BDL 2021 Week 1 - New Orleans Jazz @ Cancun Kaiju

[SirA1]

BDL 2021 Week 1

Match: New Orleans Jazz @ Cancun Kaiju

Away Owner: @WFLukic

Home Owner:  @Blue

Vote for who you think would win the 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]

New Orleans Jazz

Offense:

QB: Josh Allen
RB: Chris Carson
WR1: DeAndre Hopkins
WR2: D.J. Moore
Slot WR: Cole Beasley
OW: Deebo Samuel
LT: Jonah Williams
LG: Joel Bitonio
😄 Alex Mack
RG: Brandon Scherff
RT: Alejandro Villanueva
 
RB2: Melvin Gordon
RB3: Nyheim Hines
WR5: Zach Pascal
TE1: Mike Gesicki
TE2: Jared Cook
TE3: Blake Jarwin
OL6: Cam Robinson
OL7: Jon Feliciano

Defense:

DE: Nick Bosa
DT: Jeffery Simmons
DT: Grady Jarrett
DE: JJ Watt
LB: KJ Wright
LB: Jamal Adams
CB: James Bradberry
CB: J.C. Jackson
CB: Adoree Jackson
SS: Adrian Amos
FS: Darnell Savage

DE3: Jadeveon Clowney
DE4: Whitney Mercilus
DT3: Shelby Harris
DT4: Christian Wilkins
LB3: Alexander Johnson
CB4: Benjamin St Juste
CB5: Zech McPhearson
DB: Micah Hyde

 

Cancun Kaiju

QB Patrick Mahomes

RB Rhamondre Stevenson

WR Courtland Sutton

WR Elijah Moore

Slot WR Sterling Shepard

TE Austin Hooper

LT Sam Cosmi

LG AJ Cann

C Rodney Hudson

RG Hala Vaitai

RT Brian O'Neill

 

OW1 Taysom Hill

OW2 Greg Ward

RB2 Alexander Mattison

FB Kyle Juszczyk

WR4 Josh Reynolds

WR5 Jakobi Meyers

TE2 Dalton Schultz

OL Alex Leatherwood

 

DE Preston Smith

DT Larry Ogunjobi

DT Akiem Hicks

DE Robert Quinn

LB Ernest Jones

LB Elandon Roberts

CB Tre’Davious White

CB Byron Jones

CB Michael Davis

FS Kevin Byard

SS Jordan Fuller

 

DE3 Greg Rousseau

DE4 Derek Barnett

DT3 Rashard Lawrence

LB3 Pete Werner

LB4 TJ Edwards

CB4 Darius Phillips

S3 Quandre Diggs

S4 Jalen Thompson

[SirA1]

New Orleans Jazz

After some rotten luck last year with several injuries, our season ended with a heart-breaking defeat in the wild card round. We’re back, better, and hungrier than ever to win that elusive bizzbowl and we’re starting our season ready to make a statement against a Cancun side that’s going to be closer to picking no.1 than making the playoffs.

Offense (60% Pass vs. 40% Run):

35% of snaps - 1RB - 3WR – 1Flex
30% of snaps – 1RB – 3WR – 1TE
15% of snaps – 2RB – 2TE – 1WR
20% of snaps – OW – 1TE – 3WR (no huddle)

With one of the best QBs in the league at the helm, an experienced offensive line filled with quality long-term starters and a diverse skill group, we plan on keeping things relatively simple in our season opener.

Running Game:

Carson and Gordon are two backs who do their best work between the tackles as downhill, one-cut runners. We want to give them the opportunity to doing this by spread the defence out with our receiving group and leaving them to run against 6 man boxes. Carson will get 65% of the carries to Gordons 35% between the two, while Allen of course in his own right will have a few scrambled and designed runs.

Then of course we can’t forget Deebo Samuel who will get some designed runs when lining up out of the backfield, or even on screens and sweeps.

Passing Game:

The passing game won’t be too remarkable either – we’ve got talent and Cancun is a bit short on it defensively so no need to reinvent the wheel.

Hopkins will operate as the no.1 and presumably draw double coverage. If he’s in single coverage against Tre’White, we’ll fancy our chances. White is an incredible CB, by Hopkins is an incredible WR too.

Beasley will get his targets out of the slot and Moore will run a full route tree be it deep, on crossers or slants out of the slot opposite Beasley. Getting the ball in Moore’s hand one way or another will be the priority when targeting him given the YAC threat he poses, particularly for a defence that will be committing extra resources to Samuel for that exact reason.

The flex position will be filled by Samuel and Gesicki. Samuel will also be working as a YAC guy, motioning all over the field and getting the ball on slants, quick tosses, pitches and sweeps while Gesicki will operate split out wide in the hope of either drawing a CB in coverage, in which case he can out muscle them or one of the LBs who he’s an athletic mismatch for.  

No Huddle Line-up:

We’ll go no huddle on a number of occasions with a Hopkins-Moore-Beasley-Gesicki-Samuel set. These will be either 5 wide, or 4 wide with Samuel in the backfield. Generally each receiver will run the following route in the no-huddle:

Hopkins – Out/Corner
Beasley - Slant
Moore – Go route
Gesicki – Go route (opposite side of field to Parker) in 5 WR set, Slant in 4 WR
Samuel – 5 WR – Slant/Rub route for Hopkins or Beasley

In 5 WR we’ll cycle through the following:

1.      QB Draw – Allen receives the snap, feigns pass and immediately tucks and runs behind Decker & Bitonio with Pugh pulling across

2.      Toss to Hopkins

3.      Deep throw to Gesicki/Moore

In 4 WR:

1.      QB RPO – Allen receives the snap and runs a standard RPO

2.      Jet Sweep – Deebo will line-up wide but motion to the backfield and Allen will dump it to him

3.      If Hopkins is in single coverage quick toss to him

Roman Inspired 2TE-2RB Sets:

Another wrinkle we’re going to weave in is about 10 or so snaps in a Greg Roman inspired 2TE-2RB set in which Hopkins will be the remaining WR on the field, Gesicki and Cook will line-up at TE and Samuel + Gordon in the backfield. Everything will be on the table in these situations, including the TEs peeling off for screens, counters where one of the backs receives the ball and creates another option situation with the other back and standard runs up the middle.

Defense:

Defensive Front:

With the return of Nick Bosa and the addition of JJ Watt and Grady Jarrett, our starting defensive line has gone up another level but the plan is as it always has been, to rotate heavily and keep everyone fresh.

While we don’t anticipate Cancun throwing the ball too often given their RB situation and the fact they’ve got Mahomes at QB, we still want to ensure we’re ready for that threat. 

So despite our listed lineup:

-        Clowney will play some in place of Bosa on the edge on early downs and Wilkins will rotate in with Jarrett/Simmons.

-        Harris and Watt will rotate on early downs, with Watt moving inside on 3^rd downs/obvious passing downs; and

-        Alexander Johnson will come in for Savage on earlier downs, with Adams and Amos playing at safety.

Given his skillset, Jamal Adams will be deployed as a joker of sorts, often rushing the passer or blitzing. In particular we plan to have him on the same as Bosa and lined up over Cancun’s LT, who we assume will be Brian O’Neill (or possibly Morgan Moses), two right tackles who will be forced to play on the left. To prevent Mahomes from escaping, Watt/Harris will be tasked with setting a strong edge on the other side.

Otherwise we don’t want to complicate things. We’ve got the talent and Cancun lacks it, let the matchups play out and force them to do something extraordinary.

Coverage:

No surprises here as we move forward with our cover 1 coverage scheme.

Bradberry – Sutton
J.C. Jackson – Moore
Adoree Jackson – Sterling Shepard
Wright – Juszczyk/Running back
Amos – Tight end

Savage will play as our deep safety. If Adoree Jackson is out, Micah Hyde will move into the slot and take on coverage of Sterling Shepard.

If Cancun want to go with 2 TEs, then Hyde will come in for Adoree Jackson and cover the second tight end which Amos isn’t.

On 3^rd and long, Hyde will come in for KJ Wright and we’ll throw up some cover 6 type **** cause why not.

 

Cancun Kaiju

Offense

For Week 1, we love our chances of taking advantage of the New Orleans defense over the middle of the field and on the outside against what is likely to be single coverage. JC Jackson and James Bradberry are good corners, but neither of them is a lockdown player and there is little depth behind them this week. Similarly, NO doesn’t really have a linebacker who excels in coverage, giving Austin Hooper and Dalton Schultz room to pick up yards underneath.

The name of the game for our offense this week is variety. While we’re coming out with a standard 3 WR/1 RB/1 TE set, we’ll also be running 4 WR with an empty backfield, RB/FB backfield, 2 WR/2 TE/1 FB, and 4 WR/1 FB sets all within the first couple drives of the game and continuing throughout. We want to force the defense to either play their base defense and let us exploit mismatches, or switch up their personnel constantly and give us some shots at catching them out of position or with 12 men on the field and getting a free play.

Another tactic we want to use is Taysom Hill and Greg Ward as multidimensional weapons. Both are former college quarterbacks who can throw the ball well enough to be a threat in the passing game. We want to run 4-5 plays today early where Hill and Ward are on the field as receivers or backs alongside Mahomes and get them the ball with run-pass options, with one or two of these plays designed passes to Mahomes. We don’t really expect to catch the defense off-guard with this or create huge plays here; the goal is to force the defense to account for the quarterback as a threat in all phases of the game, freeing up room for the pass and run games.

We trust our offensive line to hold up against the New Orleans pass rush on their own; Cosmi will be getting help from either a TE chip or a running back as he gets his first NFL game action. Pre-snap motion will be a big feature to give Mahomes an idea of the coverage and identify blitzes more easily. Since we know Randy Gregory and Jamal Adams are likely to be coming on blitzes, we want to throw some screen passes out to the fullback, running back, and tight end early on to slow down Bosa and Clowney off the edge and punish them for coming after the quarterback.

Defense

This Week 1 matchup with New Orleans comes down to offensive firepower on the outside, as Hopkins, D.J. Moore, and DeVante Parker will surely be heavily used by New Orleans. The three headed RB led by Melvin Gordon, who is coming off of a solid 2020 campaign with record highs in all categories, is still the model of inconsistency with a career 4.1 YPC, has played 16 games 1 time in his career, and adds very little in terms of catching the football. Chris Carson is coming off of foot and hip injuries will be a wildcard in 2021, and Nyheim Hines should see little to no action as a rusher with the emergence of Taylor in Indianapolis. Therefore, we expect New Orleans to come out throwing the football a lot with Josh Allen and his tandem of outside WR in Hopkins and Moore, with Parker and Moore swapping out in the slot, and a mixture of a TE and 4th WR.

We will be playing to the strength of our defense (which is our secondary and interior pass rush), and as a result will alternate between an even and odd front and utilizing a lot of Nickel personnel to match the WR threat that New Orleans has to offer.

Nickel:

We plan on allocating +1 on the perimeter to each side with a safety, and allocating 6 on 6 (in the gaps) in the running game with the linebackers. The strong safety will primarily be in run support and the hash defender inside the DE, who will be primarily containing Josh Allen and rushing upfield, with the playside LB also plugging the B gap/the opposite LB scraping over the top, and vice versa weak.

We will use a variety of coverage looks, especially Buzzing on Cover 3 with a post high defender, and trusting our ability with our elite CB to consistently win outside of the numbers in man, press man, and off man looks. We will also be using some APEX looks with Werner in 3rd and long situations to match the RB if he's to his side, or otherwise be the curl/flat defender.

In TE personnel as well as long yardage situations, we like this look a lot with a CB covering the TE vertically, a LB carrying him underneath, and 2 Apex players with a post high safety. We will be putting White to the field side, where his ability to break and tackle should help us to get off the field on 3rd and long.

We also like this look a lot if they decide to go Pro-I:

We will also be utilizing some 4 under to limit the underneath routes on early downs:

From a pressure standpoint, we plan on doing the following from a pure gameplan:

1. CONTAIN JOSH ALLEN

2. Get inside pressure with Ogunjobi and Rousseau in RUSHMAN situations on 3rd and long

Here are some "exotic" looks we will utilize:

(Note, the Apex defender and "match" will change between Werner and a S). Showing overload and then backing out will both contain Allen and make him throw weak into Tre'Davious White.

Off of almost the exact same look, we will utilize this to mix White in Zone/Cover 3 and man to prevent quick fades:

Notice, the difference between open and closed side compliment one another depending upon where the back sets and what the opposite CB does.

We also have a few base blitzes that we like on early downs as a mixer off of the above base concepts:

We will concede throws like sticks and quick outs on early downs, while eliminating slants, crossers, and routes of 6+ yards.

Lastly, we do have an APEX blitz mixer just to show as a coverage mix/blitz look to prevent pre-snap hot routes:

[VigilantZombie]

I definitely expected to have a different opinion here. The receiving Corps for NOLA is CLEARLY better than Cancun. Unfortunately it doesn't matter because as good as Josh Allen is, Alejandro Villanueva gets eaten alive in this matchup and Allen never has time to throw to any of those guys. 

Cancun 31-13.

[Scoundrel]

The best part of this matchup is Cancun game planning to face a receiver New Orleans doesn’t even have anymore

[WFLukic]

Yeah but I've got Alejandro Villanueva, who apparently is now an auto-loss player when lined up against Robert Quinn who had 2 sacks last year.

Edited September 14, 2021 by WFLukic

[Scoundrel]

26 minutes ago, WFLukic said:

Yeah but I've got Alejandro Villanueva, who apparently is now an auto-loss player when lined up against Robert Quinn who had 2 sacks last year.

Hey he had half a sack last night!

[VigilantZombie]

7 hours ago, WFLukic said:

Yeah but I've got Alejandro Villanueva, who apparently is now an auto-loss player when lined up against Robert Quinn who had 2 sacks last year.

No one said he was an auto-loss.  However he is a major weakness, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter who votes what on any game, someone is always going to complain. 

 

One thing I will say though is I should avoid voting when I'm tired because I'm not sure I wouldn't have voted in favor of NOLA realizing how poorly Stevenaon performed and how poor overall the weapons on offense Cancun has performed outside of Mahomes.

Edited September 14, 2021 by wwhickok

[MWil23]

9 hours ago, Scoundrel said:

The best part of this matchup is Cancun game planning to face a receiver New Orleans doesn’t even have anymore

Update the roster link tbh. I pulled it from there.

[Scoundrel]

13 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

Update the roster link tbh. I pulled it from there.

Shows he is on Seoul on mine... must be the Ohio WiFi. 

[MWil23]

17 minutes ago, Scoundrel said:

Shows he is on Seoul on mine... must be the Ohio WiFi. 

 

On 1/1/2021 at 3:02 PM, WFLukic said:

The New Orleans Jazz Football Club

 

Offense: 

QB: Josh Allen, Teddy Bridgewater, Drew Lock
RB: Chris Carson, Melvin Gordon, James Conner, Tevin Coleman, Devin Singletary, Zack Moss, Nyheim Hines
WR: DeAndre Hopkins, TY Hilton
WR: DJ Moore, Deebo Samuel, Parris Campbell
Slot WR: Michael Thomas, Cole Beasley
TE: Mike Gesicki, Blake Jarwin, Jared Cook
LT: Taylor Decker, Jonah Williams
LG: Joel Bitonio, Jon Feliciano, David Edwards
OC: Alex Mack, Connor McGovern, Austin Blythe
RG: Brandon Scherff, Justin Pugh, Austin Corbett
RT: Alejandro Villanueva, Cam Robinson

Defense: 

DT: Jeffery Simmons, Shelby Harris, Jurrell Casey
NT: Eddie Goldman, Christian Wilkins, Bravvion Roy, McTelvin Agim
DT: Grady Jarrett, JJ Watt, Dre'Mont Jones
LEO: Nick Bosa, Jadaveon Clowney, Randy Gregory, Whitney Mercilus, Michael Danna
LB: Alexander Johnson, KJ Wright, Nick Kwiatkowski, Chase Winovich, Monty Rice
LB: Jamal Adams, Cory Littleton, Foyesade Oluokun, Jacob Phillips
CB1: Stephon Gilmore, Richard Sherman, Cameron Dantzler
CB2: James Bradberry, JC Jackson,  Zech McPhearson
CB3: Adoree Jackson, Tre Herndon, Benjamin St-Juste
SS: Adrian Amos, Terrell Edmunds
FS: Darnell Savage, Micah Hyde

Edited August 28 by WFLukic

 

[WFLukic]

FWIW the worst pass blocker this week was an RT, who is starting at LT in this match against Nick Bosa.

Might open some holes for Rhamondre Stevenson tho lol

Edited September 14, 2021 by WFLukic

[MWil23]

24 minutes ago, WFLukic said:

FWIW the worst pass blocker this week was an RT, who is starting at LT in this match against Nick Bosa.

Might open some holes for Rhamondre Stevenson tho lol

FWIW, if we want to play that game, I love my odds with your own OT situation and the fact that Josh Allen was very pedestrian this week. That knife cuts both ways.  

[Blue]

1 hour ago, WFLukic said:

FWIW the worst pass blocker this week was an RT, who is starting at LT in this match against Nick Bosa.

Might open some holes for Rhamondre Stevenson tho lol

Your link is broken but I assume that's PFF which is absolute trash.

[RedGold]

I went with the Jazz.    I think they have a slightly better defense.     Both offenses will have issues with protection.    It came to Weapons on offense for me,  which New Orleans wins.   Both great game plans,   both have QB's that can avoid some of the pressure.   Went with the team that has the skill positions to make plays.    

I do like the strategy to use Ward and Hill by Cancun to cover up the lack of run game,  though I'm not sure taking the ball away from Mahomes in passing situations is a good one.   (albeit that was a very small portion of the gameplan and didn't factor into my decision.)