessarily sold on McCoy who's banged up and that OL for a run heavy gameplan. I think Mahomes can move the ball with Adams and Boyd but really opening up to the pass earlier would have helped. And zone coverage on defense will hurt Portland more than anything with this DL vs that OL. 

41-24 Ivory Coast

[Jlash]

Robby Anderson didn't play this week.

[Jlash]

Even though I've been one of the biggest proponents of IC this year, I actually think Portland matches up really well. Unlike everyone else, I actually don't mind starting the game a hair more run heavy, because IC has a defense on the lighter side and it would prevent them from trying to tee off on Mahomes. A WR being out hurts the IC 3 wide sets, and they don't have a playmaker at TE who can cause issues in the intermediate part of the field to pick up the slack.

Portland in an upset.

[DingoLadd]

IC though Portland would have a shot with a better gameplan, not too crazy about their RBs.

IC's offense is limited here but it outscores portland. 28-20.

[MD4L]

I really like some of Portland’s matchups here. Adams is elite but White has been fantastic and Adoree is no slouch v Boyd. That being said, Mahomes elevates this offense and a 5 man front only gives Portland an advantage as they block pretty well.

Otherwise, Robby Anderson’s absence is huge. This is a elite offensive line for IC, but w Trufant’s similar success against Cooks and Portland being able to cover the top 3 options w respectable weapons, I can see some stops when they play cover 3.

In the end, Luck has rebounded nicely. There was a comment about his arm strength lacking and I don’t think it’s factual. The issue here is Mahomes elevates this offense to another level. His dynamic ability can lead to a mistake or two, but he does so much right that I think he can lead Portland to a score late and win this game. 

[Whicker]

I love Ivory Coast's roster. At its full strength, it is undeniably a BizzBowl contender. But here, I'm going to go Portland.

Unfortunately, injuries have started to pile up and Ivory Coast's lack of depth is starting to show. Marshawn Lynch was a workhorse; Chubb is still on his way there. Robby Anderson being out is definitely a thing. IC's gameplan was 3 WR heavy and Curtis Samuel or Jarius Wright are just as bad IMO as the teams that have been running out Sam Shields, Martavis Bryant, Martinas Rankin, Jameis Winston, Jordan Howard, etc. Khalil Mack being out is an even bigger thing. Ivory Coast doesn't even look like the same team without him, IMO. Garrett is very good, no denying, but having just one big pass rusher who's an elite #2 doesn't buoy the pass rush when the truly elite guy is out. Pretty much everyone in BDL can say they have at least one good pass rusher. Their O-line and CBs are huge strengths, but are those strengths enough to overcome what Portland brings here with the leading MVP candidate, two hot receivers, a great secondary. and fewer injury issues? I don't think so. Not on the road.

I think Ivory Coast does find success on the ground early in the game with a dominant O-line, but they struggle to find success in the air. Portland comes out run heavy and falls behind, but they are able to outscore an Ivory Coast squad in the end.

[PR]

Portlands secondary while running zone will give up quick hits, wont give up the long ball as their secondary is stacked. The WRs will be on lock down. Going Portland.

[WFLukic]

I can't see Portland getting any pressure whatsoever on Luck with that front and conversely, even with a mediocre RB crew, that OL is good enough to get Ivory Coast some yards. With that said I do like Mahomes and the Portland O to have some success against a Mack-less D, it's not enough as IC are able to control the game and grind out a win on the road.

IC 23 - 20 Portland

[Ragnarok]

Portland.  Anderson being out hurts, and I dont trust the LBs of IC to help shut down the run game.

[SirA1]

Portland at home in a very tight game. Injuries make the difference.

[RuskieTitan]

What you typed:

1 hour ago, Ragnarok said:

Portland.  Anderson being out hurts, and I dont trust the LBs of IC to help shut down the run game.

What I read:

1 hour ago, Ragnarok said:

I just picked up your 2nd and 4th round picks.