BDL Divisional Round - #7 Rome Eternals @ #2 Cuba Smugglers

[SirA1]

BDL 2019 Week 14

Match: Rome Eternals @ Cuba Smugglers

Away Owner: @bcb1213

Home Owner: @MD4L

Vote for who you think will win this game.

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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.

[SirA1]

Rome Eternals

QB Drew Brees 

RB Marlon Mack

WR Amari Cooper 

Slot WR Julian Edelman 

WR James Washington

WR Demaryius Thomas

LT Tyron Smith 

LG Ramon Foster 

C Brandon Linder 

RG Richie Incognito 

RT Ryan Ramczyk

 

WR JJ Arcega Whiteside 

OL Braden Smith 

RB Todd Gurley 

RB Phillip Lindsey 

OL Ted Karras INACTIVE

TE OJ Howard 

TE Cameron Brate

QB/OW  Mitch Trubisky

DE. Carlos Dunlap

UT Matt Ionnidis 

NT Michael Brockers 

DE Marcus Davenport

LB Jordan Hicks

LB Matt Milano 

CB Marlon Humphrey 

CB William Jackson

CB Nickel Robley Coleman 

S Rayshawn Jenkins

S Tre Boston 

 

Edge Dante Fowler Jr

Edge Jaylon Ferguson 

INT Gerald McCoy

INT Dalvin Tomlinson 

LB Shaun Dion Hamilton 

LB Josh Bynes

CB Nik Needham 

CB Janoris Jenkins 

 

Cuba Smugglers

QB: DeShaun Watson
RB: Dalvin Cook
WR: Julio Jones
WR: DJ Chark
WR: Brandin Cooks
TE: Josh Hill
LT: Anthony Castonzo
LG: Elghton Jenkins
C: Ryan Jensen
RG: David DeCastro
RT: Justin Murray

RB: James Williams
RB: Darwin Thompson
FB: Patrick DiMarco
WR: Kenny Stills
WR: Ted Ginn Jr.
OW: Taysom Hill
TE: Ian Thomas
OL: Laken Tomlinson

Edge: Arik Armstead
DT: Jurrell Casey
NT: Fletcher Cox
Edge: Denico Autry
WLB: KJ Wright
MLB: Eric Kendricks
RCB: Isaiah Oliver
NCB: Kenny Moore  INACTIVE
FS: Derwin James
SS: Tyrann Mathieu 
LCB: Richard Sherman

Edge: Jerry Hughes
DT: Jarran Reed
OLB: Kyle Van Noy
WLB: Sean Lee
NCB: Darqueze Dennard
RCB: Trae Waynes
S: Rodney McLeod 
S: Khari Willis

Edited December 12, 2019 by SirA1

[SirA1]

Rome Eternals

Offense 

Spread em out 

It's the playoffs so it's time to lean on captain Drew and our offensive line against a defense that struggles to put pressure on the qb up front   Drew hasn't control of the offense to call plays as he sees fit 

Passing 

We start with two of the leagues premier tackles who we feel will easily win one on one matchups against the opposing edges so we are leaving them on islands and focusing our guards and tackles on the interior of the Cuba d line focusing mostly on Cox.  This also allows our veterans to react and pick up any blitzing that may occur. Jerry Hughes has less sacks this whole season that Dunlap has had the past two weeks Ditto for Arik Armistead 

Richard Sherman is obviousky excellent and if Cuba doesn't designate him to a particular player, we are going to line Demaryius Thomas on the outside against him and run him directly at Sherman using curl routes eating up Richard in coverage.  If they put Sherman on Cooper or Edelman, he is going to be forced to play inside which takes away the boundary he uses so well 

 We don't fear the other corners as Kenny Moore is a slot guy pigeon holed outside here and if Sherman is inside we're gonna throw some jump balls to Thomas on the outside against Moore as he has half a foot on him in height.  Edelman is gonna see a lot of work inside as while Denard has been playing well, Edelman has been balling out this season. Cooper or Washington will get a boat load of looks against whoever the fourth corner is as Oliver and Wayne's have been horrific  Washington has come into his own the past couple weeks. Despite shoddy qb play over the past five weeks, he has caught 20 of his last 27 targets for 417 yards (20+ per reception) with four td. Arcega Whiteside comes in near the goal line for even a bigger height advantage against Moore and the small safeties 

We also have our trio of RB who will be on alert for a Blitzer before starting their route.  We feel we may catch Cuba off guard here as we have been run heavy the past few weeks so they may be blitz heavy trying to stop the run. 

We will use motion to see if it is zone or man.  If zone we will run trips on one side and flood that zone with seems flats and outs 

Run game. 

We will use a lot of the typical shotgun runs here with draws and delays allowing our line to get some initial push first.  The Cuba safeties are both on the small side so after we get past the front in the four wide look our bigger backs in mack and Gurley should be able to run these guys over. We'll run some screens and even an occasional jet sweep to Washington as extension of the run game. In short yardage situations we'll run two TE with Braden Smith in at fb   Trubisky will play a little Tayson Hill role here and have a handful of designated plays at qb with speed and traditional qb options and he'll get one jump ball shot when the defense moves up 

Tl/dr:  Spread out the defense   Drew should have all day to pick defense apart, get to second level against lighter box and small safeties.  

 

Defense 

This week we have a challenge of one of the hottest qb going in the league but we think we can slow down this offense. 

While Watson has been hott our defensive line has caught fire the past two weeks with a combined 11. 5 sacks in our starting front four!   We're gonna need it cause Cuba offensive line has good pass blockers though they are awful run blockers this season.  

We are not entirely sure how Cuba plans to line up after losing Ebron but if it is their tradition 3 wide one te set we go with the lineup posted.  Our main goal as always is to eliminate Julio. He will be double teamed with Jackson and Jenkins. Humphrey will be on an island with Chark while NRC gets Cooks. In four wide hicks comes off for a Jenkins.  Boston has his traditional centerfielder role he excels in 

We hope they try to line up in a more traditional set with a fb. If that's the case Mccoy will run in for Ionnidis with Bynes in for nrc.  Milano and Hicks grab te or RB on their side. Bynes fb or blitz.  

Nik Needham has spent a the week watching tayson hill tape and nothing but tayson hill tape.  He will be ready at the jump to run in when hill comes in subbing out whoever responsibilities came out. If it is Watson, we'll take our chances by pulling Boston.   Needham has no other responsibilities besides hill. He will run directly at him if he's in the backfield ignoring any other RB option or willingness cover him if he spreads out wide. 

Dalvin cook is having a great year but we trust our front against their line and will force him inside as much as possible to eliminate big gains. 

We will per usual mix in zones blitz, base zone and occasional zero man blitz just to keep the offense guessing as one defense against Brady is death 

Tl/dr. Eliminate Julio, trust hott d line and superb other corners to stop this offense 

 

Cuba Smugglers

Pregame: We have lost to Rome the last three times we’ve played them including our last playoff performance in 2017 on Rome’s road to won their first championship. This is our highest seed in team history. We are eager to show our best performance of the year against Drew Brees and the consecutive two time Bizz Bowl participants.

Offense: We are going to target Rome in the middle of the field. Leighton Vander Esch Is gone and Jordan Hicks mans the worst defense at defending TEs IRL. Matt Milano is a quality defender in coverage but he’s just one player. We think regardless of a man/zone defense we can have success scripting plays to get Julio Jones and DJ Chark involved with short routes. The crossing patterns will be established by building a strong rushing attack to balance Watson’s ability as a passer. Julio is very clearly a tough weapon to defend and we think his YAC can lead to big success for our offense. After Marlon Humphrey none of the CBs on the Rome roster scare us to not relentlessly target Julio or even DJ Chark. We can avoid heavy double teams with some 4 receiver sets where Ginn and Cooks obviously scare defenses, or some 2 RBs sets with Jamaal Williams and Jaylen Samuels together in the backfield. Prince Amukamara is out so we think we’ve got enough weapons that Watson can pick his targets accordingly based on matchups we win in presnap. Additionally if there’s a pass heavy two man under scheme Rome seeks to utilize we can give our running backs opportunities to have big performances. Dalvin Cook is the bell cow as long as he’s healthy. His runs are already known because his speed and elusiveness in the open field. DeCastro on counters running to left side is arguably our strongest play as Cook on the edges has been deadly this year. If he’s not his usual self after 12 or so carries we’re going to operate in more of a RBBC with Jamaal Williams getting a nice share of touches. We love audibles to inside zone plays for Williams as his ability is more tailored to being an asset in the passing game. If Cook can handle his usual share expect 25 touches with about 6 of those being targets in the passing game. In the screen game we can get Cook utilized and hopefully this will open some of those deeper targets where Watson is an elite scramble drill passer. This is evidenced by his 2 TDs last week against the best defense in football last week. The newest wrinkle in this playoff game will be the Taysom Hill wildcat. In the red zone we want to replicate the same play of DeAndre Hopkins throwing to DeShaun Watson with Julio instead serving as the passer. It’s an option with Taysom Hill serving as the running back and handing it to Julio Jones on a reverse. Hill will get his 3-5 wildcat snaps next to Jaylen Samuels. We’re going to use our three receiver sets hoping that we can get one of our burners on a deep threat and letting Hill get the chance to take the deep shot. The other 3 touches are direct runs featuring him, Jamaal Williams, and Jaylen Samuels getting a carry.


Defense

The most common offensive strategy we’ve faced is based around running the ball and keeping our offense off the field. Amari Cooper has been hurt recently, Juju Smith-Schuster is out, and Marlon Mack is scheduled to return. We think it’s a ripe recipe for at least a balanced game plan and some uptempo to try wearing our starting DL down. We’ll combat that with a few ideas starting by our edge defenders. Instead of having pass rush friendly guys like Jerry Hughes and Kyle Van Noy starting, it’s Arik Armstead and Denico Autry at the edge. The immediate benefit is since Drew Brees poses no real threat as a runner those edges can crash down and make it hard for Rome to establish their outside zone plays. We expect some more two TE sets with OJ Howard and Cameron Brate getting involved to help the edges. Tyron Smith and Ryan Ramczyk is the best tackle group in BDL so it’s good for us to have bigger edge presences considering Fletcher Cox has played at a pro bowl level again this year. Jarran Reed and Jurrell Casey combine to create good depth inside and we can always move those starting edge defenders inside for our pass rush specialist in Hughes and Van Noy coming together. Our 7 man rotation have combined for 32 sacks with Cox/Armstead providing elite run defense compared to peers at their position.

Of course stopping the run is not enough with Drew Brees playing QB. Our LBs led by Eric Kendricks have been spectacular particularly in coverage which comes useful with some of the better receiving backs in the league coming to town. Tyrann Mathieu will have more responsibility in the box when Gurley is not the RB. We think he could matchup well in man coverage against an RB. Khari Willis shares some that responsibility coming down into the box on three safety looks. Mathieu will play overtop of Sherman on certain occasions when we play two man under. We feel like this combination will lead to success as we’ve got viable guys to cover the check down weapons Rome may utilize today. 

In the secondary we got a major impact player when Derwin James returned to the field last week. We still respect how effective Brees can be and Edelman/Cooper poses as a real threat due to their two man combination. We want Kenny Moore to shadow Edelman when we play man coverage. Because both guys are useful inside and outside, it’s not stretching the burden on Moore especially as his play has improved in recent weeks. We’ll start Isaiah Oliver at outside CB today and he’ll be the recepient of safety help from Derwin James as we tend to avoid moving Sherman around with Amari Cooper. Sherman has resumed to his all pro caliber self meaning we’ve got two of those players in the secondary (Derwin James) and a couple more dynamic weapons in terms of versatility with Kenny Moore and Tyrann Mathieu. The coverages will switch between cover 3 and two man under schemes. We think Sherman can lock down his side and providing Derwin James as help over Isaiah Oliver’s assignment can stifle Drew Brees weapons. Furthermore with Kenny Moore and Julian Edelman getting most their reps against each other we believe that matchup can yield enough stops for us to get Brees off the field. Eric Kendricks and KJ Wright serve as the second line of defense with a run heavy set in front of them to occupy blocks. With Tyrann Mathieu and Khari Willis occasionally taking that responsibility to play down in the box that we can contain what is likely going to be a strong rushing attack. An added benefit of James back is we don’t think playactions as a result of the run will lead to big plays with him as the last line of defense.

Other: We expect one of the best teams in recent years to put up a fight to show why they’ve been so strong in recent years. This remains a rival even if we aren’t in their division anymore. Looking forward to a good competitive game against a great team. 

Edited December 8, 2019 by SirA1

[bcb1213]

Not gonna lie. I had to look up who Justin Murray was 

[Malfatron]

I got Brees and co winning this

[MD4L]

20 hours ago, SirA1 said:

Jerry Hughes has less sacks this whole season that Dunlap has had the past two weeks Ditto for Arik Armistead 

Arik Armstead has 11 sacks this season.

Although Brees was masterful this week, Rome is effectively playing with zero running game.

20 hours ago, SirA1 said:

The Cuba safeties are both on the small side so after we get past the front in the four wide look our bigger backs in mack and Gurley should be able to run these guys over.

Derwin James isn’t on the small side of safety size.

[MD4L]

Kenny Moore is not strictly a slot CB bc he’s also the Colts starter on 2 WR sets. If we let LG move to RG, that point is bogus.

[bcb1213]

44 minutes ago, MD4L said:

Arik Armstead has 11 sacks this season.

Although Brees was masterful this week, Rome is effectively playing with zero running game

Sigh.  Right.  Don't know why I got wrong stats on Armstead (it's 10 not 11 btw) 

 

I'm not sure why you think I'm playing with zero running game.  You're rushing your edges straight up the field and I'm using a lot of draws and delays.  Should work out masterfully as your edges run by 

[bcb1213]

46 minutes ago, MD4L said:

Kenny Moore is not strictly a slot CB bc he’s also the Colts starter on 2 WR sets. If we let LG move to RG, that point is bogus.

Well he's following Edelman who is staying in the slot so I'm confused on what you're arguing about with your 5'9 corner 

[bcb1213]

Speaking of non existent 

"Cooks did not have a great game, continuing what’s been a disappointing season for the wideout. He was targeted on Jared Goff’s second interception, and later in the game, he dropped a great throw by Goff down the left sideline. He’s been mostly a non-factor this year, and on Sunday night, he was blanked with zero catches on three targets."

 

12 catches for 162 yards and zero td on 22 targets since the calendar turned to October (7 played games for Cooks ) 

[MD4L]

1 hour ago, bcb1213 said:

Speaking of non existent 

"Cooks did not have a great game, continuing what’s been a disappointing season for the wideout. He was targeted on Jared Goff’s second interception, and later in the game, he dropped a great throw by Goff down the left sideline. He’s been mostly a non-factor this year, and on Sunday night, he was blanked with zero catches on three targets."

 

12 catches for 162 yards and zero td on 22 targets since the calendar turned to October (7 played games for Cooks ) 

Good thing we’re force feeding Julio Jones. You still have to cover Brandin Cooks.

[bcb1213]

14 minutes ago, MD4L said:

Good thing we’re force feeding Julio Jones. You still have to cover Brandin Cooks.

Then it's a good thing I'm double covering Julio

[MD4L]

3 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

Then it's a good thing I'm double covering Julio

Tre Boston and non Marlon Humphrey corners aren’t enough considering the gameplan to target him on underneath routes. Maybe if you had a Derwin James playing on top of your average CB.

[bcb1213]

24 minutes ago, MD4L said:

Tre Boston and non Marlon Humphrey corners aren’t enough considering the gameplan to target him on underneath routes. Maybe if you had a Derwin James playing on top of your average CB.

Still not reading if you think Boston is the double teamer

[MD4L]

12 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

Still not reading if you think Boston is the double teamer

Considering there will be one safety deep and Watson has shown he’s prolific getting the ball down field, I’ll gladly take Robley-Coleman and Nik Needleham one on one vs burners Cooks and Ginn.