BDL 2021 Week 12 - Raleigh Firebirds @ Cancun Kaiju

[Whicker]

BDL 2021 Week 12

Match:  Raleigh Firebirds @ Cancun Kaiju

Away Owner:      @EaglesPeteC

Home Owner:     @Blue @MWil23

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

[Whicker]

Offense

 

QB- Kyler Murray (Q)

RB- David Montgomery 

WR- Davante Adams

WR- Mike Williams 

TE- Mark Andrews

LT- Jordan Mailata

LG- Landon Dickerson

C- Mitch Morse

RG- Andrew Norwell

RT- Jawaan Taylor

6th Offensive lineman- Bradley Bozeman

 

QB- Kirk Cousins 

3rd WR- Nelson Agholor

4th WR- DeWayne Eskridge

RB- Chuba Hubbard

2nd TE- Will Dissly 

3rd TE- Jack Doyle

Swing G/T- Oli Udoh

Reserve OL- Patrick Mekari

 

Defense

 

EDGE- Von Miller 

DT- David Onyemata

DT- BJ Hill 

EDGE- Tyus Bowser

LB/Rotational EDGE- Kenny Young

LB- Jayon Brown

CB- Byron Jones

CB-  Ronald Darby

SCB- Avonte Maddox 

FS- Mike Hilton

SS- Demontae Kazee

 

Rotational EDGE- Ogbonnia Okoronkwo

Rotational DL- Davon Godchaux

Reserve DL- Alim McNeill

3rd LB- Jordan Hicks

CB- Chris Harris Jr

CB- Anthony Averette 

SS/LB- Landon Collins

Backup FS- Rodney McLeod 

 

 

 

 

QB Patrick Mahomes

RB Cordarrelle Patterson

WR Courtland Sutton

WR Elijah Moore

WR Jakobi Meyers

TE Dalton Schultz

LT Yosh Nijman

LG Alex Leatherwood

C Rodney Hudson

RG Halapoulivaati Vaitai

RT Brian O'Neill

 

RB2 Alexander Mattison

RB3 Rhamondre Stevenson

FB Kyle Juszczyk

WR4 Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

WR5 Josh Reynolds

TE2 David Njoku

TE3 Austin Hooper

OL6 Justin Herron

 

DE Robert Quinn

DT Larry Ogunjobi

DT Malik Jackson

DE Greg Rousseau

LB Pete Werner

LB Ernest Jones

LB David Long

CB Michael Davis

CB Eli Apple

FS Kevin Byard

SS Quandre Diggs

 

DE3 Preston Smith

DE4 Derek Barnett

LB4 Elandon Roberts

LB5 Jarrad Davis

CB3 Darius Phillips

S3 Jordan Fuller

S4 Jalen Thompson

S5 Malik Hooker

 

[Whicker]

Motivation: Cancun is on a bit of a hot streak but really too little too late for them as they have been spending more time making memes than preparing for a hungry Raleigh squad. We HAVE to win this game to make the playoffs after we went winless last season. The players and coaches are fired up and hungry to have their best game of the season.

 

Offense

Looking at Cancun, we see a group that is pretty strong upfront and very weak in the back end especially after the season ending injury to Tre White. Our plan is, instead of spreading them out, playing with an extra offensive line man to give Kyler (hopefully) or Cousins extra time against that front, and giving Davante Adams, Mark Andrews and Mike Williams extra time to uncover and make big plays. We will start coming out heavy and running with Montgomery and some read options for Kyler if he plays. We want to bring the defense down into the box and then go for play action crossers with Murray (hopefully) rolling out on the edge to put the already inferior second level defenders for Cancun in conflict. We don’t think any CB on the field being able to slow down or keep up with Davante Adams. We plan on exploiting that matchup until they do something extreme to stop it and that will open up the running game with Montgomery, Hubbard and Murray more as well as giving easy reads for the QB with Andrews and Mike Williams or the RB out of the backfield. If Cancun counters with heavy blitz we think that hitting our outside receivers on slants, drags and in breaking routes will get them open and in space fast with lots of green grass for big RAC plays. We will also sub in Agholor and Eskridge for some addition speed on shot plays as well as reverses, bubble screens and touch passes to challenge Cancun horizontally as well as vertically.

 

Defense

4-3, zone blitz, mix up coverages, flood the back end to take away passing lanes.

Our game plan is to make Mahomes uncomfortable, move him off his spot and make him make tight window throws all game long. We are going with a 4-3 look with 2 LB’s with the return of Jayon Brown and also Kenny Young we have 2 ILB who’s strength is blitzing. With Von Miller and Tyus Bowser on the edge we have 2 DE’s that also are comfortable dropping in short zone coverage. We think that we can create confusion and exploit Cancun’s weaker guards with zone blitz concepts. We plan putting David Onyemata over their weak link in the O-line in Calvin Thornmocker and then blitzing behind him to create pressure right in the face of Mahomes and force him to leave the pocket earlier than he wants. Our defensive front 7 will be look to stop the run on the way to the QB. Stevenson and Mattison are effective players but not game changers. If Cancun wants to put the game in their hands we welcome that, we think we can slow them down enough to not be able to sustain long drives and the more they want to take the ball out of Mahomes’s hands the better. In the back end, the zone blitz concepts will help support underneath routes. We also plan on playing with 5 DB’s including 4 CB’s most of the game. Mike Hilton will play a combo Slot CB/Safety role. Avonte Maddox also has a history of doing this as well. Both of them excel in slot roles, so keeping them both on the field will give us the most flexibility and give two high end slot players to stop their best WR who works well in the slot in Elijah Moore. Having 2 slot players will also help slow down their pass catching TE in Dalton Schultz. Byron Jones (even in a largely zone concept) will shadow Courtland Sutton and be physical with him off the line. 

 

 

 

 

 

Offense

 

Raleigh has no depth on the edge and their starters aren’t exactly world beaters. Von Miller has been struggling amidst injuries and hasn’t had a sack since being traded IRL, and our left tackle Yosh Nijman has played very well this season. As a result, we’ll give him a little help with Dalton Schultz primarily lining up on that side of the formation, but we won’t be accounting for an extra blocker every play.

 

Instead, we’re throwing a three receiver base set out with Patterson as a deep threat out of the backfield. Raleigh doesn’t have a great secondary either, and we think Mahomes will have time to throw against an underwhelming Raleigh pass rush. With so many weapons at receiver, we figure we can get after a really poor safety duo and especially No. 2 corner Ronald Darby. Plus, Patterson will be a mismatch no matter whom Raleigh lines up on him. There will be a few 4 and 5 WR sets this week to really pet pressure on the Raleigh secondary.

 

In the run game, we’ll be relying on runs to the right of center and off right tackle primarily, trusting O’Neill and Vaitai to push their defenders off the line. Mattison and Stevenson will get some run throughout the game, both to give Patterson a breather and to make sure we always have a fresh set of legs in. Juszczyk will be our passing down back to give us a little extra protection and a potential checkdown option, with Patterson lining up as a receiver in place of Bourne (in 3 WR sets) or Schultz (in 4 WR sets).

 

Music hits: No chance, that's what you've got...

*Good Ol' JR: "Well King, here comesth the commithssioner of the Raleigh Firebirthds, @EaglesPeteC

*Crowd boos!!!!!*

EaglesPete: "Gimme that microphone!!!!!!!!!!!" Now, I understand that some of you morons out there (*** hole chants from the crowd)...I understand that some of you think that what happened to Cancun this season, is just unfair. Well, I'm here to tell you, that's too **** bad! Because, if you don't think it was fair, you're probably the same kind of people who wait in line, you wait forever in line, like sheep all lined up, you wait in line, waiting your turn, and then you'll see someone like myself very aggressively cut in front of the line, and you'll say "Wait a minute! That's not fair!" And what about...the parking lot, we've all been there. There you are, patiently waiting for your little parking space, and it suddenly appears, you start driving your car - Oops! Someone zips in, cuts you off, parks their car, and you say "Wait a minute! That's my parking space, that's not fair!"...What about - What about on those few occasions, when you will honestly, and objectively, look into the full length mirror...Alright, now we're getting somewhere. And you women, look into the mirror, and you look at yourselves, and you say "Ewwww, eeeeeh. Look at the cellulite hanging from my hips and my buttocks! That's not fair!" And you men, you men won't come close to the mirror! But on that rare occasion where you might take a quick glimpse, you say "Oh, that can't be me...No, that can't be with the potbelly, and the small genitalia! Oh no, that's not fair!" And you look at yourselves - Go ahead, look at yourselves! Look at the person sitting next to you, yeah, look at 'em! Look at the person sitting in front of you! Go ahead, look at all of you! You look at yourselves, and you compare yourselves to the beautiful people here in this ring, and you say "That's not fair!" And, forget about the looks, what about the money, huh? What about the money?! Uh-huh! You scrimp and save, you work yourselves half to death, and still, you can't afford what you really want. "That's not fair!" It's not fair that some people are rich, and you're not! "That's not fair!" And you know, you have to face the facts, that the vast majority of you are just born with inferior DNA. And you say "It's not fair I'm born with inferior DNA!" But you feel sorry for yourselves, you wallow in your self-pity, and then you have to face the facts, that life is not fair. And some of you, a select few, you might as well go ahead and admit it, you might as well own up to the philosophy, for some of you, and that is that - Life sucks, and then you die!

*Glass shatters, bass drops*

*JR: Wait a minute...issth that...it is! It's Cancun's music!

*King: It's @MWil23 and @Blue!!!!

*Shakes hands with Raleigh*

*Michael Cole: "Earlier tonight, some controversial remarks from Raleigh concerning the Royal Rumble Match this Sunday and we're just hoping to get your comments on what @EaglesPeteC had to say."

MWil/Blue:

 

Cole: I-I Was hoping to get your comments on-

MWil/Blue: 

Cole: I was hoping to get your comments on what EaglesPeteC said-

MWil/Blue: What? You want my comments? What? You want my comments about what he said? What? Is that what you're asking me? What? Speak up, hold the microphone, so I can talk! Me and EaglesPeteC have differing opinions.

I said we don't agree!

I don't agree with EaglesPeteC

You got time for me to tell you a story? I'm gonna tell you a story right now. A story about a man named @MWil23 @Blue, who rolled into town last night, and I was real thirsty. So, I went to a bar, and starting drinking beer. And more beer. Then I started throwing darts. Playing pool. Drinking beer. Then I got on one of those mechanical bulls. I rode that bull frontways, sideways, backwards, frontways, two-handed, one handed, no handed, and finally had to shut down that sum***** 'cause I wore it out!

Then I started a fight. And the whole bar started fighting.  I whipped everybody's ***! We whipped @wwhickok and @Jlash and I threw 'em all out the door. Every single one right out the door. Finally, the bartender @Scoundrel said: Cancun! Cancun! Cancun! And I said:

And @Scoundrel goes "Why are you throwing everybody out the **** bar?", and I say "You dumb son of a *****, I'm getting ready for Sunday's Rumble!

I said I'm getting ready for the Rumble. And the bartender looked at me and he said "Cancun?", and I said:

He said "I heard that Raleigh is coming back to win the Rumble."

I put that beer down, looked at that bartender right in the eye, and I said:

He looks great.

Phenomenal

He's the Firebirds

He's that **** good.

The bottom line is, he can do all the bench presses, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, barbell curls, triceps extensions, squats, treadmills, bent-over rows, sit-ups, crunches, rack lifts; he can do all that, but that one thing he'll never do is throw the Cancun Kaiju over the top rope; that just won't happen! I looked at that bartender, and I said "As a matter of fact, I'm working on my strategy right now."

Kyler Murray comes into this banged up and hasn't played, and with McCaffrey being out for the year, we plan on allocating the majority of our resources to contain his two outside WR and Mark Andrews, as his running game isn't really a viable threat with presumably Montgomery in.

Given their advantage, we like a lot of Tampa 2 concepts this week:

We also like the press man BLUFF look (alignment presnap then bailing on the snap) and Cover 3 variation options on the outside, especially with our $ or * or Nickel defender:

From a pressure standpoint, we love the looks we will get out of Match (base) combined with Match from a zone blitz standpoint, especially with Skate backside (See last week's gameplan for match and skate):

Given Kyler's limited mobility, we will heavily rely upon our EDGE defenders to play contain, send pressure to Murray's throwing side, and making him beat us outside of the pocket, which he will not be able to do. On the off chance we see Cousins, we will replicate the scheme that Cleveland did against him, which is heavy Cover 3, and we are confident that he won't be able to get it done against our varied looks, especially since his success is predicated upon the playaction game, which theirs will be lacking.

So I looked at that bartender, and I said, "I ain't gonna mess with your mechanical bull no more, you can let everybody back in, cause I'm going down to what-what-what-what-what-what Whataburger, and I'm gonna get a Whataburger with cheese. A Whataburger without cheese. A Whataburger with double cheese. And french fries. Some more french fries! Ah screw it, one of them french canned fish sandwiches! Another Whataburger with double cheese!

And I'm gonna roll into that Rumble one pissed off sum*****, because @EaglesPeteC, you said you kicked my *** once?

You said you kicked my *** once? So, you think you can do it again? And if you got a problem with that, I can say that to your face, I can say that to your side, I can say that to your back, I can say that to your other side, or I can say that right to your face, because the bottom line is, Cancun is going to the Rumble to win, to play spoiler, and that's the bottom line, because @MWil23 said so!

 

[Scoundrel]

My goodness 

[EaglesPeteC]

That’s a lot of gif’s to cover up the fact that Michael Davis and Eli Apple are tryna cover Davante Adams and Mike Williams 

[MWil23]

2 hours ago, EaglesPeteC said:

That’s a lot of gif’s to cover up the fact that Michael Davis and Eli Apple are tryna cover Davante Adams and Mike Williams 

Aside from the fact that we're basically playing only zone and therefore not having those guys "cover" them, Mike Williams is a pretty average NFL WR.

[MWil23]

6 hours ago, MWil23 said:

Aside from the fact that we're basically playing only zone and therefore not having those guys "cover" them, Mike Williams is a pretty average NFL WR.

Plus, my entire gameplan revolved around containing Kyler with the EDGE guys/not letting him outside of the pocket as well as eliminating crossing routes...so there's that.  

[RedGold]

Gonna take me awhile to read through Cancun’s defense…

Not sure why Raleigh is trying to make Mahomes leave the pocket earlier than he wants.    You want Mahomes throwing from the pocket, not forcing him into his comfort zone.  
 

Looks to be a very high scoring game 

[VigilantZombie]

Luckily for Cancun, Patterson has been doing well enough as a RB to suffice because they didn't really make an emphasis on Stevenson and man.... this would have been to do so.

Murray is coming into this game somewhat hobbled but I still think he can run effectively if given space to do so.

When it comes to Raleighs defense the issue isn't their starters it's their depth along the dline.

When it comes to Cancun it isn't their depth, it's kind of their starters. (Cardinals/Bears matchup up similarities).

The BIGGEST thing that sticks out to me though is how each team attacked the QB. One team is attempting to bottle up the mobile QB and make him throw under duress.  The other is trying to flush the mobile QB out of the pocket and make him throw on the run.

Pat Mahomes is not one of those QBs I'd want trying to throw it on an improvised scramble, he is really good at making crazy things happen.

I think Murray gets some big throws and a few good runs but Cancuns defense is good enough to get to him and keep him contained for the most part imo.

I actually even think Raleighs defense is good enough to contain Mahomes and keep him from destroying them on the ground and extending plays; unfortunately that wasn't their gameplan, their gameplan was to make Mahomes do what Mahomes does best, improvise. 

I think that costs Raleigh here in a high scoring, action packed thriller.

35-28 Cancun

[bcb1213]

boy i think raleigh outsmarted themselves on this one.  Cancun doesnt have the type of pass rush where you need an extra o lineman that provides zippo in the pass game.  If you were worried about Quinn, just start a second TE and chip him. 

[MWil23]

14 hours ago, wwhickok said:

Luckily for Cancun, Patterson has been doing well enough as a RB to suffice because they didn't really make an emphasis on Stevenson and man.... this would have been to do so.

Murray is coming into this game somewhat hobbled but I still think he can run effectively if given space to do so.

When it comes to Raleighs defense the issue isn't their starters it's their depth along the dline.

When it comes to Cancun it isn't their depth, it's kind of their starters. (Cardinals/Bears matchup up similarities).

The BIGGEST thing that sticks out to me though is how each team attacked the QB. One team is attempting to bottle up the mobile QB and make him throw under duress.  The other is trying to flush the mobile QB out of the pocket and make him throw on the run.

Pat Mahomes is not one of those QBs I'd want trying to throw it on an improvised scramble, he is really good at making crazy things happen.

I think Murray gets some big throws and a few good runs but Cancuns defense is good enough to get to him and keep him contained for the most part imo.

I actually even think Raleighs defense is good enough to contain Mahomes and keep him from destroying them on the ground and extending plays; unfortunately that wasn't their gameplan, their gameplan was to make Mahomes do what Mahomes does best, improvise. 

I think that costs Raleigh here in a high scoring, action packed thriller.

35-28 Cancun

12 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

boy i think raleigh outsmarted themselves on this one.  Cancun doesnt have the type of pass rush where you need an extra o lineman that provides zippo in the pass game.  If you were worried about Quinn, just start a second TE and chip him. 

[rackcs]

I have to agree with the gameplan issues others mentioned in regards to Raleigh. Forcing Mahomes to do what he does best is not a winning strategy. And the extra blocker thing seems pretty unnecessary against Quinn and Rousseau who are both fine but not the kind of guys you bring in a 6th OL for.

[MWil23]

Just now, rackcs said:

I have to agree with the gameplan issues others mentioned in regards to Raleigh. Forcing Mahomes to do what he does best is not a winning strategy. And the extra blocker thing seems pretty unnecessary against Quinn and Rousseau who are both fine but not the kind of guys you bring in a 6th OL for.

[rackcs]

1 minute ago, MWil23 said:

[MWil23]

Just now, rackcs said:

I should be able to like this more than once. 

(He was my all time childhood favorite, no question)