BDL 2017 Week 2: Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Rome Eternals

[TedLavie]

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[TedLavie]

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense
QB - Jameis Winston
RB - Lamar Miller
WR - Tyreek Hill
WR - DeSean Jackson
TE - Kyle Rudolph
TE - Hunter Henry
LT - Trent Williams
LG - Justin Pugh
C - Corey Linsley
RG - Gabe Jackson
RT - Ja’wuan James

OL - Mike Pouncey


OL - Taylor Moton
RB - Mike Gillislee
RB - D’Onta Foreman
WR - Taylor Gabriel
WR - Jordan Matthews
WR - Kenny Golladay
FB - Jalston Fowler

Base Defense
RE - Nick Perry
DT - Mike Daniels
NT - Brandon Williams
LE - Justin Houston
LB - Alec Ogletree
LB - Kiko Alonso
CB - Quinten Rollins
CB - Eric Rowe
NB - AJ Bouye
S - Tashaun Gipson
S - Haha Clinton-Dix

Edge - Demarcus Lawrence
Edge - Deatrich Wise
DI - Davon Godchaux
DI - Rakeem Nunez-Roches
LB - Vince Williams
LB - Eli Harold
CB - Mike Hilton
S - Kentrell Brice

 

Rome Eternals

 

QB Eli Manning

RB Todd Gurley

RB Theo Riddick

WR Amari Cooper

WR Michael Crabtree

WR Corey Coleman

LT Jason Peters

LG Jack Mewhort

C Brandon Linder

RG Ramon Foster

RT Marcus Gilbert

 

TE/Hback OJ Howard

OW Tedd Ginn Jr

WR Eli Rogers

OL Greg Robinson

TE Marcedes Lewis

RB Adrian Peterson

C/G  Evan Boehm

QB Jay Cutler

 

Edge Dante Fowler

DI Michael Brockers

DI Malcolm Brown

Edge Carlos Dunlap

LB CJ Mosley

LB Vincent Rey

LB Alex Anzalone

CB Janoris Jenkins

CB Adam Jones

S  Darian Stewart

S Jahleel Addae

 

NB Nickell Robey Coleman

Edge Takk McKinley

Edge Hau’oli  Kikaha

DL Dalvin Tomlinson

DL Alan Branch

S Pat Chung

CB Nevin Lawson

Edge James Harrison

[TedLavie]

Berlin

 

Offense 
Especially with Jerrell Freeman out for the season, we think that we can abuse the front 7 of Rome.  We are going to come out in a 2 TE set and hit Rome’s defense in the mouth.  They have a couple of very good players up front, but we think we can control the line of scrimmage all day.  We are going to use Foreman and Gillislee on early downs to soften them up.  Miller will be our 3rd down back and used to gash the defense for long gains as well.  We want to run, run, and run some more.  Look for stretches, tosses, counters, and dives as we will alternate between hitting them head on, making them run side-to-side, and keeping them guessing with some misdirection.  We want to force Rome to put 8 in the box.  But even when they do…we think we can run with success.  

A lot of our passing game will come from play action.  We plan on running enough to force Rome to overcompensate in that direction.  We want to utilize our TEs and RBs to attack the LBs of Rome in coverage.  Outside of Mosley, we think we can consistently win those battles in the passing game.  We will use our TEs and RBs to keep the chains moving.

That said, when Rome has to put 8 in the box, we will take our shots down the field.  Especially off of playaction, we will target DeSean and Tyreek frequently.  Both players excel at explosive plays and they will break a few long gains regardless of who is covering them.  Rome has some very good CBs, but they are better at defending big receivers, not the speed we will put out.  Tyreek will also run plenty of crossing routes, curls, and WR screens to get the ball in his hands.

We will use some 3 WR sets with Golladay outside and Tyreek in the slot.  We want to give Golladay the chance to use his size and speed to make some big plays.  This set will also give Tyreek free release which is not good for any defense.  We will also use this set some in the red zone to give Golladay a chance on jump balls.

Defense
This game starts up front.  Rome has some solid offensive linemen, but we think our front four can harass Eli all night.  Houston, Perry, and Daniels can win their one-on-one match ups consistently.  Williams will demand double teams on the inside.  We will rotate our DL to keep everyone fresh as Lawrence, Wise, and RNR have all played well to start the year, and we think our backups can hold the point against Rome’s OL.  We’ve seen how poorly Eli plays when getting consistently pressured.

We are going to use Seattle’s cover-3 zone coverage scheme to combat Rome’s 4 WR passing attack.  Gipson, Rowe, and Bouye each get a deep third.  Rollins and Haha take the flats.  Kiko and Ogletree take zones in the middle of the field.  We want to use this nickel set to get two LBs on the field so we can shut down Gurley.  It will also put Haha closer to the line to further strangle their running game.  We want to force Eli to dink and dunk because it’s only a matter of time until he throws an INT or the drive stalls out.  

We will also use some man coverage to not be predictable.  Haha and Bouye take the slot guys.  Rowe and Rollins take the outside guys.  Gipson plays deep with an eye towards Amari.  Our LBs spy the run game with one watching Gurley in the pass game and the other sitting in a middle zone to defend crossing routes which Eli loves.  We think our front four can get to Eli before he has a chance to go through all his reads, and even if he does, we will challenge his arm strength in terms of getting the ball down the field or towards the sidelines.

 

Rome

 

Offense

We come out this week with a more balanced look against Berlin’s defense.  Rags has built an excellent front four.   However, this team has a lot of holes at  both the LB and CB position, especially with Darby out.  Expect a no huddle to try to keep those pass rushers gassed later on in the game

Thus we are going to attack these weaknesses.  We are opening in a three wide set with two RB flanking Manning in the shotgun.  Riddick will be used heavily in the passing game today if he gets a one on one matchup with either or Berlin’s LB, especially Ogletree.  Riddick will typically be put in motion pre-snap to determine the type of coverage we will be facing, as generally in man, his cover man will have to go out wide with him.  This will be important for Eli as an effective countermeasure to two excellent pass rushers by allowing him to get the ball off a second quicker.  Now, I know Eli was a big bag of suck Sunday night.  However, he has one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL.  We feel like we have upgraded literally every single position on the field from what Eli had to work with last weekend.

In man coverage on the outside we feel like we can attack whichever two of Mike Hilton, Quinten Rollins, and Eric Rowe that Berlin decides to start.  Both Rollins and Rowe will be main targets as they both have been consistently awful over the past season and didn’t look any better week one.   Hilton looked OK in week one but we aren’t afraid of him.  Speaking of not being afraid ,if mini AJ Bouye gets matched up against Michael Crabtree, expect a ton of balls to go that way as well.  Bouye is an excellent nickel corner but he has struggled when placed outside to be consistent.  On long distance situation, we pull out a RB for Teddy Go Route to stretch the field and take away a deep safety.  And no I haven’t forgotten about Gareon Conley. We honestly have no idea if Berlin will start him or what to expect from him.

If Eli reads zone from our motion, he will have some options.  The first will be to move Riddick into trips onto one side of the field which can lead to some Bubble screens to playmakers Amari Cooper and Corey Coleman with a numbers advantage on that side of the field.  The trips against the zone also allows for Flood plays to one side of the field, forcing the corners to decide quickly to play the deep, medium, or underneath route on their side of the field

In pass pro, on the outside, we trust Marcus Gilbert in his one on one matchup as simply, he has been the best RT in football over the past season and a half.  Jason Peters still is one of the better LT and he will get some help in forms of a chip or full out block by Gurley/Peterson.  Foster gets his man one on one normally with Linder helping out with Mewhort’s assignment.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we are abandoning the run. We feel like we continue to possess one of the best tackle tandems in the BDL while the Linder Foster interior is often undervalued.  Mewhort isn’t a stud, but he isn’t going to embarrass himself either.  Expect a lot of draws and sweeps in our running game.  The draws again take advantage of the edge rushers keying in on Eli  Todd Gurley looked awesome last week and he is primed for a rebound season.  AP comes in to be the hammer late.

tl/dr  Attack weak corners and LB.  Lean on great O line.  Help on pass rushers as needed.  Hurry up to keep rushers gassed, shotgun to buy extra time, run late

Defense

 

Berlin brings it’s mighty mites offense this week into Rome. Berlin has some interesting offensive pieces but we believe we have the ability to slow down this offense and game plan around them.  We have put in a base 4-3 vs 2 TE but will have our nickel defense ready for three wide

First the Berlin offensive line, while looking impressive, has some holes.  The biggest advantage we have in Ja’Wuan James vs Carlos Dunlap.  Dunlap absolutely abused James in their one on one matchup last season and drew his best PFF score of the year.  He had two sacks in that game and a handful of QB pressures.  In the unlikely event that Berlin leaves him one on one, we expect to be in the backfield constantly.  Now, likely, Berlin is going to be constantly giving help to that side of the field with either a TE or RB or simply shading it’s line to the right.  How do you stop that?  Well, you bring a blitz from the opposite end.  I don’t think Berlin will be expecting a heavy blitz centric defense this week and will likely leave the Williams/Pugh side of the field in one on one matchups.  Pugh was downright awful as a pass blocker last week and lacked real awareness on his blocking responsibilities.  Rey and Addae will constantly be swapping robber zone, rb responsibilities and blitzing to keep the line and Jameis guessing who is coming at them.  

This blitzing will help in our secondary as we have two of the most physical corners in football with Janoris Jenkins and Adam Jones.  Jones will draw DeSean and instantly start playing head games with him.  By the third quarter, we expect DeSean to simply get pissed  at getting rough upped while being berated and throw a punch leading to his ejection.  Jenkins is a true number one corner and is going to rough up mini Tyreek Hill.  Berlin likes to run a lot of slants with Hill and the physicalness is going to throw off the timing of these routes.  Stewart is going to be playing deep safety throughout the game and will generally be shaded towards the Jackson side of the field.  Mosley has quietly become one of the better cover linebackers and he grabs Hunter Henry.  Alex Anzalone showed excellent skills week one as he was mainly in coverage on Kyle Rudolph, holding him to 26 yards on three catches.  We may get burned on a deep ball or two, but we feel we will score enough points offensively to overcome 1-2 td’s

In three wide, we will rotate our corners with Robley-Coleman taking the interior WR with help over the top.  This will leave likely Golladay one on one with Jenkins on the outside as we assume Berlin will move Hill to the interior.  Coleman once ran a 4.25 40 and generally sits in the 4.35 range.  He should be able to keep up with Tyreek and limit the deep plays.  In four wide Nevin Lawson gets whoever is left.  Lawson has been OK as an outside corner for Detroit but has looked better as a nickel throughout his career.

We will also be mixing it up throughout the second half with base zones and zone blitzes to throw Winston and the line further off their game.  With a likely over correction in the second half, we can rush through the other side early in the third while playing zone behind it

Our interior is excellent as Brockers is one of the best run stuffers in the business.  Brown will come out for Branch or Tomlinson in short yardage situations to form out manly meat wall. Harrison will also be there for short yardage situations replacing Fowler.   Rey and Addae will generally be playing closer to the line as mentioned earlier which should help us stop the run.  Fowler looked like he has fully recovered from his rookie year injury and could be a force this year in Jacksonville (albeit LOL Texans line).  As you can tell we like to rotate our interior and edge when we can to keep the boys fresh.

In long distance, McKinley and Kikaha come in to replace the DT in a NASCAR front four with Fowler and Kikaha playing the inside with McKinley and Dunlap keying in on Jameis

 

TL/DR- Get physical on the outside with the little guys, blitz to maximize that physical coverage and prevent edge runs.  Eliminate Hill from the equation.  Make DeSean do stupid things and get dumb penalties.

[TedLavie]

@PSID412 @bcb1213 @Ragnarok make sure to vote in this topic since the other one was closed

[bcb1213]

So rags entire defense is running base man and base zone the whole game while leaving crabtree one on one on the outside in man with no safety help against two of the worst corners in the league.  That's pretty easy to beat

[bcb1213]

LB ALEC OGLETREE, 27.9 OVERALL GRADE

There’s no sugar-coating it – it was a miserable day for Ogletree. While he did notch a sack on a well-timed blitz, he struggles to defeat blockers at the second level (37.5 run defense grade), and had numerous mishaps in coverage as well (28.3 coverage grade).

 

Alonso was only slightly better with a 34.4 coverage grade.

 

LB ALEX ANZALONE, 81.4 OVERALL GRADE  

While he did take an illegal hands penalty, Anzalone was one of the few bright spots on the Saints defense. He was especially strong in coverage, as he allowed just two receptions on four throws into his coverage for a total of just seven yards, including a pass defensed.

Anzaone write up via the minnesota game against rudolph

I think i'm clearly going to win the LB in coverage battles...lol

 

 

[Ragnarok]

Gasp!  How can I ever overcome cherry picks stats from a single week of PFF?

 

[Ragnarok]

36 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

So rags entire defense is running base man and base zone the whole game while leaving crabtree one on one on the outside in man with no safety help against two of the worst corners in the league.  That's pretty easy to beat

Too bad your QB could never get the ball to him.

Plus, in the zone system we are running, part of Gipson's job is to give both sides safety help.  He literally plays the Earl Thomas-role in JAX and is pretty damn good at it.  So yes, they would have safety help.

[Jlash]

The Rome PFF'ers going hard early in the season.

[TedLavie]

Alex Anzalone looked so lost yesterday you shouldn't gloat on him bcb

[bcb1213]

1 hour ago, Ragnarok said:

Too bad your QB could never get the ball to him.

Plus, in the zone system we are running, part of Gipson's job is to give both sides safety help.  He literally plays the Earl Thomas-role in JAX and is pretty damn good at it.  So yes, they would have safety help.

We will also use some man coverage to not be predictable.  Haha and Bouye take the slot guys.  Rowe and Rollins take the outside guys.  Gipson plays deep with an eye towards Amari

... 

Oh really 

[bcb1213]

43 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

Alex Anzalone looked so lost yesterday you shouldn't gloat on him bcb

Oh Gronk destroyed him.  However cherry picking his stats against Kyle Rudolph irl last week , who I have him covering here, seems appropriate 

[Ragnarok]

6 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

We will also use some man coverage to not be predictable.  Haha and Bouye take the slot guys.  Rowe and Rollins take the outside guys.  Gipson plays deep with an eye towards Amari

... 

Oh really 

Considering I was talking about our zone coverage which we are using more often as I said, yes really.

[Ragnarok]

19 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

Oh Gronk destroyed him.  However cherry picking his stats against Kyle Rudolph irl last week , who I have him covering here, seems appropriate 

Um...Rudolph was targeted 3 times and had 3 catches for 8.7 YPC and a TD.

So sure, I will happily take Anzalone covering Rudolph when Rudolph catches the ball literally every time he is thrown to.

Oh, and looking at the play-by-play for that game, it never mentions Anzalone making the tackle on Rudolph's catches.

So you just made all that up.

[Jlash]