BDL 2021 Week 9 - Death Valley Nightmare @ Berlin Blitzkrieg

[SirA1]

BDL 2021 Week 9

Match:  Death Valley Nightmare @ Berlin Blitzkrieg

Away Owner:   @wwhickok

Home Owner:   @Ragnarok

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]

Death Valley

Offense:
QB: Matthew Stafford
RB: Alvin Kamara
WR: Christian Kirk
WR Jalen Reagor
WR: Byron Pringle
TE1: Tyler Conklin
LT: Penei Sewell
LG: Dion Dawkins
😄 Creed Humphrey
RG: Connor Williams
RT:  Morgan Moses

Bench:
RB2: Devonte Booker
RB3: Adrian Peterson
RB4: Darrell Williams
WR4: KJ Osborn
WR5: Anthony Schwartz
WR6: Jalen Guyton
OT: Chukwuma Okorafor
OG: Kevin Dotson

Defense
LE: Calais Campbell 
NT: Javon Hargrave
RE: Cam Heyward
LOLB: Maxx Crosby 
ILB: Devin Bush
ILB: Jeremy Chinn
ROLB: Brian Burns
CB: Darius Slay
CB: Terrence Mitchell
FS: Xavier Woods
SS: Jevon Holland

Bench:
INT/DE: Raekwon Davis
OLB: Kwity Paye
ILB: Jerome Baker
CB4: Rock Ya-Sin
CB5: James Pierre
CB6: Robert Rochell
NCB: Tre Norwood
S3: Xavier McKinney

 

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense

QB - Geno Smith
RB - Aaron Jones
WR - Allen Robinson
WR - Marquise Brown
WR - Kadarius Toney
TE - Hunter Henry
LT - Kolton Miller
LG - James Daniels
C - Corey Linsley
RG - Alex Cappa
RT - Tristan Wirfs

RB - Kenneth Gainwell
RB - Michael Carter
TE - Dallas Goedert
WR - Brandon Aiyuk
WR - Marquez Valdez-Scantling
TE - Jordan Akins
IOL - Royce Newman

Defense

DE - Trey Hendrickson
DT - Quinnen Williams
DT - Derrick Brown
DE - Trevis Gipson
LB - Tremaine Edmunds
LB - Kyzir White
CB - Donte Jackson
CB - Eric Stokes
NB - Byron Murphy
S - Antoine Winfield
S - Juan Thornhill

DE - D.J. Wonnum
DE - Yetur Gross-Matos
DT - Zach Sieler
DT - Kingsley Keke
LB - Jalen Reeves-Maybin
LB - Baron Browning
CB - Kendall Fuller
CB - Nik Needham

[SirA1]

Death Valley

Offensive Gameplan

This week we are going to MacGuyver the hell out of our gameplan, chewing gum and duct tape!

Calvin Ridley, Davante Parker, Derrick Henry, Dawson Knox, Michael Gallup, Corey Davis, these are the guys we are missing offensively. We are good with it; next man up.

First of all, Alvin Kamara will start at running back, we will use him in a lot of ways, to include but not limited to, screens, outside runs, angles, quick curls, mesh routes, a couple wildcat plays and a Flea Flicker. While Kamara will see some runs up the middle, he is best utilized in space. But that is where Adrian Peterson comes in, we will use him as the bruiser back to wear down the interior dline. We will also utilize Devonte Booker in the passing game out of the backfield and on both outside and inside runs.

Occasionally we will feature Kamara and Booker in the backfield at the same time to allow us to utilize some of the things we did with Kamara and Henry. While we acknowledge Booker is not remotely Derrick Henry we are not trying to make him be that guy either, we are very comfortable with his skill set.

In this game, having only one TE we need to be both careful and creative on how we use them. First we plan to utilize Conklin heavily in pass pro, that will be priority #1. We also intend to use him on quick curls, mesh, and out/in routes. Basically passing options that allow little time for defensive reaction and allow for quick throws to make the most of what will likely be limited opportunities to get the TE the ball.

As for the WRs, obviously the situation isn't ideal but we are moving forward. Kirk will play in the #1 WR spot, Reagor in the #2, Pringle in the slot. We are making the entire route tree an option across the board. While we will take some deep shots, most of our passing game will focus on the intermediate areas of the field. We intend to use a rotational combination of Jalen Reagor, Jalen Guyton, and Anthony Schwartz in the 'running game' as well on Jet sweeps, reverses and 'step-back screens' ( instead of advancing forward immediately they'll drop off as though they're intending to block to divert the defensive attention elsewhere, before receiving the throw, ideally a short yardage situational pass option).

A lot of our option as described above will be designed out of an RPO mentality. We intend to run a lot of 3 WR formations, 2 RB, and 4 WR (in which case Kamara will split out wide).

Lastly, the entirety of what I've described above will also be run threw a lot of no huddle/slow tempo clock control offense to focus on wearing down the opposing defense. Obviously it will not be exclusively no huddle, however it is likely to be a much higher percentage no huddle/chew clock offense than not.

Defensive Gameplan 

The biggest advantage for our defense this week is the absence of Aaron Rodgers and OBJ (not that he was anything to be concerned about anyway).

Having said that while Geno Smith is a massive step down from Aaron Rodgers, irl, he has been doing well for Seattle.  Geno struggles under pressure however and in this game he will see a lot of it. I do fully expect a lot of Aaron Jones in this game and it wouldn't surprise me if Berlin has a similar idea of clock control. Having said that, Berlin also has a good group of WRs and 2 very good TEs so our defense needs to bring its A game.

Allen Robinson will be shadowed by Darius Slay, Terrance Mitchell will be responsible for whomever the #2 WR is and Norwood takes the slot again. Because they've got a lot of speed at WR we intend to keep both safeties deep, we have made a significant change here which I'll get to in a moment. We also plan to play mostly zone coverage in this game.

Now, as far as the Safeties, Jevon Holland gets his first start in our defense. We intend to start Chinn also, at ILB. While we will have Baker up for this game who is coverage capable and a good run stopper, Chinn is far superior at both of those things and plays both a DB and LB role well. Bush and Chinn will be responsible for the TEs and RBs in the intermidate to shallow spaces of the middle of the field. Our Edge rushers will be tasked with keeping the running game and Smith inside the area of the pocket and getting to Smith early and often. Heyward, Campbell and Hargrave will be tasked with disrupting the offense at the line and getting their hands up for pass deflections.

Our #1 goal here is to disrupt the passing game enough that it results in very few completions and more so, a few turnovers. Additionally we want Berlins offense to feel forced to transition more to the run game to avoid the pass rush because as good as Aaron Jones is, we are confident in our defense to bring him down.

We want to overwhelm the offense and make Geno throw under pressure all night.

 

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense

Overview - Run effectively, pass smartly, don’t beat ourselves.

Run Game - We are going to be a bit more run heavy than usual this week, which DVN is probably expecting.  But we are going to attack the edges of the DVN defense as we think our OTs can seal the edge against their lighter edge defenders.  Henry will start this game as he is an excellent run blocker.  We will run a number of strong-side stretches and tosses where Henry and the OT to his side double the edge defender, drive them back, and allow Henry to scrape off to a LBer.  We will run counters, draws, the occasional dive play, weak side stretches, and weak-side tosses as well from this formation to keep the defense honest, but that stretch play will be our go-to run play.  While Jones is going to be our top guy, we will rotate Michael Carter and Gainwell in to keep Jones fresh and give the young guys a chance to move the chains.

Passing Game - No Rodgers, that’s okay!  We will just plug in a QB with a 70.5% completion percentage, 4-0 TD-INT ratio, and 103.0 passer rating.

3 WR - 55% - Our base set for the game, we are going to be under center a lot so that we can use the rushing attack described above and build play action off of it.  Robinson will win contested balls, Marquise will take the top off the defense and work across the field, and Toney will serve as a safety net and work on a lot of quick passes that get the ball into his hands.  Our shots downfield will be mostly off playaction to freeze the linebackers.  Henry will attack down the seam, run out routes, and curls to give Geno easy reads.

2 TE - 20% - We won’t use this as much as usual due to DVN’s excellent base defensive front.  We’d rather get a DL off the field for their NB.  That said, when we do run this set, look for us to shift a TE so that both TEs are on the same side for a blocking advantage and run stretches and tosses.  Also, we will split one or both TEs out to move the linebackers or safety out of the box to allow Jones more room to run inside without.

4 WR - 15% - Robinson, Marquise, Toney, Aiyuk, and Jones.  We will typically do a 3-by-1 formation here with Brown by himself on one side.  If he gets a one-on-one, we will give him a chance to chase down a deep ball.  To the trips side, we will layer routes that give Geno easy reads.  We will also throw out some quick WR screens that trips side.  If our former player Rock Ya-Sin plays, we will attack him with double moves as he gets extremely grabby at the top of the route.  Jones will run draws and a few screens to keep their pass rush honest.

5 WR - 10% - Robinson, Marquise, Toney, Aiyuk, MVS.  DVN isn’t very deep at CB, so we will want to spread them out at times, test that depth, and take advantage of any match ups we like.  Look for a Toney jet sweep from this set.

Kadarius Wildcat - This is the week that this happens.  We will bring a WR in motion presnap and maybe do a push pass.  Off of that motion, we will build a read option between Toney and Jones going back the other way.  Toney might just snap quick and run the ball.  Maybe he rolls to one side and actually throws the ball.  Or maybe he gets distracted, runs around for 15 seconds dodging defenders before deciding he wants to rap a bit.

Defense

Overview - Pressure Stafford, reduce Kamara, make their remaining weapons beat us.

Defensive Line - Hendrickson played against Sewell a couple weeks ago and it did not go well for Sewell.  False start, holding or two, gave up a sack, and allowed multiple pressures.  Hendrickson will be across from Sewell all game as we hope for a repeat performance.  We aren’t going to do anything too fancy with our DTs, simply let them wreck havoc in Stafford’s face.  We are going to rotate our other DE spot depending on the situation.  On early/running downs, we will play Keke or Sieler more and on passing downs, Trevis or YGM will get after Stafford.

Kamara - Knox, Tonyan, Gallup, Henry, Ridley, Davis, and Parker are all out or probably out.  That leaves Kamara as our top concern this week.  Tremaine and Winfield will be on Kamara duty.  Both will be keyed in on him in the run game.  In the pass game, if Kamara stays in the backfield, Tremaine and Winfield will be in the box and follow him if he releases.  If he stays in to block, Tremaine will blitz and Winfield will sit in a middle zone.  If Kamara is split out, then Winfield will follow him in man with outside leverage and Tremaine will sit in a middle zone to bracket.

Kyzir - He will have the TE Conklin in man coverage all game.

Byron/Baron - If DVN goes with a 3 WR set, Byron will come in and take the 3rd WR.  If they go 2 RB, Baron Browning will make his BDL debut and take the RB in man.

Secondary - Donte takes Kirk and Stokes takes whoever DVN plays as their #2 WR, probably Raegor.  Thornhill is going to stay deep middle and help against whichever WR is running the deeper route.

[Ragnarok]

So, for some reason a couple sentences didn't save on my gameplan when I copy-pasted.

"Also, we will split one or both TEs out to move the linebackers or safety out of the box to allow Jones more room to run inside without 'having anyone to fill in gaps behind the DL.  Look for a number of quick, chain-moving passes from this set.'"

Feel free to ignore this part since it is technically late.

[Ragnarok]

So, as Scoundrel said in the main thread, Eric Stokes was slated to start, hurt his knee in pregame warmups, and was ruled out.  I don't think we have a set rule for this situation, so I'm fine with voters deciding how they want to handle it.  If you want to consider him out, Byron would take his place, Fuller takes Byron's role, and Needham would be CB4.

@wwhickok you okay with voters deciding for themselves?

[VigilantZombie]

Just now, Ragnarok said:

So, as Scoundrel said in the main thread, Eric Stokes was slated to start, hurt his knee in pregame warmups, and was ruled out.  I don't think we have a set rule for this situation, so I'm fine with voters deciding how they want to handle it.  If you want to consider him out, Byron would take his place, Fuller takes Byron's role, and Needham would be CB4.

@wwhickok you okay with voters deciding for themselves?

100%. I'm also okay with the late fix to the gameplan. Again, it showed a lot of class for you to not just give up this week and instead claim Geno and right a high end gameplan. I appreciate the competition, so on both accounts, I am 100% fine with voters making up their own mind on how to approach said information. 

[Ragnarok]

1 hour ago, wwhickok said:

100%. I'm also okay with the late fix to the gameplan. Again, it showed a lot of class for you to not just give up this week and instead claim Geno and right a high end gameplan. I appreciate the competition, so on both accounts, I am 100% fine with voters making up their own mind on how to approach said information. 

So, how many INTs you think Stafford will throw tonight?

[VigilantZombie]

2 minutes ago, Ragnarok said:

So, how many INTs you think Stafford will throw tonight?

No idea. Lots of time left for him to turn it around. 

[WFLukic]

Given how Stafford looks right now and how good Geno looked against the Jags who came out and completely embarrassed the Bills O, I think Rags should be the one thanking WW for still putting in a gameplan after the Henry injury. Yeesh.

[VigilantZombie]

8 hours ago, WFLukic said:

Given how Stafford looks right now and how good Geno looked against the Jags who came out and completely embarrassed the Bills O, I think Rags should be the one thanking WW for still putting in a gameplan after the Henry injury. Yeesh.

Stafford has played pretty fantastic through this point of the season, even with 2 early INTs, he rebounded and had a pretty good finish to the game.

Geno beating the Jags should have happened. The Bills losing to that same Jags team says more about the Bills than anything else.

Why wouldn't I have written one? While Henry is a big loss, I have plenty of RB depth.

[WFLukic]

1 hour ago, wwhickok said:

Stafford has played pretty fantastic through this point of the season, even with 2 early INTs, he rebounded and had a pretty good finish to the game.

Geno beating the Jags should have happened. The Bills losing to that same Jags team says more about the Bills than anything else.

Why wouldn't I have written one? While Henry is a big loss, I have plenty of RB depth.

Garbage time doesn't count. In meaningful time Stafford was the worst QB this week not named Darnold. Admittedly Rags doesn't have Jeffery Simmons who put on a show for the ages, but this week's Stafford is not moving the ball throwing to Byron Pringle, Jalen Reagor and Tyler Conklin lol.

Edited November 8, 2021 by WFLukic

[bcb1213]

12 minutes ago, WFLukic said:

Garbage time doesn't count. In meaningful time Stafford was the worst QB this week not named Darnold. Admittedly Rags doesn't have Jeffery Simmons who put on a show for the ages, but this week's Stafford is not moving the ball throwing to Byron Pringle, Jalen Reagor and Tyler Conklin lol.

Not named Darnold or Josh Allen you mean.... 

[WFLukic]

Just now, bcb1213 said:

Not named Darnold or Josh Allen you mean.... 

Tyrod Taylor too I guess.

Allen and Stafford had similar games. Allen moved the ball better but against a much worse defense obviously. 

[VigilantZombie]

15 minutes ago, WFLukic said:

Garbage time doesn't count. In meaningful time Stafford was the worst QB this week not named Darnold. Admittedly Rags doesn't have Jeffery Simmons who put on a show for the ages, but this week's Stafford is not moving the ball throwing to Byron Pringle, Jalen Reagor and Tyler Conklin lol.

Yep, overlook Christian Kirk, Kamara, & Booker who are also receiving targets. Are you afraid I'm knocking on the divisional door here?

[bcb1213]

2 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

Yep, overlook Christian Kirk, Kamara, & Booker who are also receiving targets. Are you afraid I'm knocking on the divisional door here?

I'd overlook Booker too, tbh. He's got one game with more than 30 yards receiving