BDL 2019 Semi-Final Round: #5 Camden Hood Rats @ #1 Berlin Blitzkrieg

[SirA1]

BDL 2019 Semi-Final Round

Match: Camden Hood Rats @ Berlin Blitzkrieg

Away Owner: @Jlash

Home Owner: @Ragnarok

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]

Camden Hood Rats

QB- Lamar Jackson
RB- Carlos Hyde
WR- DeAndre Hopkins
WR- Courtland Sutton
WR- Cooper Kupp
TE/H-Back- Darren Fells
LT- Isaiah Wynn
LG- Larry Warford
C- Chase Roullier
RG- Trai Turner
RT- Orlando Brown Jr
______________________
WR- AJ Brown
WR- Kendrick Bourne
RB- David Montgomery
RB- Sony Michel
TE- Jason Witten
OL- Jason Peters
OL- Isaac Seumalo
QB- Jimmy Garoppolo

DE- Yannick Ngakoue
DT- Dexter Lawrence
DT- Damon Harrison
DE- Maxx Crosby
LB- Darius Leonard
LB- Jaylon Smith
CB- Ahkello Witherspoon
CB- Denzel Ward
CB- Greedy Williams
S- Kevin Byard
S- Chuck Clark
____________________
CB- AJ Bouye
CB- Justin Coleman
DE- Montez Sweat
DE- Carl Lawson
DT- Tim Jernigan
DT- Quinton Jefferson
LB- Todd Davis
S- Amani Hooker

 

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense
QB - Tom Brady
RB - Aaron Jones
WR - Kenny Golladay
WR - Christian Kirk
WR - Will Fuller
TE - Hunter Henry
LT - Kolton Miller
LG - Alex Cappa
C - Corey Linsley
RG - Gabe Jackson
RT - Taylor Moton

RB - David Johnson
RB - Dare Ogunbowale
WR - Marquise Brown
WR - MVS
TE - Irv Smith
TE - Jordan Akins
OG - Dan Feeney
OT - Trey Pipkins

Defense
DE - Za’Darius Smith
DT - Leonard Williams
DT - Brandon Williams
DE - Demarcus Lawrence
MLB - Tremaine Edmunds
RCB - Darius Slay
LCB - Rock Ya-Sin
NB - Mike Hilton
S - Lamarcus Joyner
S - Damontae Kazee
S - Juan Thornhill

DE - Markus Golden
DT - Mike Daniels
DT - Taven Bryan
LB - Rashaan Evans
LB - Ja’whaun Bentley
LB - Justin Houston
CB - Gareon Conley
CB - Byron Murphy

Edited December 15, 2019 by SirA1

[SirA1]

Camden Hood Rats

Offense (Pistol RPO base)
This week we take on the top seed in the league. Berlin has talent and names all over the field, so in order to take this game we need to highlight our mismatches and play to our strengths. Here are some things we want to focus on.

Our WR's vs their CB's- Even as a running team, we need to realize we have 4 really good WR's who are going to overmatch the corner group of Berlin. Balance will be key. If there is one thing you can point to on this defense that you can attack, it's the corners. We hold size advantages almost all the way across the board with their top 4 corners and we'll be sure to run out lots of 4 wide sets with AJ Brown coming in to get everyone on the field and spread the field out for Lamar. Berlin should rightfully be gearing up to stop the run, so expect tons of PA passing out of our RPO base with Berlin loading up the box and reacting hard to run fakes. 

Heavy sets- As mentioned before, we are a strong running team and that's always going to be our identity. While we plan to attack the corners of Berlin, but we can do it all with our personnel so expect to see heavy sets where Jason Peters comes in as an extra tackle and Darren Fells plays an H-Back role as a lead blocker. We'll also run 2 TE sets with Witten coming in. Berlin has a strong defensive line, but with how much misdirection we run out of the power pistol set they're going to be forced to be less aggressive and read plays instead of attacking. The more time taken to diagnose by Berlin is dangerous as Jackson can hand it to one of our big backs, take off on his own or sling it to one our WR's out there. It puts the defense in a tough spot and that's what we want. 

Misdirection- A key to the pistol/RPO offense is keeping the defense guessing. We expect to use a lot of motion, with Fells serving as an H-back and lead blocker on a lot of those sets. We'll bring Kupp/AJ Brown in motion a bunch to help key on defensive alignments to show man or zone and give the defense more to think about pre snap. Lamar will get around 8-10 carries in this game also.

Take big shots- Playoff games aren't won by being conservative, so expect us to take shots downfield to AJ Brown and Courtland Sutton. Brown is 2nd in the league in YPC at 20 and has shown a knack for making huge plays that change the game. Sutton is at 16 YPC and is a big body who along with Brown has proven capable of making the big play and we won't shy away from taking shots downfield.

Defense (Cover 2 press man base)
With Berlin's offense getting healthy, they've got the ability to trot out a few guys who can get down the field. Not that that is exactly Tom Brady's strength anymore, but the GOAT can still make you pay if you're sleeping. Here are the defensive keys for us.

Cover 2- With Berlin having multiple deep threats healthy for this game we're going to be playing a lot of cover 2. It gives us a line of the defensive with two good safeties covering their half of the field. Our man assignments will be as follows:
Golladay - Witherspoon
Hollywood - Ward
Fuller - Williams
Kirk- Bouye
Henry- Leonard
Jones/Johnson- Smith
Witherspoon gets the nod today as he's been playing great all season, and he matches up very well size/speed wise with Golladay. Ward and Williams are two guys who can go speed for speed with Berlin's true deep threats and we're confident they can't kill us there. Bouye comes into the game for Smith if Kirk/anyone else is their 4th WR in those sets. We'll mix in some cover 1 sets as well as some cover 3, because all 3 shells can look exactly the same pre snap and it won't tip Brady. We'll even throw in some Tampa 2 looks with Leonard dropping back and jumping into that potential center field gap.

Attack Brady's pocket- It's true for every QB, but even more so with Brady that if you push the interior of his pocket he's prone to getting frustrated and playing below his usual level. We're a team that gets creative with its pass rush anyway and we've been running line stunts and LB/S blitzes all year so we're going to keep going with that. Expect a lot of stunting from our DE's that have them looping around our big DT's and attacking the interior of the line to get in Brady's comfort zone. Darius Leonard has himself 5 sacks this season because he's so good at timing blitzes, so expect 4 or 5 blitzes from him today with Smith switching over to get Henry. Chuck Clark has rushed the passer more than any other safety in the league, and in some of the rare cover 1 instances we run you can expect a safety blitz from his spot.

Make Brady 1 dimensional- This season IRL Brady has shown maybe a little regression in the fact that if his team can't get going on the ground, he's much easier to handle in the passing game. We bring a run stopping meat wall on the interior in our base sets and two sideline to sideline backers to help corral Aaron Jones/Johnson today. If Brady can't threaten us with PA from a consistent run game, we think our secondary can hold up to these weapons long enough to get to Brady.

 

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Motivation
After our first ever playoff game and victory, we look forward to avenging our close loss to Camden in week 7.  We know that not a single owner is giving us a chance this week and is coming into this matchup expecting to autovote for Camden.

Offense
To win this game, we need to put the ball in the hands of our two best offensive players.  Tom Brady and Aaron Jones.  We are going to attack Camden on the edges, go with a quick hitting passing attack, and build in fakes on fakes to keep their defense honest.

Run Game
Aaron Jones is going to be our workhorse for as many snaps as possible.  Camden has a very beefy interior DL, but we think we can attack the edges of their defense with more success.  Look for us to go more off tackle utilizing stretches and quick tosses.  By spreading out their defense and attacking the edges, we will force their DL to run all over the field.  We will typically have the slot WR or split out TE block back towards the middle of the field to at least slow down their LB or S.  This will give Jones a one-on-one with their CB, a matchup we will take all day.

We know that we will need to run it inside to keep Camden honest.  On those plays, Hunter will motion into the formation and will cut the DE while the OT on the other side has the other DE.  This will allow us to double team both their DTs and move them off the ball.  Then, one of our guys on each double team will try to slide off to the LBs.  Even if only one of the double teams is able to slide off to the LB, Jones has been awesome against stacked boxes and has the vision to find the hole.

We will also utilize a number of draws and screens to get Jones in space.  Johnson will be used on 3rd downs when Jones needs a break.

If it’s 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1, Brady is going to QB sneak it.  We trust him to get that more often than not.  However, on one(maybe two) of those sneaks, after the defense gets used to crashing down, Brady will line up like he is going to sneak and toss the ball out to Jones.

3 WR
This will be more of a 4 WR set as Henry will usually be split out into the slot or on the outside(but sometimes be in-line so are aren’t tipping our hand whether it’s run or pass).  Brady will be in shotgun more often to let him see the defense.  We will rotate Marquise in regularly.  When Fuller and Golladay are in, we will typically have Hunter in the slot, but when Kirk and Marquise are in, we will usually have them in the slot with Hunter split out wide to make sure the S or LB on him can’t get back to help in the run game.  We are going to use primarily crossers, slants, curls, and other quick hitting routes that will allow Brady to read the defense and get the ball out quickly.  We want to use this quick hitting passing game to supplement our rushing attack.

Camden has a number of young CBs, so off of this quick hitting passing attack, we will start using double moves if they start jumping routes to see if anyone gets wide open.  Jones will be in to block here while Henry runs an underneath crosser as an outlet.  We will be perfectly happy if one of their young CBs bites on a double move and gets grabby when beaten.

We are going to use a number of WR screens to Henry’s side to allow him to block in space.  We will also pull out the OT to that said as both excel at getting out on those types of blocks.  A fake will be built into this as well where we fake the WR screen, Henry fakes blocking, and then runs behind the defenders.

When Marquise and Kirk are in, we will incorporate some jet sweep motion with one or the other coming across the formation from the slot.  This will allow us to determine coverage.  We will hand the ball off on occasion as we will already have two blockers outside.  If the defense starts flowing that way on these motions, we will run Aaron Jones back the other way.  Then we will build a PA pass off of this and see if we can’t get some deep completions.

4 WR
At times, we will have our 4 WRs on the field.  Brady will always be in shotgun.  All 4 are capable of running every route and we want to force Camden to defend every blade of grass.  We are going to use more bunch formations in this set with Golladay alone on the other side.  This will suck more defenders to the bunch side so Golladay can get one-on-one opportunities to either box out or out jump the smaller CB.  We will typically motion into this bunch to get Brady pre-snap info.  With our bunch set, if it’s zone, we are going to have a route runner trail another through the zone to get open or flood the middle zone to allow for easy reads.  If man, the point man will push deep with the outside and inside man crossing within a yard of the LOS to get a pick and get open.  Once Camden tries to have their guys switch off, we will have both guys runs slants to see if the outside guy gets confused and doesn’t follow his man.

Jones will be used on flares, angles, and will sometimes split out as an additional WR to give us an empty set.  The flares will typically go to the bunch die so that the man on him has to fight through a ton of traffic to get outside.   

2 TE
We are also going to use our 2 TE set.  Brady will be more under center.  We think Irv can beat whoever they bring out in the run game and can help out in the pass game.  We are going to run off tackle to the TE side and try to outnumber Camden.  Irv is going to motion to that side of the field and either play a FB role, stack behind the OL, or line up outside Henry to help seal the edge.  We will run off tackle here and once the defense starts flowing or overloads that side, we will come back weak side with a toss or counter.

We will use more PA here with our TEs initially blocking, then releasing for quick completions.  There will also be a couple of plays where we go max protect and have 2 man routes to give those guys plenty of time to get open.  Off of this max protect look, we will go with some screen passes back to Jones once their DL gets over-aggressive.

TL;DR - Lean on Brady and Jones, use quick hitting passing, run off tackle, and build in lots of deception to try and confuse their young defenders.

Defense
Take away the run game, take away the quick passes, and make Lamar beat us deep consistently.  For all his incredible skills, Lamar isn’t as consistent on deep throws or under pressure just yet.  If he beats us that way, then so be it.  We are switching up our starting CBs to go with guys who can get aggressive in press and excel in run support.

3 WR/1 TE
Set #1
DL - First things first, we have to stop the run and keep Lamar in the pocket.  All four of our defensive linemen excel against the run.  We welcome Mike Daniels back and will use him more on passing downs to give us more of an interior push.  Golden and his 8 1/2 sacks will relieve our edge guys if needed.  Taking a page out of the Chargers playbook, we are frequently going to line up both DLaw and Za’Darius on the same side of the OL.  Here, Leonard will play DE on the other side to at least hold that edge.  This will force Lamar to either get rid of the ball before he wants to or try to escape the pocket away from the pressure.  It will also let use know which side Lamar will try to escape so he can’t bounce around for 7 seconds.

LB - Tremaine is our sole LB on the field.  He has one job here and that is to track Lamar everywhere.  He is going to shadow Lamar in the run game and across the field to use his length and take away those easy drop off passes Lamar loves so much.  He had a very good game against Lamar a couple weeks ago and we hope he can replicate that here.

DB - Six DBs.  That’s right.  Once again, we are going to look to the Chargers for inspiration and their win over Lamar in the playoffs.  Camden doesn’t have the TEs or RBs that the Ravens currently do, so we want speed on the field.  Also, their speed will allow us to disguise coverages.

Kazee is going to have Witten in coverage and Joyner will have the RB.  They’ll be lined up almost like LBs.  I adore Witten, but he just isn’t the same player, even as a blocker.  If they stack Witten like they did last week, Kazee will blitz that gap and clog it up before Witten can get a head of steam.  Their 4 RBs have as many catches as Jones does alone, so Joyner can handle them.

We are going to play the outside WRs with inside leverage.  We will force them to release to the outside which allows us to 1)use the sideline to our advantage and 2)will force Lamar to make multiple perfect deep passes down the sideline to move the ball.  Kupp will get played with outside leverage to force him to break inside where we have multiple bodies.

Slay is going to play RCB.  Rock will play LCB.  Hilton takes the slot.  We are going to play sides this week so that we can switch between man and zone without tipping our hand.  We are going to press Hopkins and Sutton so they don’t get a free release which will force Lamar to hold the ball a little longer.  If Kupp goes in motion across the formation, Hilton will follow him...however, we may still drop into our zones.  We know Camden is going to incorporate Brown more this week, and this will help us in that regard.

Thornhill is playing extremely well for the Chiefs and takes up his deep role for us.  In man, he is going to alternate between staying pure deep middle and shading to one side or the other.  If Slay gets Hopkins and Rock gets Sutton, Thornhill will be deep middle.  If Slay gets Sutton and Rock gets Hopkins, Thornhill will typically shade to Rock’s side.  If they put Brown in the slot with Hopkins and Sutton outside, Thornhill will take sit in a deep zone covering the 2/3rds of the field away from Slay.

With this set, we will get exotic in our pass coverages.  We will incorporate man, cover 2, cover 3, cover 4, and cover 6.  We are going to use more zone here, around 70%, to jump routes and confuse Lamar.  We can’t let Lamar have easy reads.  Plus, we want everyone’s eyes turned towards Lamar as often as possible.

Set #2
Houston and Rashaan come in for Joyner and Kazee to go for a more physical box set on early running downs and in short yardage situations.  We want to shut down the Camden run game on early downs so they get behind the sticks.

DL - This will stay the same.

LB - Yup, we have Houston playing SLB.  He is going to play directly over Witten.  Houston is a good enough athlete(and has had to cover enough) to minimize Witten’s damage in the passing game while giving us a huge advantage in the box.  If Camden stacks Witten like last week, Houston will meet Witten in the hole and will win that on his way to the ball carrier.  If Witten moves to the other side to help with our two DE side, Houston is coming.

Tremaine and Rashaan have a tough challenge.  They will watch Lamar and the RB to target the run game.  If Camden goes with an RPO action, the LB to the side the RB goes has the RB and the LB to the side Lamar goes has Lamar.  We think that the chaos we cause up front with our DL and Houston will force either the RB or Lamar to slow down which allows us to swarm to the ball.  That said, Rashaan will play OLB here as we trust him to cover any of their RBs in pass coverage if it’s a clean release.  Tremaine will spy Lamar as in the previous set and follow him everywhere.

DB - Slay is RCB, Rock the LCB, Hilton the slot.  Thornhill sits deep to protect.  We are going to run more man here as we think the added pressure will force Camden to try to throw more quickly.

4 WR
DL - This stays the same.

LB - Tremaine is our sole LB and spies Lamar.

Press Man - Slay is RCB, Rock is LCB, Hilton is slot, Joyner is slot.  Thornhill plays deep middle.  Kazee plays in the box and has the RB.

This will be very similar to our Set #1 as we are going to throw every type of coverage are Lamar.  We will play some man, but we use primarily zone, at least 75%, using all the zones listed previously.

Heavy
If Camden uses a heavy set, then we will go with basically the same concepts as Set #2 except that Joyner will come in for Hilton.  Joyner will play in the box and have the remaining RB or TE.

We will play more man here with Thornhill sitting a pure deep middle to help protect against the deep pass.

Edited December 15, 2019 by SirA1

[Jlash]

Only Rags would try to pull the "no one will vote for us" card as the #1 seed in the playoffs. Common, man. You don't need to go that route.

[Ragnarok]

1 hour ago, Jlash said:

Only Rags would try to pull the "no one will vote for us" card as the #1 seed in the playoffs. Common, man. You don't need to go that route.

 

8 hours ago, Jlash said:

oh no

 

[Jlash]

1 minute ago, Ragnarok said:

 

 

Not sure what  me not wanting to see an enormous text wall of a game plan has to do with what I said, but alright.

[Ragnarok]

Just now, Jlash said:

Not sure what  me not wanting to see an enormous text wall of a game plan has to do with what I said, but alright.

It's the playoffs, everyone has a giant wall of text.

[Jlash]

1 minute ago, Ragnarok said:

It's the playoffs, everyone has a giant wall of text.

"longest game plan I've ever done" after seeing your recent game plans was going to be a doozy. 

[Ragnarok]

Just now, Jlash said:

"longest game plan I've ever done" after seeing your recent game plans was going to be a doozy. 

Mine aren't usually all that long.

[Jlash]

Just now, Ragnarok said:

Mine aren't usually all that long.

Not sure how we even got onto the game plan length of this, I was just pointing out that you probably aren't the under dog here despite you touting that. Certainly not an auto vote situation.

[Ragnarok]

Just now, Jlash said:

Not sure how we even got onto the game plan length of this, I was just pointing out that you probably aren't the under dog here despite you touting that. Certainly not an auto vote situation.

I'm assuming that your 'oh no' was the same as bcb's 'i'm screwed', so will use it as such from now on.

And Lukic's posts make it clear that at least one person has that mindset.  So I had to try to change minds.  

[Jlash]

1 minute ago, Ragnarok said:

Lukic's posts make it clear that at least one person has that mindset.

His posts about his own team? Did I miss something?

Edited December 16, 2019 by Jlash

[Ragnarok]

Just now, Jlash said:

Which one was that? 

The shaking hands one.  

[Jlash]

Just now, Jlash said:

His posts about his own team? Did I miss something?

 

Just now, Ragnarok said:

The shaking hands one.  

Yea I definitely missed something.

[WFLukic]

Lmao dude relax.

Jlash and I contest the friendship bowl every year, Jlash said MD4L isn't Camden but just a friend and MD4L and I have complimented each other in our write-ups. Hence the tripartite friendship handshake post. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by WFLukic