BDL 2019 Week 7 - Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Camden Hood Rats

[Whicker]

BDL 2019 Week 7

Match:  Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Camden Hood Rats

Away Owner: @Ragnarok

Home Owner: @Jlash

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

[Whicker]

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense
QB - Tom Brady
RB - David Johnson
Slot - Chris Godwin
WR - Kenny Golladay
WR - Will Fuller
TE - Hunter Henry
LT - Kolton Miller
LG - Martinas Rankin
C - Corey Linsley
RG - Gabe Jackson
RT - Taylor Moton

RB - Aaron Jones
WR - MVS
WR - Marquise Brown
TE - Irv Smith Jr.
TE - Jordan Akins
OG/OC - Dan Feeney
OG - Ron Leary

Defense
DE - Justin Houston
NT - Brandon Williams
DT - Quinnen Williams
DE - Demarcus Lawrence
OLB - Tremaine Edmunds
MLB - Rashaan Evans
CB - Darius Slay
CB - Gareon Conley
CB - Byron Murphy
S - Lamarcus Joyner
S - Juan Thornhill

DE - Deatrich Wise
DE - Za’Darius Smith
DE - Markus Golden
DT - Leonard Williams
DT - Taven Bryan
OLB - Blake Cashman
CB/S - Damontae Kazee
CB - Mike Hilton

 

 

Camden Hood Rats

QB- Lamar Jackson
RB- Sony Michel
WR- DeAndre Hopkins
WR- Courtland Sutton
Slot- Cooper Kupp
TE- Evan Engram
LT- Hal Vaitai
LG- Forrest Lamp
C- Chase Roullier
RG- Larry Warford
RT- Orlando Brown Jr
_______________________
RB- David Montgomery
RB- Carlos Hyde
WR- AJ Brown
WR- Cole Beasley
TE- Delanie Walker
TE- Jason Witten
OL- Isaac Seumalo
OL- Tyrell Crosby

DE- Chandler Jones
DT- Quinton Jefferson
DT- Dexter Lawrence
DE- Yannick Ngakoue
LB- Darius Leonard
S/Dime LB- Jamal Adams
CB- AJ Bouye
CB- Justin Coleman
CB- Daryl Worley
S- Kevin Byard
S- Chuck Clark
___________________
DE- Maxx Crosby
DE/DT- Montez Sweat
DE/DT- Solomon Thomas
DE- Shaq Lawson
DT- Poona Ford
LB- Todd Davis
CB- Terrance Mitchell
CB/S- Amani Hooker

 

[Whicker]

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense
We welcome back Gabe Jackson as our offense is getting healthier, so we want to run a bit more this week.

We are going to rotate Johnson and Jones to keep both fresh throughout the game.  We want each to get around 18-20 touches with 4-6 of those being passes.  Look for a few draws and screens to slow down the Camden pass rush.  With Gabe back, and Hicks out for Camden, we are going to run inside a bit more than usual as we believe we can have success attacking the middle of the defense.  We will test their DT depth and try to exhaust them by the 4th quarter.

3 WR - Our main set for this game, we will use this around 65% of the time.  With Hunter Henry healthy, we want to incorporate him a lot in both facets.  Leonard is back for Camden, but we are going not going to shy away from anyone in coverage.  We will be in shotgun about half the time to give Brady a bit more time to read the defense, but we will be under center more than usual as we want to use more play action against this defense.

We are going to use fewer bunch sets than we have in the past, however, we will move a WR across the formation to give Brady pre-snap information.  Our WRs will run every route and we will test every Camden CB.    

2 TE - We use this set maybe 25% of the time with Irv and Henry as TEs and Golladay and Godwin at WR.  We are going to use them as additional blockers and to force Camden to put a 3rd LB on the field in coverage.  We will use primarily play-action passes in this set, especially attacking the seams and behind the LBs when they get sucked up.

When we have a lead late in the game, we will use this set to grind out the clock.  Henry will be the TE on the line and Irv will serve as HB.  And we will just grind out the game. 

4 WR - We will bring in MVS for Henry the remaining 10%.  We will spread out the Camden D, put Brady in shotgun, and go hurry-up.  We will use a couple screens and draws in this set when the Camden pass-rushers get too excited.

Defense -
General - We want to keep Lamar in the pocket and force him to beat us deep.

We aren’t sure who Camden will put at LT, but we will make sure they have to give him help every play.  We are going to rotate Golden and Za’Darius in to keep our edge guys fresh.  On obvious passing downs, we will put a DE or two inside for additional pass rush fun.  We think our DL can win the LOS every snap.

3 WR - Cover 1 Man.  Slay takes Sutton, Conley takes Hopkins, Byron takes the slot.  Tremaine takes Engram and Rashaan spies the RB.  Thornhill will sit over the top of Hopkins so he is doubled every play.

Joyner is going to play up in the box to give us an extra man to defend against the run.  He will spy Lamar and sit in a middle zone, just following Lamar across the field to meet him at the LOS.

We want to force Lamar to take shots down the field as we don’t think we can do that consistently enough to beat us.

Cover 3 zone.  We will use zone almost half the time in our nickel set to keep Lamar guessing.  This will allow our defenders to keep an eye on the backfield and keep Lamar from running wild.

4 WR - Cover 1 Man.  Kazee comes in for Rashaan and takes the other WR, but everything else stays the same.  Tremaine spies the RB/TE and will come on a delayed blitz if the RB/TE stays in to block

Joyner will start closer to the line at the snap to put an extra man in the box.  He will sit in middle zone/spy Lamar.

Cover 2 Zone.  We will have Joyner drop out into a deep half next to Thornhill while everyone else plays a standard Cover 2.

2 TE - If they use this, Cashman comes in for Byron.

 

Camden Hood Rats

Offense
This week we take on Berlin who is very confident coming off a big shutout win, feeling motivated to beat me because a completely different team clowned me to prove a point to the league and I agreed with it. So we're going to use their over aggressive attitude against them. First of all let's address the elephant in the room, my left tackle situation because I'm sure Rags will call my starter "poopie" or some other nice descriptive word to prove how dominant his line will be. We're starting Hal Vaitai, a 17 game starter in this league and a Super Bowl winning left tackle in 2017 when he started the final 10 games for an injured Jason Peters. For sure he's the weakest part of my line, but if you read further you'll see in my keys to win how we plan to work around it. 

Using the pass rush against them with Jackson- Rags has already pointed out in the discussion thread how he's licking his chops to get his pass rushers going against whoever I put at LT this week. That's just fine, because we plan on letting Vaitai take an inside set, forcing Lawrence/Houston/Smith/Golden outside and just pushing them straight past the pocket doing two things. 1) Running them directly out of the play 2) Leaving a gaping hole for Jackson to take off into. We'll do this time and time again until that pass rush is so tired of getting burnt that they're force to just squat in their pass rushing lanes to defend a scramble. We'll even use delayed QB runs to the same effect against this rush since that's Jacksons best asset.  Our RB's will be left in on passing downs for the most part (read further on that) to help block and expect Engram to chip on Vaitai's side before breaking off into his route.

Attacking those CB's- Rags is high on his starting CB trio as everyone really likes their own, but aside from Slay the CB's are very beatable and our trio of starting WR's is as formidable and complete as any team in this league. I'd imagine Slay will shadow Hopkins (if not expect massive targets) and we won't shy away from him, but Sutton (6'4) and Kupp (6'2) will bring size advantages into their matchups that we'd like to exploit. We think we can out physical these guys, but every one of our starters (even AJ Brown off the bench) can make a big play at any time. Jackson still isn't respected as a passer (as Pheltz pointed out, hence me running him more) but with our usual RPO game being sprinkled in (roughly 25-35% of the time) with the defense worried about Jackson taking off we think we can get some of these guy open for Lamar. Zone, man or pattern matching we'll do our usual thing and take advantage of bunches and trip sets to work rubs and combo routes to force the defense to make quick decisions and/or fight through traffic for easy open passes ala what Tom Brady gets IRL. 

Screens/Draws/Sweeps/Off tackle- With Rags surely wanting to attack non stop, nothing kills that buzz quite as much as a getting burned by a good screen or draw play to gash an attacking defense. With our plan to ride the defensive ends down the field as often as possible we think this will open screens and draws early and often and we hope to get some chunk plays out of it. This will be the most basic plan for our run game. While the Williams brothers are more name than game at this point (Yea, I said it) they're still big boys who can stuff the run so attacking inside too much won't be smart. 

Defense (dime personnel cover 3 base)
Tom Brady may be older than dirt but he's still decades younger than Pheltz and equally as dangerous. It's a known fact that attacking Brady up the middle negates him stepping into throws and highlights his lack of mobility which forces him to get rid of the ball or take sacks in frustration. Easier said than done, but here's how we plan to do it.

Berlins OL vs my DL- I think we can say both teams have the advantage in the defensive trenches, but one of us has a QB who gets his 40 clocked with a sun dial and escapability is not an option. Everyone on this line except Taylor Moton is at a disadvantage in their matchup. Even then, Ngakoue is no slouch and can have a dominant game so he's no cake walk matchup. For this game, to exploit this we've purposely loaded up our defensive line reserves with a particular theme. In obvious passing downs, we'll put some bigger DE's inside to make life hell for Brady with massive pressure up the gut. Chandler Jones has a clear advantage against Kolton Miller in this one and is having another fantastic season so we won't move him much, but in 3rd and long guys like Montez Sweat, Solomon Thomas and Maxx Crosby can either come and line up inside to take advantage of Feeney/Linsley/Leary or take over outside while Chandler Jones or Ngakoue move inside.We're going to employ lots of line stunts also.  We really really feel we can make a difference here.

Dime personnel with 3 safeties- If Rags was smart (he is a lawyer so he ain't no dummy) he would put Hunter Henry back in the lineup over MVS or even Fuller who outside of 1 monster game has been average. To combat this, we've decided our base set will be a dime look (6 DB's) with 3 of them being safeties and Jamal Adams playing the dime LB role. Adams will  be in charge of erasing Henry and playing closer to the box to help in the run game. Adams is elite, and has no problem doing anything asked of him and I think this defense will force Tom Brady to get away from a quick strike check down offense by eliminating a safety valve like Henry. Leonard will be tasked with covering the RB and if the RB is staying in to block look for delayed blitzes from Leonard from time to time. When not blitzing and the RB stays in, look for Leonard to float an intermediate zone to hopefully drift into a Brady passing lane. 

Cover 3 base- This will be our base. If Rags still wants to trot out 4 wide all the time Chuck Clark will hit the bench, another CB will come in and Adams will go back to his traditional SS role. With Rags having some big physical WR's in the game sprinkled in with a true (although inconsistent) downfield threat in Fuller we feel the cover 3 is our best bet to keep everything covered in the secondary. Our corners will play sides, no particular matchups and our LB's/Dime LB's will have specific assignments. In 3 WR sets Justin Coleman will be on the inside to battle Godwin. Kevin Byard is one of the best FS's in the league so we trust him to fill the role of centerfielder in case one of these WR's gets loose deep. His 15 picks in less than the last 2 1/2 seasons is proof enough he's got the range and ball skills to take away a big play from Brady and Co. 

 

[VigilantZombie]

There is one major factor that worries me on this game for Camden and it is NOT LT, rather it is LG. Forrest Lamp...is just not that good.

Having said that people have tried all season to shut down Jackson and the only team IRL to be able to do it was the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second half (in terms of him running).

LJ being limited or shut down is not as simple as saying you're going to do it. He has clearly improved. Having said that I do believe that Camden can have some success. I also think Tom Brady isnt the GOAT player he once was. He is going to get pressured into mistakes in this game.

Here is the deciding factor for me though...it is a valid point that LT is an issue for Camden but when you throw in the fact Forrest Lamp might be one of the worst Guards in the LG.. I think when Jackson attempts to throw the ball he is going to get hit alot and while I don't think Berlins CBs are as good as Berlin thinks they are, they're going to have success against a QB that isnt going to get the protection he needs.

I have to give Berlin the edge here, but not by much.

17-14 Berlin

[Jlash]

22 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

the fact Forrest Lamp might be one of the worst Guards in the LG.

You watch a lot of Chargers games?

[VigilantZombie]

2 minutes ago, Jlash said:

You watch a lot of Chargers games?

Not really, I did watch him against the Steelers and Forrest Lamp was ....just bad...to be fair that whole OL sucks for LAC

Edited October 21, 2019 by wwhickok

[Jlash]

21 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

Not really, I did watch him against the Steelers and Forrest Lamp was ....just bad...to be fair that whole OL sucks for LAC

That was a legitimate question because the game you watched was his first start all year, so I was wondering if one of the "worst in the league" was based on more than that.

[VigilantZombie]

Just now, Jlash said:

That was a legitimate question because the game you watched was his first start all year, so I was wondering if one of the "worst in the league" was based on more than that.

He has struggled in general since drafted but mostly, I did know that was his first start and I based in heavily on that performance. It was a fair question.

[Jlash]

36 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

He has struggled in general since drafted

Well he missed his entire first year with an injury. So we've seen him in two starts. And now, no more starts.

Edited October 21, 2019 by Jlash

[SirA1]

5 minutes ago, Jlash said:

Well he missed his entire first year with an injury. So we've seen him in two starts. And now, no more starts.

I mean the opposing starting LG is Martinas Rankin who really is one of the worst Guards in the league. Trust me I know that's why I cut him. He literally only is starting because of injuries to the Chiefs OL. 

Edited October 21, 2019 by SirA1

[Ragnarok]

34 minutes ago, SirA1 said:

I mean the opposing starting LG is Martinas Rankin who really is one of the worst Guards in the league. Trust me I know that's why I cut him. He literally only is starting because of injuries to the Chiefs OL. 

To be fair though, Rankin played very well Thursday night in his first action at OG in KC.  You also cut him back when he was on the Texans after his rookie year when he didn't play.  I actually trust Andy Reid to develop OL.

[SirA1]

He played a ton in his first year.429 snaps, so about half the year and was bad at both OT and OG. It's not like he was inactive the whole year learning a system.

I cut him after the Shark tank because he was a waste of a roster spot. 

He's making his first start for you this year because he played on Thursday and thus was eligible to.

That being said I feel for you as you suffered a lot of other injuries this week too.

[Ragnarok]

4 minutes ago, SirA1 said:

He played a ton in his first year.429 snaps, so about half the year and was bad at both OT and OG. It's not like he was inactive the whole year learning a system.

I cut him after the Shark tank because he was a waste of a roster spot. 

He's making his first start for you this year because he played on Thursday and thus was eligible to.

That being said I feel for you as you suffered a lot of other injuries this week too.

Who other than Slay and Fuller?  Slay is the one I'm worried about.  

Profootball reference has him only playing 146 snaps on offense after week 4 last year..plus BOB can't develop OL to save his life. Rankin played very well Thursday so got the nod.  My OTs have been playing very well all year(Kolton has 9 pressures allowed this season), Linsley is a top 5 Center, and I got Gabe back.  So I think my OL is in a good spot.  When Cappa gets back, I'll finally have my intact OL.

[SirA1]

4 minutes ago, Ragnarok said:

Who other than Slay and Fuller?  Slay is the one I'm worried about.  

Profootball reference has him only playing 146 snaps on offense after week 4 last year..plus BOB can't develop OL to save his life. Rankin played very well Thursday so got the nod.  My OTs have been playing very well all year(Kolton has 9 pressures allowed this season), Linsley is a top 5 Center, and I got Gabe back.  So I think my OL is in a good spot.  When Cappa gets back, I'll finally have my intact OL.

David Johnson also may miss some time with a back injury.

I'm glad you like your OL. Moton is your best OL IMO and that is telling.

Edited October 22, 2019 by SirA1

[Ragnarok]

7 minutes ago, SirA1 said:

David Johnson also may miss some time with a back injury.

I'm glad you like your OL. Moton is your best OL IMO and that is telling.

Ah yeah, that's one where we just have to see.  

Well, Moton is an excellent RT who has only given up 5 pressures all year.  14 total pressures between my OTs is pretty damn good.