BDL 2018 BizzBowl: #7 Hawaii Nightmarchers vs #3 Rome Eternals

[Whicker]

BDL 2018 BizzBowl

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]

Hawaii Nightmarchers

Offense   

QB – Russell Wilson
RB – Saquon Barkley 
WR – Antonio Brown
WR – Stefon Diggs
OW – Tarik Cohen
TE – Ben Watson
LT – Andrew Whitworth
LG – Marshall Yanda
C – Ryan Kelly
RG – Ben Garland
RT – Taylor Decker 

BN – TE - Dallas Goedert
BN - RB - Dion Lewis
BN – WR – TreQuan Smith
BN – WR - Josh Doctson
BN – OG – Tom Compton
BN – OC - Pat Elflein
BN – OT – Jordan Mills
   

Defense   

DE – Jadeveon Clowney
DT – Deforest Buckner
DT – Sheldon Rankins
DE – Frank Clark
LB – Roquon Smith
LB – Kyler Fackrell
CB – Casey Heyward
CB – Marshon Lattimore
CB – Darryl Roberts
FS – DJ Swearinger
SS – Eric Weddle   
  
BN – DE – Harold Landry
BN – DE – Arik Armstead
BN – DT – BJ Hill
BN – LB - KJ Wright
BN – LB – Tahir Whitehead
BN – CB - K’Wuan Williams
BN - CB - Bobby McCain

 

 

 

Rome Eternals

QB Drew Brees

RB Marlon Mack

Slot WR Julian Edelman

Slot WR JuJu Smith Schuster

WR Amari Cooper

WR Ted Ginn Jr

LT Tyron Smith

LG Ramon  Foster

C Justin Britt

RG Braden Smith

RT Ryan Ramczyk

 

WR Dontrelle Inman

WR Eli Rogers

OL  Stefan Wisniewski

RB Theo Riddick

FB Zach Line

TE Matt LaCrosse

TE Lance Kendricks

QB Mitch Trubisky

 

Edge Marcus Davenport/Fowler

DT Dalvin Tomlinson

NT Mike Pennel

DT Denico Autry

Edge Carlos Dunlap

LB Leighton Vander EscH

LB CJ Mosley

CB Marlon Humphrey

CB William Jackson

S Prince Amukamara

S Shawn Williams

 

S Josh Jones

Edge Dante Fowler

Edge Samson Ebukan

LB Alex Anzalone

DL Matt Ioannidis.q

DL Michael Brockers

CB Nickell Robley Coleman

CB Janoris Jenkins

[Whicker]

Hawaii Nightmarchers

Offense 

Running game – 

Pulling Interior Lineman - For the running game we will again go to our bread and butter Mr. Saquon Barkley. The ground attack will be focused on running outside, especially at the left side of the line where we will attack Davenport the #33 DE in run defense. In the running game we will use Kelly or Yanda as pulling lineman to provide additional blocking on the outside once Whitworth or Decker seal off the edge. Rome traditionally runs a 4-3 with 3 linebackers up front, these additional pulling lineman will be used to counter the linebackers once Barkley gets to the second level of the defense. Watson will be rotated into the starting line-up to create a double team to help sealing the edge against Dunlap or Davenport and get a piece of the first linebacker. Tre’Quan Smith will see the field in place of Tarik Cohen in 3 WR sets to help clear out a heavy Rome box and force them to put more secondary players on the field.

Keep Rome guessing - We will also look to challenge Rome’s lineups, very often they’ll go with Tomlinson and Pennel on the early downs and transition to Autry and Ioannidis in passing downs, we won’t be afraid to change it up on occasion and challenge the run defense of Autry (clocking in at 270lbs) and Ioannidis as they are both are both bottom half of the league run defenders, despite their sparkly sack stats. Another thing we will do to keep Rome off balance is to show off some two back sets. Cohen will often line-up in the backfield and then motion out wide. This does two things, it allows Russell Wilson to know if he’s working against Man or Zone defense and it also gives us a mismatch that we will exploit often if Cohen gets matched up with a linebacker. We’ll also use Cohen in reverses with Barkley running one way, and the interior lineman moving another way.

Use both RBs in the passing game – Barkley and Cohen will both be used in the passing game as they are both excellent receivers and will cause fits for Rome’s LBs. In addition to Cohen motioning we’ll look to get Barkley with a handful of targets as well both as a check down option and also showing a few empty back sets forcing the 3 LBs to cover two RBs and a TE in space. While we respect the coverage abilities of LVE, both Mosley and Anzalone will be out of their element being forced into coverage. With a ton of moving pieces we expect to find mismatches for Dangeruss to exploit. With empty back sets we’ll also encourage Wilson to use his legs to gain chunk yardage once the LBs turn their backs to the line of scrimmage. 

Passing game – 

Challenge Rome Deep – We’re expecting Rome to come out in a base cover 1 defense, not because it’s the best defense to play against us but rather to mask their deficiencies at safety. We’re not sure if Rome is going to trot our Tedric Thompson, Shaun Williams, or Jahleel Addae but all 3 are bottom tier NFL safeties. We’ll regularly be challenging Rome deep as their safeties are all rated worse than my week 16 waiver pick-up Darryl Roberts who is a slot corner turned safety. If they don’t use a cover one we’ll be licking out lips as this means they’ll be putting two sub-par players on the field at the same time for us to roast (Yay two Christmases!!)

Play Action/Double moves – We respect the Rome CBs so we will need to work extra hard to make sure the Antonio Brown, Stefon Diggs, and Tre’Quan Smith get open. To continue with the trend of attacking Rome’s secondary we will be scheming our WRs open. The first thing we will be doing is asking some of our WRs to do double moves such as the out and up or stop and go. This concept will be used to get our WRs separation from the CB. In conjunction with this we will also be featuring the play action in our passing game. This concept will be used to draw the safety in and allow the WR to break free on deep passes. By adding multiple dimensions to the WR play we’re looking for Wilson to find open WRs often, despite the talent of Rome’s CBs.

Mesh/Levels concepts – One concept we will be featuring will be a mesh/levels concept. This will be used mostly used against zone coverages and/or heavy blitz schemes as it will allow Russell Wilson to diagnose the defense with multiple crossing routes of different depths to attack all three levels of the defense. Using a levels concept we can specifically target areas of the field vacated by players if a safety is cheats in to help with the run or if a Linebacker is coming in on a pass rush. By utilizing these routes we’ll have a playmaker in each zone of the field but also have a RB in a wheel route or a screen as a quick check down to pick up easy yardage if everyone is covered. 

Defense 

Make Rome one dimensional – Unfortunately for Rome their Gurley and Lindsay are both hurt and ruled out this week heading into the Bizz Bowl. This leaves Rome with a lead back tandem of Marlon Mack and Theo Riddick. With no TE to speak of (or at least no one that I’d advise putting on the field) this leaves Roquon Smith in the box with the sole focus of sniffing out the RB and shutting down the running game either via traditional handoffs or via targets in the passing game. If for some reason Rome decides to put a TE on the field he will be covered by Eric Weddle but we’re not expecting it. If Rome decides to come with a two back look we will sub KJ Wright in for Fackrell giving us the better overall linebacker on the field to address both running backs.

Get Pressure on Drew Brees – While shutting down the run game makes them one dimensional, with Drew Brees at the helm it’s still a pretty good dimension. Drew has been on a little bit of a downslope the last 5 games averaging only 205 yards passing with 7 TDs to 4 INTs, that said we don’t want him to regain his form this week. We’re again featuring the line of Clark-Rankins-Buckner-Clowney and their 41 sacks on the season. This week they’ll have a mandate of pinning their ears back and wrecking Drew’s world. To keep our pass rushers fresh and counter any sort of hurry-up offense tiring out our lineman we willll make sure to regularly rotate in Harold Landry, Arik Armstead, and BJ Hill and their combined additional 12 sacks on the year. Without the presence of the running game pass rush specialist Kyler Fackrell and his 9.5 sacks will get the start in place of KJ Wright. Kyler will be responsible for blitzing and providing additional A Gap pressure as we believe the weakness in the Rome line lies with Justin Britt as a lower tier Center, and Braden Smith, the rookie, who is “performing well for a rookie” but definitely not a top tier BDL guard capable of handling double teams at the point of attack.

Play disciplined in the secondary – Against Rome we will play a base Cover 2 press man coverage. Casey Hayward will cover JuJu, Marshon Lattimore will cover Cooper, and Darryl Roberts will cover Edelman. If Rome decides to go 4 or 5 wide K’Waun Williams and Bobby McCain will come off the bench and play interior corner while Lattimore and Hayward stay on the boundaries. We will also adjust the focus of our safeties to make sure they’re watching if Rome decides to try and slide JuJu or Cooper inside so McCain and Williams see additional help. With no running game to lift the burden off of Brees we don’t want to play zone coverage and give his wide receivers any room to operate so we will be jamming the WRs at the line. With the Cover 2 we’re going to keep both DJ Swearinger (Please don’t force me to address how Swearinger who is a 2019 Pro-bowl alternate and #3 PFF FS was released for trash talking his DC, He’s a top FS, don’t try and spin it) and Eric Weddle deep to avoid anything over the top. With these deep responsibilities covered by both safeties we’re forcing Brees to beat us underneath, in press coverage, before our front four gets home with the added bonus of an additional blitzer from the LBs. Good luck.

TL;DR – Psh. It’s the Bizz Bowl, you go back and read all those words because I spent the time to put them there and it’s the only match-up of the week. Ya lazy bum.

 

 

 

Rome Eternals

Offense 

With our 1 and 2 running backs out this week, we are going to put the emphasis on the passing game and Drew Brees.  Drew thrives in these situations and we have weapons galore in the passing game for him to use

Tempo

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

 

Offense

Passing game

Per usual, we are going to go after what we perceive to be weak spots of our opponents defense.  For this particular game, it is corner depth We also know Hawaii likes to switch up defenses so we are going to open up in trips normally and use motion to determine man or zone based simply on numbers.

Julian Edelman, if not double covered is gonna get a plethora of looks against Daryl Roberts /k’wuan Williams.   Hawaii also likes to leave their best two corners on the outside so we are gonna slide Juju inside to see if we can get him matched up against the third or fourth corner.

If that corner goes with him, Ginn is gonna get a lot of of targets outside as Brees can simply read the coverage in man.  If it is off Ginn is gonna hit some comebacks and outs. Press, expect some deep shots as we don't anticipate a lot of cover two in man unless they want Edelman going bonkers underneath.

Now despite all that we know Cooper and Juju are having a great second half of the year and they are still gonna get theirs.  Lattimore and Hayward are both solid corners but we won't shy away.

Riddick will get third down work and he'll grab some targets if he's forgotten about

Drew is in charge of the wagon.  If they are playing cover two man underneath routes of slants and drags which will lead to long methodical drives.  Cover ones outs, comebacks and deep shots

RPO

With the four wide look, it should lend to some lighter boxes.  Clark has been known to be aggressive in the pass rush so we look to run a couple rpos using him with hopefully diving underneath his up field rush.  If not it'll allow Brees and our wr the extra second or two to get open

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 Inman running some deep shots.

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. .   

Generally though we are gonna use the pass to open up the run.   Draws and pitches are the name of the game here. The draws slow down the pass rush while our pitches will mostly be to the right to use the athleticism of our line on that side of the ball.  The four wide motion should give us some lighter boxes to get to the second level. Especially if Clark sells out on the RPO

Mack gets 15 or so carries with Riddick  handful in the run game.

Zone

Per usual if we see zone expect Brees to use a trips formation and set up floods and seams.  If we see a lot of zone looks, expect some screens to Cooper in the trips formation using the blocking of Edelman and Juju to get some chunk gains as they'll have the numbers advantage on the outside.  

Special bizzbowl wrinkle

We bring in Trubisky this week to work in our Tayson Hill role with the added benefit of him bejng able to throw well.  It's the finals and we don't care if mitch gets hurt here so we can run some read and speed options on third and short distances out of the spread. This also opens up qb draws. If they creep up to stop it we'll play action over the top to a speedster.

Tl/Dr.  Attack the CB depth, put it on Brees shoulders, tempo tempo tempo with added wrinkles to get the run game effective

Defense
This week we welcome in Dangerruss and the Barkley show.  Unfortunately for Hawaii, as of this writing it appears Brown isn't playing which kinda cripples what Hawaii normally likes to do.  We do have an entire second defensive strategy planned in case he does suit up so apologies in advance for super long section

 

No Brown

Running game

Without Brown, we are able to key in more directly on the running game.  We do this by inputting a 5-2 style of defense. With Hawaii only having 2-3 healthy wr we feel this can be effective.

Up front we have some big beef run stoppers in Pennel and Tomlinson while Dunlap has been one of the best run stopping edges for a while.  Davenport is no slouch and Autry gets a backup OL. (more on that later. 

Barkley is most dangerous when he gets to the outside so we are going to attempt to funnel everything inside by keeping the edges out wide and letting Vander Esch and Mosly do what they do.

The five man front should also keep Wilson in the pocket as we try to minimize him taking off

Up front

Hawaii has some major issues on their interior offensive line with Ryan Kelly out, Pat Elferin is in and he is turrible (pff stat of the week.  He's 37th of 38 eligible centers). Next to him we see Ben Garland, whose been benched for the past three weeks but will probably play today due to Falcons o line injuries. Pennel has been a force in the run game this year and should get instant push up the middle while Autry has a bunch of sacks and should get pressure against Garland.  The tackles are good but our guys are maintaining edge responsibilities to limit both outside running and Wilson scrambling.

Passing defense

With Brown out we are gonna key in on Stefon Diggs.  We have a cover one look from our safety this week but his first read is gonna be stopping Diggs on short intermediate routes.  Humphrey has the coverage on Diggs and will remain physical at the line to allow the front five to get home. Jackson gets Trequon Smith on the other side

We insert Amukamra into the safety role again this week due to Cohen/Barkley receiving ability.  Prince will cover Cohen if he is in the game regardless of where he lines up. If not he'll have Barkley. LVE will be in charge of Barkley /white.  Mosley has Goedert. If they do some strange six man o line thing again the extra man spies Wilson.

If we see Cohen constantly lining up at WR, we'll take out Pennel for Nrc and have some little guy on little guy action.  Jenkins will have a third WR if there is one.

Defensive line rotation

Hawaii likes to run a hurry up lately but we've been doing that most of the season so far our guys are used to getting lots of snaps.  However we feel we have the depth to rotate linemen in on the regular when needed without losing much up front

Brown plays

We would go to a four man line in this situation.   Jackson would be in charge here with Williams double help.  Humphrey would get Diggs one on one in what would be a must see matchup.  If we determine Brown is hobbled and just a decoy, we'll flip doubles and humphrey

All our other assignments would be the same however we'd have anzalone playing intermediate cover one/Wilson spy.  Instead of five DL in a two wr te look. Robley would replace anzalone in a brown Diggs Cohen Barkley look. With nrc on Cohen assignment.  Three wide two RB Jenkins on wr 3 nrc on Cohen, Barkley by LVE, mosly off. 4 wr have four corners on 4 wr, prince on RB cover one robber

Autry would be off in early downs while Pennel would come off in passing downs.

Mixing it up

Per usual we will throw in some zones, though slightly more often if they are using Cohen from RB motion to wr

Tl/dr    

No Brown

Take away Diggs and Barkley, pressure up the middle. Keep Wilson running in check

With brown

Don't let ab beat us, nothing else changes

 

[bcb1213]

brown, kelly inactive hurt for hawaii

ioanidis inactive hurt for me

[Scoundrel]

Brown inactive really hurts Hawaii. But hey it’s Ben Watson’s last game and they might pull it out for him.

[pheltzbahr]

With Brown in, I think this would be an easy decision for Hawaii for me.  Will have to drill down deep, nutemsayin.

[Jlash]

Brown being out is a huge blow, that sucks. I thought Hawaii might be able to take advantage of using both Saquon and Cohen in the passing game together to alleviate that loss, but Rome has a really solid counter for that so I don't think it nets Hawaii anything. 

Really good game plans from both. Some unfortunate injuries, but Rome has the depth to survive their injuries and win.

[Hockey5djh]

Brown is a big loss for sure but a combo of Diggs, Smith, Watson, and Doctson is much better than his real I life combo of Lockett , David Moore, Vannett, and I don't know who else. Our levels, attacking deep gameplan will still hold.

[bcb1213]

15 minutes ago, Hockey5djh said:

Brown is a big loss for sure but a combo of Diggs, Smith, Watson, and Doctson is much better than his real I life combo of Lockett , David Moore, Vannett, and I don't know who else. Our levels, attacking deep gameplan will still hold.

diggs may be an upgrade, but smith is a big downgrade and if you're depending on Ben Watson and Josh Doctson,  more power to you

[ny92mike]

On 12/30/2018 at 5:06 PM, bcb1213 said:

brown, kelly inactive hurt for hawaii

ioanidis inactive hurt for me

Tyron Smith was dealing with an injury prior to being inactive.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/cowboys-tyron-smith-sitting-out-sunday/

[bcb1213]

Did you literally read the link you posted 

There is a huge difference between practiced, held out to not risk anything in meaningless game to 

Didn't practice held out because of knee in must win game 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2812875-antonio-brown-out-vs-bengals-with-knee-injury.amp.html

[ny92mike]

12 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

Did you literally read the link you posted 

There is a huge difference between practiced, held out to not risk anything in meaningless game to 

Didn't practice held out because of knee in must win game 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2812875-antonio-brown-out-vs-bengals-with-knee-injury.amp.html

He is listed on the injury report as questionable with a neck injury.  If the team didn't want to future damage him or risk a more serious injury and decided to sit him, then ok but that doesn't change the fact he's listed on the injury report.

 

 

[ny92mike]

What's the story with Ryan Ramczyk?

I'm looking at two starters on the line in Smith and Ramczyk that are listed as injured and didn't play.

[bcb1213]

25 minutes ago, ny92mike said:

What's the story with Ryan Ramczyk?

I'm looking at two starters on the line in Smith and Ramczyk that are listed as injured and didn't play.

Ramcyk got the brees Kamara treatment.  

Literally practiced all week.  Has had a dinged up shoulder for over a month.  Missed two snaps all year because he banged his knee, completely unrelated 

[ny92mike]

12 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

Ramcyk got the brees Kamara treatment.  

Literally practiced all week.  Has had a dinged up shoulder for over a month.  Missed two snaps all year because he banged his knee, completely unrelated 

Brees and Kamara aren't listed as having injuries.  So I don't think you can really say that they are getting the same treatment as those two guys.  It might be something similar but not the same.

Both Smith and Ryan are listed as having injuries, all I'm saying is that it's hard to overlook that both of them are listed as having injuries and whether they sat out as a precaution or if they were legitimately hurt that it should be noted at the very least.  I'm sure that many players listed as questionable or limited in practice end up sitting out to prevent a more threatening injury, sure this happens all season long.  

If the player was inactive because its week 17 and they want to give their players a rest I can understand that, but if they are on the injury list and don't play to allow them time to get healthy, then it should be looked at as if they are hurt and didn't play.