BDL 2019 Week 10 - Cuba Smugglers @ Gotham Gashslayers

[SirA1]

BDL 2019 Week 10

Match:  Cuba Smugglers @ Gotham Gashslayers

Away Owner: @MD4L

Home Owner: @pheltzbahr

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]

Cuba Smugglers

QB: DeShaun Watson 
RB: Dalvin Cook
WR: Julio Jones
WR: DJ Chark 
WR: Kenny Stills
TE: Jesse James 
LT: Anthony Castonzo
LG: Laken Tomlinson 
C: Ryan Jensen 
RG: David DeCastro 
RT: Germain Ifedi

OW: Jaylen Samuels
RB: Jamaal Williams
RB: Damien Williams 
TE: Eric Ebron
TE: Mo Alie-Cox
WR: Ted Ginn Jr.
OW: Taysom Hill 
OL: Elgton Jenkins 

Edge: Jerry Hughes 
DT: Jurrell Casey   INACTIVE
NT: Fletcher Cox 
Edge: Arik Armstead 
WLB: KJ Wright 
MLB: Eric Kendricks 
RCB: Kenny Moore 
NCB: Morris Claiborne 
FS: Rodney McLeod 
SS: Tyrann Mathieu 
LCB: Richard Sherman

OLB: Kyle Van Noy
DE: Denico Autry
DT: Jarran Reed
NT: Derrick Nnadi 
WLB: Sean Lee
RCB: Trae Waynes INACTIVE
RCB: Isaiah Oliver
S: Khari Willis 

Gotham Gashslayers

QB - Carson Wentz

RB - Josh Jacobs

WR - Tyreek Hill

WR - Jarvis Landry

WR- Devante Parker

TE - Kyle Rudolph

LT - Jake Matthews

LG - Andrus Peat

C - Maurkice Pouncey

RG - Shaq Mason

RT - Mike McGlinchey

 

RB - Lesean McCoy INACTIVE

RB - Rashaad Penny

WR - Geronimo Allison

WR - Deon Cain  FREE AGENT

TE - Hayden Hurst

OL - Alex Mack

OL - Michael Schofield

OL - Kaleb McGary

 

EDGE - Robert Quinn

INT - Chris Jones

INT - Dontari Poe

EDGE - Leonard Floyd

MLB - Benardrick McKinney

WLB - Zach Cunningham

CB - Xavier Rhodes

CB - Josh Norman

S - Minkah Fitzpatrick

S - Justin Simmons

S - Damarious Randall

 

EDGE - Charles Harris

INT - PJ Hall

INT - Vernon Butler

LB - Anthony Hitchens

LB - Danny Trevethan

CB - Jourdan Lewis

CB - Eric Rowe

CB - Rasul Douglas

S - Clayton Geathers

 

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by SirA1

[SirA1]

Cuba Smugglers

 

Gotham beat us earlier this season. Their record is the only thing that constitutes an issue with the team. They have a good offense and talented playmakers on defense. We welcome a matchup against a great team. 

Offense: We like our matchups across the board for DeShaun Watson. Usually Dalvin Cook is our difference maker but DeShaun will frequently air the ball out. We think Josh Norman could be prone to vertical routes by deep targets. DJ Chark and Julio Jones will run routes on the same side as a response to Justin Simmons being used as a centerfield/playmaker role from last week. We can run post routes from the slot and go’s outside on the same side to let Watson find the open man. Stills replaces Brandin Cooks and is more of a weapon down the field. We think he could have success when we stack him with one of our top two receivers and give him targets in isolated coverage. Outs, comebacks achieve this. We’ll mix some crossing routes to stretch the field. Additionally, Stills is a good weapon when Watson reverts breaks the pocket. 

Eric Ebron is a nice tertiary option in the passing game. We can increase his snap count to 25 but we’ll look to get him going early and often. He’s a redzone weapon we will him isolated as a WR in 3 TE sets. This is a new goal line power run formation hoping to take advantage of a mismatch. Adding Jesse James and Alie Cox will be helpful in blocking situations. They also open DeShaun Watson RPOs with Dalvin Cook that may leverage success in short yardage situations. 

Dalvin Cook will be the player besides Watson to receive the most individual touches. We expect him to carry the ball at most 18 times. His carries are inside zones mixed with counters behind DeCastro following the left side and toss plays with either guard pulling as the lead blocker. This matchup featuring Minkah Fitzpatrick forces us to add in some creative new lineups. Jaylen Samuels will become a more prominent player by handling snaps as the H-Back who allows us to use split back schemes with essentially a receiver that could take advantage of a LB on wheel routes while garner YAC with quick strikes against a safety. Jamaal Willams will split 3rd down reps with Cook. He’s got responsibility as the two minute RB this week. Cook will also get his 4-5 receiving opportunities based primarily on screens and delayed check downs after helping in pass protection. Damien Williams handles the scrap work.

Defense:
Gotham has a nice blend of weapons on offense. Usually Tyreek Hill is the sole attention of ours but Josh Jacobs has developed into a quality player. He’s a building block for Wentz, and we think Tyreek Hill can be accounted for with enough winning plays against the run. Arik Armstead gets the start for that reason. 

We’re going to respect Hill with coverages. If it’s obvious cover 3 vs non Sherman CBs, Rodney McCloud may lineup as far as 25 yards from the line of scrimmage.  If he’s in the slot, we will have Tyrann Mathieu come down in a pseudo LB role. He may move as if he’s blitzing but the bluff will add another eye to short targets for Hill. We have a couple presnap coverages where he drops down and splits with a nickel CB to remove an easy two way release with for the dynamic weapon. It’s a 3-2-6 scheme with Van Noy rushing from a free release and Tyrann playing slants as the WLB. Gotham runs 4 receiver packages so this coverage accounts for Landry and lesser target share players. Furthermore in man coverage, if Hill is not on Sherman’s side we want to let Kenny Moore shadow him. The help remains with the safety but Moore is the one other option we will have cover Hill for more than a couple plays. After that, we like our other boundary options when Moore goes to the slot. We would present more man coverage for Oliver and zone for Waynes. Waynes in all likelyhood covers Landry if he’s in on man coverage plays. Claiborne starts as our base coverage is boundaries play 3rds, safety drops into the box and covers short area targets with KJ Wright and Eric Kendricks. Claiborne plays underneath Kenny Moore.

Gotham Gashslayer

 

OFFENSE - 3WR/1RB/1TE (60 pass 40 run)

 

Passing Game - We are going to come out and be aggressive today out of our 3 wide base set.  With a formidable offense on the other side of the field, we are going to target Tyreek relentlessly if he is in single coverage.  Wentz will work out of RPO often, looking to keep the Smuggler pass rushers honest. Wentz will spread the ball around to Landry, Parker and Rudolph to keep everyone involved.

Running Game - OROY lock Josh Jacobs will be a focal point of our offense this week as well, looking to get him 20 touches this week.  Working off of RPO should keep the Cuba D Line off balance and allow him to have success moving the chains. McCoy will get some run in 3rd and long situations and we will spell Josh with Penny to keep him fresh.  

Protection - Pretty vanilla this week, we feel our O Line can keep Wentz clean, but we will chip with Rudolph and have McCoy on some read react blitz pro on 3rd and longs.

 

DEFENSE - 4-2-5 Heavy Nickel

 

With Watson having a stellar season and 2 dynamic weapons at his disposal, we look to slow down the Cuba offensive juggernaut.  With Brandin Cooks out, it makes our job a bit easier, but we feel we can contain this offense with our 3 safety heavy nickel base.

Run Defense - Establishing Cook will likely be a focus of Cuba early, so we are going to sell out early to prevent that, looking to stall Cuba’s first couple drives.  We will execute run blitzes early in the game with McKinney, Cunningham and Fitzpatrck, looking for TFLs and putting Cuba in long passing downs to convert. Against our 3 safety big nickel look, we match up well to prevent Cook from snapping off big plays.

Pass Defense - With Cooks out, we expect Cuba will come out in a 2 TE base, we counter with our 3 safety nickel to match up personnel.  Mixing man and zone concepts to keep Watson guessing, we play sides with Rhodes and Norman, while also rotating deep coverage duties between our safeties, using Cover 1, Cover 2 and Cover 3 out of our shell.  The point is to give Watson as many looks as possible, make him process what he is looking at and prevent him from getting comfortable in the pocket. With a heavy coverage scheme, we feel we can hide coverage and let our playmaking safeties get a couple picks to change the course of the game.

Pass Rush - We go with a 4 man rush primarily, but on obvious passing downs, we bring the house.  McKinney will blitz on almost every passing down in lieu of his run stopping duties. Fitz will cover RB outlets on read react, blitzing as well if max protect is detected. 

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by SirA1

[VigilantZombie]

This for me is a better game than I expected it might be. Both teams are really good and honestly I think roster quality is about equal. I also like Minkah Fitzpatrick to be good for at least one interception for a score in this game because...apparently it's what he does for a living. I think that is a major factor in this game and that isnt a knock on Watson because Watson is an excellent QB, but Minkah just finds a way.

I like Gotham in a dog fight 27-24 with the upset.

[MD4L]

LeSean McCoy was a healthy scratch yesterday.

[Ragnarok]

4 minutes ago, MD4L said:

LeSean McCoy was a healthy scratch yesterday.

Jurrell Casey was also inactive.

[Scoundrel]

So Gotham planned for the two tight set but never mentioned Cuba in another set. That’s putting all your eggs in one basket and guessing wrong. I’m sure they would adjust in game but I’d like to see it in the gameplan especially when you’ve seen a team run 3 wide so much at least be prepared for them to stick with it.

[pheltzbahr]

1 hour ago, Ragnarok said:

Jurrell Casey was also inactive.

Jacobs going to go HAM!

[pheltzbahr]

52 minutes ago, Counselor said:

So Gotham planned for the two tight set but never mentioned Cuba in another set. That’s putting all your eggs in one basket and guessing wrong. I’m sure they would adjust in game but I’d like to see it in the gameplan especially when you’ve seen a team run 3 wide so much at least be prepared for them to stick with it.

I get what you're saying, but where does it end?  People who are trying to cover every possibility wind up writing massive write ups that few bother to read.

It makes a lot of sense to see if the scheme I put out there makes sense against what they present on offense.  If you're asking if no one is going to cover Kenny Stills, that seems silly.  With my safeties all having excellent cover skills, and 2 of them with extensive time playing CB, only you can answer if you think it translates.

[MD4L]

6 minutes ago, pheltzbahr said:

Jacobs going to go HAM!

Arik Armstead and Denico Autry will stop the runs to the edge. Fletcher Cox is still inside.

[pheltzbahr]

1 minute ago, MD4L said:

Arik Armstead and Denico Autry will stop the runs to the edge. Fletcher Cox is still inside.

If you say so, lol.

[MD4L]

3 minutes ago, pheltzbahr said:

I get what you're saying, but where does it end?  People who are trying to cover every possibility wind up writing massive write ups that few bother to read.

It makes a lot of sense to see if the scheme I put out there makes sense against what they present on offense.  If you're asking if no one is going to cover Kenny Stills, that seems silly.  With my safeties all having excellent cover skills, and 2 of them with extensive time playing CB, only you can answer if you think it translates.

Now you only need to account for Dalvin Cook.

[Scoundrel]

3 minutes ago, pheltzbahr said:

I get what you're saying, but where does it end?  People who are trying to cover every possibility wind up writing massive write ups that few bother to read.

It makes a lot of sense to see if the scheme I put out there makes sense against what they present on offense.  If you're asking if no one is going to cover Kenny Stills, that seems silly.  With my safeties all having excellent cover skills, and 2 of them with extensive time playing CB, only you can answer if you think it translates.

I get what you are saying here. If they have never went out in the 3wide before. But it’s been their bread and butter all season. That’s different. I’m not asking you to have a set to neutralize a wildcat. I’m asking for acknowledgement of how you’ll defend their base offense from all season.

[Scoundrel]

6 minutes ago, MD4L said:

Now you only need to account for Dalvin Cook.

Well he isn’t getting the 7 targets in this game that he got last nights. 4-5 plus at most 18 carries. That’s at most 23 touches. Last night he had 33. So maybe with 10 less he doesn’t capitalize as much.

[MD4L]

Just now, Counselor said:

Well he isn’t getting the 7 targets in this game that he got last nights. 4-5 plus at most 18 carries. That’s at most 23 touches. Last night he had 33. So maybe with 10 less he doesn’t capitalize as much.

It’s fine. Julio Jones, DJ Chark, Jamaal Williams (13-63), Eric Ebron, and Kenny Stills account for touches. We think the threat Cook accounts for (Minkah is mainly helping cover RBs or shallow zone in cover 3) helps offset the amount of touches Minnesota accounts for.