BDL 2018 Semifinals: #5 Louisiana Jazz @ #3 Rome Eternals

[Whicker]

BDL 2018 Semifinals

Vote for who you think would win the game.

Rules:
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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.

[Whicker]

Louisiana Jazz

Offense:

QB: Tom Brady
RB: Ezekiel Elliott
WR1: Michael Thomas
WR2: Tyler Lockett
TE1: Zach Ertz
TE2: Jared Cook
LT: Russell Okung
LG: Joel Bitonio
C: Ryan Jensen
RG: Connor McGovern
RT: Riley Reiff

RB2: James White
RB3: Nyheim Hines
WR3: Zay Jones
WR4: Equanimeous St. Brown
TE3: Chris Herndon
OL6: Bobby Massie
OL7: Matt Skura
OL8: Jared Veldheer

Defense:

DE: Jason Pierre-Paul
DT: Jurrell Casey
DT: Sheldon Richardson
DE: Dee Ford
LB: Danny Trevathan
CB: Stephon Gilmore
CB: Kyle Fuller
Slot CB: Justin Coleman
S: Patrick Chung
S: Micah Hyde
FS: Tre Boston

DE3: Jabaal Sheard
DE4: Randy Gregory
DT3: Johnathan Hankins
DT4: David Onyemata
LB2: Anthony Barr
CB4: JC Jackson
CB5: Orlando Scandrick
S3: Duron Harmon

 

 

 

 

Rome Eternals

QB Drew Brees

RB Theo Riddick

RB Phillip Lindsey

Slot WR Julian Edelman

WR JuJu Smith Schuster

WR Amari Cooper

LT Tyron Smith

LG Ramon  Foster

C Justin Britt

RG Braden Smith

RT Ryan Ramczyk

 

WR Tedd Ginn Jr

OL  Stefan Wisniewski

WR Marquise Goodwin

RB Marlon Mack

FB Zach Line

WR Dontrelle Inman

TE Matt LaCrosse

TE Anthony Firsker

 

Edge Marcus Davenport/Fowler

DT Dalvin Tomlinson/Autry

NT Mike Pennel /Ioannidis

Edge Carlos Dunlap

LB Leighton Vander EscH

LB Alex Anzalone

LB CJ Mosley

CB Marlon Humphrey

CB William Jackson

CB Prince Amukamara

S Shawn Williams

 

S Josh Jones

Edge Dante Fowler

Edge Samson Ebukan

DL Denico Autry

DL Matt Ioannidis.

CB Nickell Robley Coleman

CB Janoris Jenkins

LB Patrick Onwuasor

 

 

Edited December 24, 2018 by Whicker

[Whicker]

Louisiana Jazz

Offense:

The name of the game is ball control. With Rome having no TEs worth a damn, and Gurley limited or even out, their ability to keep the ball moving consistently and extending drives will be greatly diminished. This is our opportunity to pounce, keep our drives going with a strong running foundation and make sure that our D can stay fresh, and theirs wearing out more as the game goes on.

As with the past few weeks, we’re going to keep the ball in the hottest runner in the league’s hands and continue with Elliott pounding it up the middle. In particular, we’re going to be running behind the left side of our line and behind the combination of Okung and Bitonio. This is with the intention of targeting Marcus Davenport, being cognisant of the fact that he will struggle with leverage given his height and frame and will require assistance on that side of the LOS. We know that if we can eventually get Rome to stick 7 or 8 men in the box, it’ll open things up greatly for Thomas and Lockett on the outside.

We also plan to have Hines involved in the run game more than in games of the past – running the ball between the tackles is what everyone has come to expect from us, so adding a wrinkle with Hines and introducing some 2 back sets featuring Elliott and Hines, with Hines operating both in the screen game and as an outside runner on pitches and tosses will also keep Rome on their toes.

Wildcat:

Another ploy of ours to catch Rome off guard with the running game is to run the wildcat with Elliott and Hines too on occasion. This would feature direct snaps to Zeke or Hines, with a 3 TE or 6/7OL set in front of them, with the intention to just continue to pound the ball against this Rome front or in the case of Hines, kicking it outside. Should a TE get wide open, then I’m not opposed to either RB trying to dump it off to them.

In regards to the passing game, it will be no different to most weeks. The staple two TE set which has emerged in Louisiana will continue to operate, with Cook and Ertz both playing plenty of snaps in-line, but also shifting outside to help free up the box for the running game. Ertz just broke the NFL record for receptions by a TE, so we know he’s going to get his and be a safe target, while Cook will be used more in the redzone. If Rome tries to cover Ertz with a CB in single coverage again, then that will be a matchup we’ll look to exploit in particular. But at this stage we expect Vander Esch or Mosley to be on him, so the plan will be to have Ertz running crossing routes and slants, making use of his sure-handedness and stick those 6-7 yard passes to keep rives alive.

In terms of the wideouts, Lockett will be doing his usual thing running deep to keep the D on their toes as a deep threat, while Thomas will be fed the ball often, again with the intention to make use of his high catch rate and expertise bringing the ball down in traffic to ensure that drives stay alive and that we move the chains with the ball players hands rather than in the air.
 

Defense:

While we’re not ruling out Gurley playing, we’re also expecting him to be limited either physically or by snap count and with Lindsay playing great ball, we actually expect him to carry the load. With that said, we also expect Marlon Mack to see some carries, but with neither being the physical in the box runner that Gurley is, we’re going to go lighter up front and focus on shutting down the passing game. We also expect Rome to go 4 wide, as usual so our D will feature a mix of 4 CB, 2 S sets and 3 CB, 3 S sets. If Rome wants to run it up the between the tackles, well our DL should be able to take advantage against an OL that isn’t too strong on the interior and if Rome wants to take it outside, with our lighter D we’ll be ready to stop it.

As a result, we know that on D, the game will be decided by how we do against the pass.

Firstly, in terms of coverage assignments:

Amari Cooper – Stephon Gilmore
JuJu Smith Schuster – Kyle Fuller
Julian Edelman – Justin Coleman or Micah Hyde
#4 WR – J.C. Jackson or Justin Coleman
Lindsay/Mack/Gurley – Micah Hyde or Danny Trevathan

Amari Cooper has been fire of late and Juju even if dinged up, is still one of the better wideouts in the league and another real threat. We’re assigning two of the best CBs in the game on them. We have completed confidence in Gilmore to stop Cooper who’s production has predominantly come from big plays, rather than consistent gains. Fuller may not have as many opportunities to pick passes off as usual given Brees’ incredible accuracy, but we know Juju will see his targets and Fuller will have his chances.

Boston will reprise his role as our single high safety, which will give Fuller the opportunity to be a bit more aggressive but also help when necessary in particular where we look to jam and force Rome into riskier passes as part of our plan to limit their ability to move the chains.

Edelman is the closest thing that Rome has to a safe option in their offense to keep the clock ticking and drives alive so there’s going to be an extra focus to jam him on the line and limit his ability to get open quick. We know that if we can reduce his catch numbers, even at risk of giving up one or two bigger plays, we’ll take that because it’ll put more pressure on the rest of the offense and will give our pass rush more time to get to Brees.

Frankly, we’re not going to really account for a threat at TE. If Rome wants to throw it to Matt LaCosse, sure… Barr/Trevathan/Chung will be covering him so uh… yeah good luck.

We also know that there will be screens planned in the Rome offense. We’ll be ready for them by specifically lining our defensive ends a little wider than usual, while also remaining with our lighter unit that should be able to fly around the field and limit the damage.

 

 

 

Rome Eternals

Revenge Game

We welcome Lousiana into the Rome Dome this week in a rematch from earlier this year where they took us to the house.  We are out for vengeance this game and to prove to everyone that we are still the team to beat here in the BDL

Tempo

Fast fast fast.  Louisiana has a OK depth but we are aiming to tire out the first four of the Jazz roster.

 

Offense

Passing game

The first thing to look at with the Jazz is that both of their starting two CB are playing excellent football.  However we feel we can find some mismatches elsewhere on the field to take advantage of.

Our first look is to see if we have single coverage against non fuller /Gilmore covered WR.  If we do we plan on hitting that early and often. Our second look is to see if we can get Anthony Barr or Danny Trevathian in single coverage against one of our backs.  We are going with a two back look here. One will generally be in motion to see if either has single coverage against one of these two. If so expect slants or wheel routes depending on cover one, cover two safeties.. Theo Riddick is more than capable of fulfilling this role. Lindsey is our secret weapon this week as his receiving skills should really help against a LB core that really struggles in coverage. If we can get that coverage he's gonna he 8-10 targets.

Long to go plays we welcome back Tedd Ginn for a RB and we will target Coleman (zone corner) or whatever safety they have on him .  When we get into the red zone we introduce Dontrelle Inman for his size for jump ball purposes

Double team Plans

If they have a double on a RB, we'll use that player as a decoy .  He's gonna chip block an edge and then run to the flat to effectively take two defenders out of the play.  If Edelman is double covered we will use him as the rub route to get our outside WR open as soon as there won't be extra help on that side of the field

We will take a couple deep shots against Kyle Fuller just to keep the defense honest as our outside wr will have a slight height advantage on him.

RPO

The best part about this two RB look is that it allows us to use an rpo offense.  This will slow down the pass rush and use Brees best ability of reading the defense to our advantage.  We can run the RPO either direction with two RB (when not in motion) to add an extra thing the defense needs to be on alert for. 

We will also run a five WR look on the first drive to see if the Jazz brought a fifth corner with them this week.  If not expect us to use that formation about 6-10 plays with Ginn and Goodwin running some deep shots using their world class speed. 

Up front we trust our tackles against their edges and feel like 3 on two should work for our interior.  The RB motion

Run game

With the hurry up offense it will allow us a couple times later in the first half to put in a two TE, FB Marlon Mack package.  A fresh mack against a worn out front should get us some chunk plays.

Generally though we are gonna be running most of our run plays to the Richardson /Ford side of the line as they both struggle in stopping the run.  The three wide plus RB motion should give us some lighter boxes to get to the second level. Especially if Ford sells out on the RPO

Lindsay gets 15 carries with Riddick  handful in the run game. We also will utilize our RBs in the screen game as an extension of the run game.  Mack will get a couple in the jumbo

The Jazz may sell out on the pass game and go with four corners or three safeties on the regular.  If so expect a three wide look with Zach Line joining Gurley, Lindsey. Mack in the I formation to get us some easy early rushing yards against a light box.

Per usual if we see zone expect Brees to use a trips formation and set up floods and seams.

Tl/Dr.  Attack the LB in coverage, establish the run if it's a super light box, tempo tempo tempo to wear out the starters, insert some RPO

Defense
This week we welcome in Tommy Terrific and the rest of the talented skill talent of the Jazz (btw how do you say Jazz plural?)

Pass defense

While we often get maligned for our pass rush, if you look deeper, we have the ingredients to stop a Tom Brady offense.

The one thing Brady hates is having pressure up the gut. Our passing situations interior of Denico Autry and Matt Ioannidis have a combined 16.5 sacks and the center right guard position for the Jazz are two of the worst pass blockers in the league(McGovern, in our pff stat of the week has a rating of 34! in pass pro good for dead last in the league for all offensive lineman) .  These pass rushers will also be fresh as we have our meat wall of Tomlinson and Pennel play on early downs. Adding Carlos Dunlap on the edge against Riley Reiff, the Eternals have three defensive lineman in the leagues top 30 in sacks against the weakest points of the Jazz line. Also expect a couple stunts on the right side in passing downs to make it even harder on McGovern. We will slide our d line to the right side of the o line often in passing situations as we don't fear a Brady running attack to the left. Autry will be the McGovern beneficiary in this situation as he's been a hot pass rusher with six sacks in the last three weeks.  Fowler will be in on long distance downs for Davenport

For our Coverage we are gonna trust in the talent we have with a cover one underneath look to stop the quick slants and drag routes that Louisiana likes to use.  On the outside we have our stud Marlon Humphrey matched up against theirs in Michael Thomas. Humphrey is gonna be close to the line playing physical coverage to throw off the timing routes he and Brady generally flourish on.  This would be a must see match-up as the Jizz force feed Thomas the ball.

On the other side we slide in William Jackson this week as Louisiana uses Tyler Lockett as a deep threat and really doesn't normally do much else with him so Jackson is gonna play off coverage on this side and go speed for speed with Lockett.  

 

Zach Ertz has been a monster this year and we have to match up LVE against him.  You will notice we have Amukamara in the lineup this week and despite the cover one robber look. Prince is gonna be constantly looking towards Ertz first using his speed and coverage abilities to effectively double team him if necessary.  We feel prince is one of the best tacklers in the league at corner so we don't lose much from playing him this way in the run game. Anzalone gets Cook while Mosly gets Zeke if they use him in the passing game. If Zeke is blocking Mosly blitzes.

Williams has main cover one responsibilities in the intermediate middle of the field. Nrc gets any third wr, Jenkins the fourth and prince will take a fifth if for some reason they go five wide

Run defense

Up front we feel we have one of the best run stopping front sevens in the league.  We aren't gonna do anything fancy or cute. Pennel and Tomlinson can chew up some blocks in the middle as two of the better run stuffing interior players allowing our trio of LB to make plays.  Dunlap is a great run defending 4-3 end while Davenport is solid on his side. Ebukan will spell Dunlap as needed as he's an OK run defender. Our underneath safety players towards Ertz side of the field as Cook doesn't provide much in terms of blocking.

Of course with Brady you can't play the same defense all day so we will mix in some cover two man's and some zone blitzes to keep him guessing.

Tl/dr    

Trust the corners with Ertz help, get interior pressure, Rotate the d lineman to keep them fresh, bend don't break

 

[Scoundrel]

Lindsay really isn’t much of a receiving threat to be honest with you.

[bcb1213]

2 hours ago, Counselor said:

Lindsay really isn’t much of a receiving threat to be honest with you.

Agree to disagree 

So do scouts 

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/phillip-lindsay?id=32462018-0002-5599-47ab-7523bcaf1321

My man was a kick and punt returner in college.  You kinda need to be able to catch to do that. 

 

Unfortunately Denver's o line is so brutal he stays into block a lot 

 

[Scoundrel]

6 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

Agree to disagree 

So do scouts 

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/phillip-lindsay?id=32462018-0002-5599-47ab-7523bcaf1321

My man was a kick and punt returner in college.  You kinda need to be able to catch to do that. 

 

Unfortunately Denver's o line is so brutal he stays into block a lot 

 

Scouts also didn’t have Baker #1. I did. He isn’t showing it at this level consistently so I won’t go off what he can do in college once he is in the league. 

[Jlash]

4 hours ago, Counselor said:

so I won’t go off what he can do in college once he is in the league

Well if a guy showed he's capable of being a solid pass catcher in college....that ability generally doesn't disappear in the pros. Whether or not he gets used that way right now is different. But he can catch.

[Jlash]

Went with Rome. I think their defensive game plan is really really good. Gurley being out hurts, but Lindsay is an explosive player in his own right and Mack is a capable #2 so I don't think Rome loses a ton there offensively. 

[Jlash]

11 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

My man was a kick and punt returner in college. 

To keep it in perspective, he returned exactly 0 punts in his 4 year college career, and only 9 kicks total after his freshman season.

[bcb1213]

1 minute ago, Jlash said:

To keep it in perspective, he returned exactly 0 punts in his 4 year college career, and only 9 kicks total after his freshman season.

Not disagreeing.  But to do it one full year before he was the starter at Colorado, got to catch.  Was my only point 

[TedLavie]

20 hours ago, Whicker said:

McGovern, in our pff stat of the week has a rating of 34! in pass pro good for dead last in the league for all offensive lineman

And no one blinked when I had Atkins vs him last week.

I gave this match up a lot of thought. It's very close but I'm giving the edge to the Jizz. 

I don't love the hurry up offense here as I like Louisiana depth on defense. I think Lindsay could have great success in the run game. Only giving him 15 touches is a mistake imho as I expect big plays on the ground for him. The rest of Rome weapons are well covered and I don't see a distinctive advantage elsewhere for Rome. On the other side, while I'm not fond of Louisiana OL Rome DL isn't great either. They have bunch of specialists but they don't really have a 3down player aside from Dunlap and that hurts them. I don't love a matchup as much as I love Lindsay on the ground on the other side but I think Louisiana can balance its offense, spread the ball out more than Rome and sustain more drives. 23-20 Jizz

[bcb1213]

Ooo he only has two lb.   Jumbo package should have success with mack.  Glad I included it more prominently this week 

[bcb1213]

42 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

And no one blinked when I had Atkins vs him last week.

I gave this match up a lot of thought. It's very close but I'm giving the edge to the Jizz. 

I don't love the hurry up offense here as I like Louisiana depth on defense. I think Lindsay could have great success in the run game. Only giving him 15 touches is a mistake imho as I expect big plays on the ground for him. The rest of Rome weapons are well covered and I don't see a distinctive advantage elsewhere for Rome. On the other side, while I'm not fond of Louisiana OL Rome DL isn't great either. They have bunch of specialists but they don't really have a 3down player aside from Dunlap and that hurts them. I don't love a matchup as much as I love Lindsay on the ground on the other side but I think Louisiana can balance its offense, spread the ball out more than Rome and sustain more drives. 23-20 Jizz

"The Jazz may sell out on the pass game and go with four corners or three safeties on the regular.  If so expect a three wide look with Zach Line joining Lindsey. Mack in the I formation to get us some easy early rushing yards against a light box." 

 

I'm also rotating my defeneive line to use their strengths so I'm not sure what the issue is there 

Edited December 25, 2018 by bcb1213

[Xmad]

Rome has the better offense, the Jizz have the better defense.

In a close one gimme the Romans, I trust Brees more than Brady this year and while the Jizz's defense is solid their slot CB is going to get burnt to a crisp in this one.

Orlando vs. Hawaii was a tougher game to decide but this one is a bit tougher to see the outcome for I could see it going either way tbh.

[pheltzbahr]

I like the Jazz pretty convincingly here, think they have a solid advantage with diverse offensive weapons and a defense that can get to Brees often.