BDL 2019 Week 11 - Cuba Smugglers @ Camden Hood Rats

[ny92mike]

BDL 2019 Week 11

Match:  Cuba Smugglers @ Camden Hood Rats

Away Owner: @MD4L

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

[ny92mike]

Cuba Smugglers

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

RB: James Williams 
WR: Ted Ginn Jr.
WR: Chester Rogers
TE: Josh Hill
OW: Jaylen Samuels 
OW: Taysom Hill 
TE: Jesse James
OL: Elgton Jenkins 

Edge: Jerry Hughes 
DT: Jarran Reed 
NT: Fletcher Cox
Edge: Kyle Van Noy 
SLB: De’Vondre Campbell 
MLB: Eric Kendricks 
RCB: Kenny Moore
NCB: Darqueze Dennard 
FS: Rodney McLeod 
SS: Tyrann Mathieu 
LCB: Richard Sherman 

Edge: Arik Armstead 
DE: Denico Autry
Edge: Carl Nassib
WLB: KJ Wright
CB: Trae Waynes 
RCB: Isaiah Oliver
NCB: Kevin Johnson 
SS: Khari Willis 

 

@ Camden Hood Rats

 

QB- Lamar Jackson
RB- Carlos Hyde
WR- DeAndre Hopkins
WR- Courtland Sutton
Slot- Cooper Kupp
TE- Jason Witten
LT- Garrett Bolles
LG- Larry Warford
C- Chase Roullier
RG- Trai Turner
RT- Orlando Brown Jr
_______________________
WR- AJ Brown
RB- Sony Michel
RB- David Montgomery
TE- Darren Fells
OL- Isaac Seumalo
OL- Tytus Howard
OL- Cordy Glenn
QB- Jimmy Garoppolo

DE- Yannick Ngakoue
DT- Dexter Lawrence
DT- Damon Harrison
DE- Montez Sweat
LB- Darius Leonard
LB- Jaylon Smith
CB- AJ Bouye
CB- Denzel Ward
CB- Greedy Williams
S- Kevin Byard
S- Jamal Adams
__________________
CB- Ahkello Witherspoon
CB- Justin Coleman
CB- Avonte Maddox
DE- Maxx Crosby
DE- Carl Lawson
DT- Tim Jernigan
DT- Poona Ford
S- Chuck Clark

Edited November 17, 2019 by ny92mike

[ny92mike]

Cuba Smugglers

Intro: This week we play Camden who has one of the most explosive players in the league in Lamar Jackson. We anticipate one hell of a game.

Offense: Camden brings as good a middle of the field as any in BDL. We pride ourselves in being able to work boundaries and isolation sequences against CBs. Fortunately for us the talent isn’t as potent in that area on this defense. We might be a bit hesitant to relentlessly target the top two CBs but our weapons make it hard to not frequently test those matchups out. We respect Bouye and Ward so we’ll try playing Julio/DJ Chark together and create matchups that win for our offense. If Camden tries to play a two man under scheme they utilized from last week, we’ll try to run some screen patterns with Dalvin Cook. Leonard/Smith are as talented as any BDL LB corp so putting blockers in front of one of the most potent players is a nice way to avoid negative down and distances where the opposition knows we’re going to throw the ball. While our top three targets will occupy most of our targets, the rest of our guys play for specific instances and we get them the ball just so the defense has to account for them and to get pressure of our heavy target share players.

Kenny Stills will have a massive role in today’s game. As a vertical threat whom will play against Greedy, that’s a matchup we believe can yield success for our team. His best ability today will probably be helping Watson in the scramble drill. We know Watson is one of the best passers at buying extra time and he’s potent when he breaks contain (>120 NFL passer rating on the run). This defense is as talented as any so we expect Watson may have to buy extra time on a regular basis to potentially find a target when coverage is expected to hold for 7-8 seconds. Ebron will play about half of our snaps in his first start. His target share will actually decrease a bit for this game as we’ve got better matchups to exploit rather than Jaylon Smith or Darius Leonard. Nonetheless the fact that Camden will account for him with one of those guys or Adams coming down is a win for us because it’ll free up Julio or DJ Chark in single coverage. James Williams will be our 3rd down back and Cook’s spell weapon. Josh Hill and Jesse James are more of a reflection as to how we value our TEs. Both players are solid blockers and create room for Dalvin Cook to get in the open field. They will also have snaps where they help Ifedi against Maxx Crosby.

Speaking of Dalvin, he remains our feature weapon today. He just went against a talented LB corp (featuring Jaylon Smith) and accumulated over 160 total yards. We figure that by continually feeding him those 4-6 yard rushes will keep our offense on track. Cook can also break big gains occasionally even against a team like this so we’re excited about his opportunity to be a difference maker today. His screen touches are a nice way to get in the open field. We incorporate a few stretch plays from a ZBS like Kubiak has in Minnesota. We will use our counters with DeCastro leading the way and comeback with some toss plays. Cook should ultimately account for about 25 touches as we want to fully feature him today.

Defense
Lamar Jackson is the hardest player to account for this season. No one has single handedly improved their game like he has this offseason. We aren’t going to stop him but the goal is to make him earn everything he gets. The immediate player we think we can exploit is Garrett Bolles. We want to put all our edge players against him at one point and gather who he has the most trouble against. In the second half, we will try to keep whomever has had the most success against him on that side permanently. This should help us stop the running back from running and is actually a way to make Lamar want to scramble when he drops back. Although Jackson is a dynamic runner in the open field, most of his runs are scripted. When he’s pressured and has to make throws on the run he can still be forced into making mistakes. As for Lamar the runner, we think the best way to slow him down is changing the formations and always making him account for the 5-7 players tasked with stopping the run. We have the personnel to play a traditional 4-2-5 but some 1-5-5, 2-3-6, 3-2-6 formations will have to be utilized if we want to slow him down. Trae Waynes and Khari Willis would be used more as blitzers who can tackle in the open field. That’s our plan to stop him as a passer.

The weapons for this team are quite impressive. Quite frankly, we don’t have the guys to completely contain this offense but Sherman can at least make one side extremely difficult to throw unless there’s a scramble drill situation. There are no particular burners on this team so we’ll let Sherman alternate between playing press and simply defending the 3rd of the field by playing deep. Kenny Moore has been coming on strong recently and he’ll play in both the boundary and in the slot. With Kupp coming to town, Oliver will get more reps so Moore can move in the slot. Trae Waynes main role will be trying to tackle Jackson in the open field but he’s got a small role as a boundary CB so Moore moves inside. Oliver and Waynes at boundary give a hint to the coverage and we’re fine making that somewhat obvious until a team accounts for this. McLeod’s help will definitely be for the boundary CB opposite Sherman. We’ll let Tyrann Mathieu serve as a Jackson spy, though Khari Willis has played enough real reps to get a significant portion of reps. When we play three safeties Tyrann moves to the nickel. We’re going to be in exotic DB heavy sets already so this reinforces our commitment to putting guys in that can slow Jackson down. 

Jackson usually accounts for most of his teams yardage so that’s why most of our write up is dedicated to stopping one player. Carlos Hyde has been a great player this year and the threat of a running QB should only make it easier. However our interior DL is as talented as any team in BDL. Even absent Casey, we still have Cox making life difficult while Jarran Reed is coming off his best game if the season (sack, FF that led to TD, good run defense). Autry and Armstead are edge defenders in DT bodies. We’ll use more 3 man fronts so those guys can still remain on the edge. We have some useful defenders like De’Vondre Campbell getting the start because he is at his best stopping when he can run and chase players.

 

@ Camden Hood Rats

 

Offense
Today we take on the top seeded team in BDL in a matchup to keep us in the playoff hunt.  Their defense has a few playmakers so we'll need to focus on attacking them where we know we can win. Here are a few keys to doing that.

Power RPO- It's no secret that running is what we do best. We're going to continue to roll out our usual RPO based shotgun offense and we'll make sure to keep the power element in it with Hyde getting the start again today. We'll use a number 2 TE's sets, jumbo sets with an extra OL brought in to force Cuba to keep as heavy a defense as possible, which will help us in other areas of the game. With Michel and Montgomery mixing in, our power scheme can remain in tact without missing a beat. As in recent weeks, expect Jackson to have some designed runs of his own, somewhere around 10 runs today.

Take advantage of a heavy defense- With our power RPO likely forcing a more run oriented player set up from Cuba, we think our receivers could potentially find some running room today off of play action and quick strike passing. Sherman is still a good defender, but we're going to force him to run sideline to sideline today if he's going to shadow anybody. Lots of crossing patterns, slants, motion before the snap and bunch formations are going to force Cubas defenders to make quick decisions, and against some pretty good WR's a split second of thinking before reacting can lead to a big play. 

Protecting Lamar- In recent weeks we've done a good job of protecting Lamar while we work through our LT situation and we're going to continue to make that a priority today. Being more run-oriented definitely helps, but in passing situations expect Jason Witten to help block Cuba's pass rusher on that side, with our RB's staying in to help as well.

Screens- Another think we're going to look to incorporate a little today is throwing the ball to our RB's from time to time. With them helping to pass protect a lot the past few weeks, we don't expect them to draw heavy interest in the coverage scheme of Cuba. This won't be a heavy feature, but we'll run 4-5 well timed screens to see if we can create some big gains. 

Defense (Press man cover 2 base)
It's no secret that the main reason Cuba has only lost 2 games this season is a dynamic offense. The right defense is key to slowing this offense down, and we think we match up with Cuba as well as just about any other team in BDL. Here is how we plan to defend them.

Press man base- With a group of WR's that are talented like this one, we feel the best bet is to play physical and keep two safeties over the top in case someone breaks loose. Our man assignments are as follows:
Jones - Bouye
Chark - Greedy 
Stills - Ward
Darius Leonard and Jaylon Smith will switch off duties in taking Cook out of the backfield while the other one gets Ebron/James duties. The athleticism of our LB's will be key in containing Cook while being able to leave my safeties over the top. If Cuba keeps their TE in to block, expect some delayed blitzes from Leonard to Smith as another wrinkle to get after Watson. 

Mix up DL looks- Cuba has a capable OL so they have the ability to give Watson time. It's why rushing straight at them all game isn't something we want to do. Like we've utilized in the past couple weeks, a heavy defensive line rotation and line movement are going to be important for us today. Expect stunts from our DE's, and occasionally kicking Sweat inside and bringing another DE in next to him to give us more pass rushing presence. 

Feature Adams- Jamal Adams is far and away our most versatile and talented defender. He's too important to leave in a standard 2 deep set all game. So expect us to sub Chuck Clark as the other deep safety in from time to time, and allow Adams to sub in for a LB to put him closer to the LOS. When in that role, expect for him to be used as a blitzer off the edge  to force Watson into mistakes. He'll also help with containing Cook out of the backfield in this role as well. 

Edited November 17, 2019 by ny92mike

[ny92mike]

Match:  Cuba Smugglers @ Camden Hood Rats

Away Owner: @MD4L

Home Owner: @Jlash

[Scoundrel]

This is the game of the week

[Scoundrel]

This is masterful gamesmanship from Frogs. He truly acknowledges his opponents strengths all around and then game plans how he will beat or neutralize said threats. There is no petty bashing or lies made up. @MD4L I applaud you.

[Scoundrel]

Haven’t read your gameplan yet @Jlash just wanted to comment that before I forgot. 

[Scoundrel]

Man this game is difficult to decide. Kudos to you both.

[Blue]

Man, this is a really great game. I don't love Camden's pass protection--but does Cuba really have the outside rush to take advantage of it? None of Camden's backs are terribly dynamic pass-catchers, so I'm not in love with that aspect of their gameplan. How is Jackson going to handle multiple looks on defense that Cuba is throwing at them? On the other hand, if there's a defense that can contain Cuba's offense, it's probably this one.

In the end, I'm going to give Jackson the edge here in leading his team to points.

[Scoundrel]

I think Camden pulls this one out. Great gameplan by Cuba but I just see Lamar being the difference maker here. Camden is going to use Adams as a blitzer some. Dude had 3 sacks in real life. Heck of a plan coming together there.

[VigilantZombie]

I think it ends in a tie

Edited November 20, 2019 by wwhickok

[Jlash]

1 hour ago, wwhickok said:

I think it ends in a tie

But you voted for Cuba two days ago?

[VigilantZombie]

1 hour ago, Jlash said:

But you voted for Cuba two days ago?

I accidntly clicked on Cuba, I was voting for other games and didnt mean to vote on this one yet. Is that why you voted for OKC? Lol

Edited November 20, 2019 by wwhickok

[VigilantZombie]

One guy a victory doesnt make.

I'm gonna just stick with my click.

Cuba 42-17

[Jlash]

6 hours ago, wwhickok said:

I accidntly clicked on Cuba, I was voting for other games and didnt mean to vote on this one yet. Is that why you voted for OKC? Lol

I haven't voted yet bud, and that's not how I vote.