BDL 2019 Week 5 - Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Hawaii Nightmarchers

[SirA1]

BDL 2019 Week 5

Match:   Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Hawaii Nightmarchers

Away Owner: @RuskieTitan

Home Owner: @Pickle Rick 

Vote for who you think will win this 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

[SirA1]

vory Coast Black Rhinos Lineup:

QB- Matt Ryan
RB- Nick Chubb
FB- Anthony Sherman
WR- Alshon Jeffery
WR- Terry McLaurin
TE- Jared Cook
LT- Dennis Kelly
LG- Kyle Long 
C- Jason Kelce
RG- Zack Martin
RT- Rick Wagner

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QB- Daniel Jones
RB- Austin Ekeler
WR- Curtis Samuel
WR- Robby Anderson
WR- Adam Humphries
OL- Trent Williams
OL- Andre Smith
OL- Billy Price

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DE- Khalil Mack
DT- Da'Ron Payne
NT- Larry Ogunjobi
DE- Myles Garrett
LB- Lavonte David
LB- Devin White
CB- Shaquill Griffin
CB- Adoree' Jackson
CB- Malcolm Butler
FS- Earl Thomas
SS- Devin McCourty

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DE- Shilique Calhoun
DE- Jordan Willis
DT- Maurice Hurst
LB- Bobby Okereke
LB- Jerome Baker
CB- Brandon Carr
CB- Ross Cockrell
S- Eric Reid

 

Hawaii Nightmarchers

Offensive Starters:

QB - Russell Wilson

RB - Tarik Cohen

WR1 - Stefon Diggs

WR2 - Auden Tate 

WR3 - Diontae Johnson

WR4 - Tre'quan Smith

LT - Cam Robinson

LG - Marshall Yanda 

C - Ryan Kelly

RG - Brandon Scherff   edit: starting Pat Elflein instead 

RT - Bryan Bulaga 

Offensive Bench:

T - Taylor Decker

C - J.C. Tretter

G - Pat Elflein

TE - Vance McDonald

RB - Alexander Mattison

_________________

Defensive Starters:

DE - Jadaveon Clowney

DT - DeForest Buckner

DT - Sheldon Rankins

DE - Frank Clark

OLB - Demario Davis

MLB - Roquon Smith 

OLB - Harold Landry

CB - Casey Heyward

CB - Marshon Lattimore

S - Anthony Harris

S - Eric Weddle 

Defensive Bench:

Slot CB - Bobby McCain

DE - Kyler Fackrell

DT - BJ Hill

DT - Chris Wormley

LB - Duke Riley

CB - Charvarious Ward

CB - Kendall Sheffield

S - Karl Joseph 

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by SirA1

[SirA1]

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos Gameplan:

Offense
Primary Formation: 2 Wide "21" Personnel- We are coming out with 2 wide receiver set, with a traditional power look, although we'll also spend a few plays in 3 wide and 4 wide sets.

Running Game Focus- We are going to leverage newly acquired Anthony Sherman as a lead blocker and feed Nick Chubb this game. We expect to give him approximately 25+ carries, along with several targets in the passing game to compliment it. Ekeler will come in and give him some breathers as well. We want to establish our offense and maintain control of the ball, so lots of hard nose running. We'll sprinkle in some jet sweeps as well as fakes to keep the defense honest, and utilize some counters against overly aggressive defensive alignments.

Passing Game Focus- We're going to build off the the running game and use it to help set up playaction passes downfield. We want to send at least one receiver deep on most pass plays, and have a fresh stable of receivers to rotate in to wear down the defense. We'll also utilize some 3 and 4 wide sets, going into shotgun to spread out the tired defense and let Matt Ryan pick them off. We'll use some screen passes as well, both to the backs (Sherman or Chubb) as well as the receivers themselves.

X-Factor on Offense: Nick Chubb- We will treat him as a bellcow this game, establishing the run to help set up the pass with some deep shots. He's going to get his touches today, and we are targeting 25+ carries with 30+ touches.

Defense
Defensive Formation: 4-2-5 Defense- We will come out in a 4-2-5 set anticipating a 3 receiver set from Hawaii. If they go a more traditional heavy set, we will use Jerome Baker as our additional linebacker and send Malcolm Butler to the bench. If they want to spread it out further, White will come off and Brandon Carr would be the dime back.

Secondary Coverage: Cover-2 Zone and Man Mix- We will use a cover 2 shell over the top, with a mixture of zones and man coverage underneath. Jackson will be primarily responsible for Diggs. We will keep our playmaking safeties over the top as additional protection against deep shots during man when we utilize some press, and in zone we trust them to make Wilson pay for bad decisions.

Defensive Box- We feel confident we can stop the Nightmarchers rushing attack without needing to bring an additional safety into the box, nor do we need to rely heavily on blitzes. We'll still use some blitz packages, but the main focus will be to keep Russell Wilson contained. Devin White and Lavonte David will alternate playing zone middle / spy on Wilson to keep him in the pocket. Myles Garrett and Khalil Mack will fire off the edges to collapse the pocket, while our interior defensive linement will be two gapping and preventing Wilson from escaping up the middle.

X-Factor on Defense: Safeties- With us playing both safeties high, we hope that they have a few opportunities to make plays on any deep shots done by the Nightmarchers.

 

Hawaii Nightmarchers

Gameplan 

Motivation: After firing our head coach mid-season, due to a horrific 0-3 start, the players have rallied behind the interm coaches @Pickle Rick and @The Orca.  They are beloved by the players and have an innate ability to draw out even more from all those around them.  Getting a win for the new coaches is driving the players this week and it is a huge motivator. 

Offensive Base Formation: 4 WR set, 3 bunched spread out to the hash with 1 isolated on the flip side.  

Tempo: We will be playing really fast this week to create confusion and mistakes for the opposing defense.  On 1st down if we gain enough yards to stay ahead of the chains we will run the next play at lightning speed (snap the ball within 15 seconds).  There will be no substitutions and force the D to try and adjust to keep up.  As long as we stay ahead of the chains or gaining first downs we will keep the tempo going fast.  However, unlike most fast tempo teams, once we get behind the chains or move to 3rd and medium or long we will slow things back down and get the right play calls in to keep the chains moving.  This style will allow us to move fast and tire out the D, but also eat clock and allow our D to rest.  That is the main issue with fast tempos, if you go 3 and out in 20 seconds your D does not have a chance to rest, which is why we will move fast when ahead of the chains and slow down when behind them.  

Playcalling Distribution:

30% pass

20% run

20% playaction pass

20% RPO

10% read option

Personnel Changes: Auden Tate will be inserted into the WR2 spot, pushing Johnson and Smith down to 3 and 4.  Tate has been having a breakout year for him and we look for him to continue that push.  Cam Robinson had a nice perfomance last week opening some big holes (for Fournette) and we look for him to keep things going this week.  

Running: Our running game this week will be used primarily to set up our passing game.  However, that said, we expect to break some big plays with Cohen running strictly due to our tempo and formations forcing IC into some bad setups and decisions.  

With most of our offensive sets having our receivers spread out to the hash, it will force IC to spread out with them leaving 5 on 5 or 5 on 6 in the box.  This will allow our top 3 C, Kelly, to double either tackle and make his way to the LB's, thus opening up some holes for Cohen in the middle.  Cohen will be helping to spell our receivers at times if McDonald is a no go this week.  This will mean Mattison will be getting more run this week.  If McDonald does play we will have him spelling the WR's as well and moving to a trips bunch set with the TE on the flip side more often to help rest the WR's. 

Our runs will be focused more on the inside, until we decide to sprinkle in the read option.  If IC is in man the read option will be sprinkled in and should allow Wilson to read the DE's and pickup chunks of 10 yards plus just based on the formation alone.  

We will sporadically throw in a few read options on 3rd and short to all Wilson to read the DE and pick up the short yardage with the D spread out to the hash and not abke to help.  

Passing: This is where we will pick apart IC's defense.  His D is best when Mack and Garrett are getting to the QB to disrupt the QB's rhythm and get sacks.  Our plan is to not allow either of them a single chance to reach the QB.  At the end of the game the announcers will be asking "Did Mack and Garret even play this game?"

Our passing game will be focused on running quick slants, out routes, and crossing patterns all out of the bunch or stacked formations.  This will get the ball out of Wilson's hands well before either edge rusher can get to him.  These routes also will be able to pick apart the D coverage, whether its man or zone.  To help out with pass blocking, the RB will help on whichever DE is playing better, before flaring out to be an outlet for Wilson if the WR's cant get open.  

RPO's will be a growing staple in our offense, this week we will be sprinkling them in when we run up tempo after big plays or first downs.  They are optimal when running fast bc it is an easy read for Wilson and should make big plays catching the D off guard.  

Audibles: Wilson will have free reign to check out of the runs and into passes to take advantage of poor alignments from IC D. Most of our offense works off of pre-snap reads and Wilson will be able to get us into the plays we want with the simple offense. 

Defense Base Formation: 4-3 defense, switching to Nickel in passing downs and dependent upon ingame situations.  The 4-3 D will be able to pack the box and stuff IC's rungame before it can even get going.  

Defensive Base coverages:

Tampa 2 - 25 %

Cover 3 - 25 %

Quarters - 25 %

Cover 2 Man Under - 13%

Cover 1 Man - 12%

 

Playstyle: IC has been a strong running team as of late and we expect them to try and continue focusing on that as their main offensive style.  We will be gearing up to put a stop it and force Matt Ryan and their weaker WR's to try and beat us.  

On early downs we will be run blitzing with our LB's and even bringing down the safeties at times to put 7-8 in the box and put a stop on Chubb.  Our zone D will help strongly in stopping the run game.  

In the passing game our zone D will prevent Gordon from escaping deep and by switching up the coverage we will be looking to fool Matt Ryan, who this year has been pretty bad at recognizing coverage as can be seen by this 6 picks in 4 games.  Expect 2-3 turnovers from Ryan again as our coverage will be able to fool him and allow our DE's to put some jarring hits on him.  

Tl;dr: Offense will be very fast uptempo from a 4WR spread set (3 bunched) where we pick the spots to go fast.  Quick passing game across the middle with RPO's and read option sprinkled in to take advantage of open space created by the formations.  Defense will be predominately 4-3 zone D, crowding the box to stop the run and force a turnover prone Matt Ryan to pass into mixed coverage, creating turnovers.

Edited October 6, 2019 by SirA1

[Pickle Rick]

So here is a question....

Devin White was active but did not play at all.  How do you all treat him in that situation?

[Scoundrel]

2 minutes ago, Pickle Rick said:

So here is a question....

Devin White was active but did not play at all.  How do you all treat him in that situation?

Theoretically he would be able to play in this matchup. But he put up no stats and that is what some will look at as him having no impact. 

[Scoundrel]

Also great job Pickle and Orca on your gameplan. I disagree that you are both beloved though.

[bcb1213]

4 minutes ago, Pickle Rick said:

So here is a question....

Devin White was active but did not play at all.  How do you all treat him in that situation?

For me, they said post game they didn't think he was ready for full load so I'd basically view him as out 

[Pickle Rick]

9 minutes ago, Counselor said:

Also great job Pickle and Orca on your gameplan. I disagree that you are both beloved though.

[RuskieTitan]

39 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

For me, they said post game they didn't think he was ready for full load so I'd basically view him as out 

Isn't that the purpose of having bench players? If a player is struggling you can have alternates step in?

Saw he was activated for this game, so brought him in. Still carried 4 LBs on a 4-3 regardless. 

[bcb1213]

28 minutes ago, RuskieTitan said:

Isn't that the purpose of having bench players? If a player is struggling you can have alternates step in?

Saw he was activated for this game, so brought him in. Still carried 4 LBs on a 4-3 regardless. 

Absolutely. It would be next man up for u 

[VigilantZombie]

I'm torn on this game.

[Whicker]

Tough game here. I love the game plan structure from Hawaii (IC’s too) and I look forward to see what these guys can do with a healthy team and their own offseason. 

I like IC here though. No Barkley is a massive massive blow as Cohen isn’t anywhere near a feature back. I think they’ll end up having to go one dimensional with a serious lack of running ability. Wilson will drop some dimes but otherwise I feel like Hawaii is going to struggle to throw the ball against a decent secondary and a fearsome rush. 

On the other side, while I don’t love the pass game for IC either, I think Chubb ends up the second (behind Wilson) best player on the field in this match and that’s enough to grind out a defensive win 

[Scoundrel]

1 minute ago, Whicker said:

Tough game here. I love the game plan structure from Hawaii (IC’s too) and I look forward to see what these guys can do with a healthy team and their own offseason. 

I like IC here though. No Barkley is a massive massive blow as Cohen isn’t anywhere near a feature back. I think they’ll end up having to go one dimensional with a serious lack of running ability. Wilson will drop some dimes but otherwise I feel like Hawaii is going to struggle to throw the ball against a decent secondary and a fearsome rush. 

On the other side, while I don’t love the pass game for IC either, I think Chubb ends up the second (behind Wilson) best player on the field in this match and that’s enough to grind out a defensive win 

These are my feelings on this game as well. I how ever do like IC’s potential in their passing game with Scary Terry having a legitimate QB to throw the ball to him with Alshon.

[VigilantZombie]

I like this match up to be really really close but as a player in quality of player I think they Nick Chubb is a difference maker in this game. I feel like this game is going to come down to a 4th qtr grind and I don't like Cohen for that role.

ICBR squeaks on out here in a lower scoring affair.

17-14 ICBR

[Jlash]

I think without the ability to consistently run the ball (I like Cohen but he can't bang against that front for a full game) I think Hawaii's quick strike passing game could fall into some traps with IC running a lot of zone this week. Flying to the line and hurrying up quick routes can lead to a player in a zone drifting right into one of those quick throwing lanes, especially if IC does it as consistently as it seems like they will. I think that leads to a couple big defensive plays from IC that could be the game changer in a close one.

IC.