BDL 2021 Quarterfinal Round - #6 Death Valley Nightmare @ #3 Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

[Whicker]

BDL 2021 Quarterfinals

Match:  Death Valley Nightmare @ Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

Away Owner:      @WFLukic

Home Owner:      @RuskieTitan

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: Matthew Stafford
RB: Alvin Kamara
WR: DeVante Parker
WR Michael Gallup
WR: Christian Kirk
TE1: Dawson Knox
LT: Penei Sewell
LG: Dion Dawkins
C : Creed Humphrey
RG: Mark Glowinski
RT:  Morgan Moses

Bench:

RB2: Darrell Williams
RB3/WR5: Jalen Guyton
WR4: KJ Osborn
TE2: Tyler Conklin
OT: Chukwuma Okorafor
OG: Jonah Jackson


Defense
LE: Calais Campbell 
NT: Javon Hargrave
RE: Cam Heyward
LOLB: Maxx Crosby 
ILB: Jeremy Chinn
ILB: Zaven Collins
ROLB: Brian Burns
CB: Darius Slay
CB:  Carlton Davis
FS: Xavier McKinney
SS: Javon Holland

Bench:
INT/DE: Raekwon Davis
ILB: Devin Bush
OLB: Kwity Paye
CB4: Trayvon Mullen
CB5: Rock Ya-Sin
CB 6: Terrance Mitchell
NCB: Tre Norwood
S3: Xavier Woods

 

 

 

 

Ivory Coast

QB- Ryan Tannehill
RB- Nick Chubb
WR- Terry McLaurin
WR- Chase Claypool
WR- A.J. Green
TE- Noah Fant
LT- Trent Williams
LG- Damien Lewis
C- Jason Kelce
RG- Zack Martin
RT- Andrew Whitworth

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RB- Ezekiel Elliott
FB- Khari Blasingame
WR- Robby Anderson
WR- Amon-Ra St. Brown
WR- Chester Rogers
TE- Evan Engram
OL- Josh Jones
OL- Quinn Meinerz

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DE- Myles Garrett
DT- Christian Barmore
DT- Da'Ron Payne
DE- Darrell Taylor
WLB- Devin White
MLB- Lavonte David
SCB- Trevon Diggs
CB- A.J. Terrell
CB- Patrick Peterson
S- Jimmie Ward
S- Devin McCourty

--------------------------------------------------

DE- Charles Omenihu
DT- Milton Williams
DT- Maurice Hurst
LB- Patrick Queen
LB- Bobby Okereke
CB- Bradley Roby
CB- Darnay Holmes
S- Jordan Whitehead

[Whicker]

Offensive Gameplan

5WR/35% ; 4WR/35% 3WR/15% 2TE/15%

[Running Back will be used in all formations but 5WR in the backfield on various plays]

With Kamara back I have decided to eliminate all the things that haven't really worked for me this season, as such, Kamara & Darrell Williams will be our RBs this week and we are only dressing 5 WRs, one of which we will utilize at RB and WR.


In the passing game, Parker is going to be utilized as a Deep threat to draw coverage down field. I plan to utilize Kirk in the slot on Slant, Sluggo, Intermediate Post, and combination routes. I want him using his speed to create space.

Gallup will Utilize the entire route tree. KJ Osborn I am going to utilize on tighter routes such as drag routes, mesh routes, screens, Curl routes, and some shallow slants. I want him in position to get the ball quickly. Do not believe for a moment that just because he is the #5 WR this week, I won't use him, he will get plenty of opportunities. 

Knox & Conklin will see a little bit of blocking responsibility but mostly I will use Knox as our intermediate to deep threat from the tight end position and Conklin as a shallow to intermediate threat on slants, seam routes, drags, out routes, really the works.

Jalen Guyton is going to get utilized more as a jet sweep, screen, reverse guy.

Kamara  is going to get his workload in this one we are going to run a lot of outside stuff, both tosses and sweeps to neutralize the pass rush. We are also going to split Kamara out wide and utlize him on Slant and drag routes and the occasional Sluggo style routes out of the backfield.

Williams will play enough in the backfield to help keep Kamara fresh. We will also use Williams (in relief) in the screen game. 

Our entire offensive gameplan is going to be prefaced on the ability to spread out the defense and get the ball out quickly but efficiently. While IC has a decent secondary, the meat of their defense is truly in the front 7. We plan to run a lot of 2-TE, 4 WR, and 5 WR formations (mixing in some 3 WR stuff to keep the defense honest), essentially eliminating their ability to just stack the box and get to Stafford without paying for it via a huge play down field to a receiver.

In 5 WR sets Kamara will split out to the Slot, Kirk will slide over to the opposite side into the slot position. KJ Osborn will get opportunities as the #5 WR in these situations (4th true WR in the formation). He will split those opportunities however with Knox, because we will also occasionally slide Kirk to an outside role in 5Wide and put Knox is the opposite slot position to take advantage of mismatches.

Lastly, we plan to play ball control, chew the clock, mix in some no huddle, wear down the defense and limit the opportunity for ICs play makers to ever see the field.


Defensive Gameplan 


First of all, with knowing both, how wildly inconsistent and how big of a playmaker Chase Claypool can be, Carlton Davis will be on him all game. Darius Slay will work on McLaurin with Safety help deep.

Although, Chase Claypool isn't the wide receiver he was believed to be last season, he is almost certainly good for a few busted routes, a personal foul, and a few whiffed blocks ,

I have made 2 major changes this week. #1, Devin Bush was benched in favor of Jeremy Chinn and #2 Holland moves to SS, McKinney to FS (okay, that's 3 changes). i want to maximize our coverage ability and playmaking ability at every level with Chubb, Elliot, Freeman, Fant, Engram, and a decent group of WRs.

Chinn will be responsible for the RB/TE coverage in the middle of the field along with Collins. We intend to rush 4 most of the game and are confident we can get to Tannehil early and often. We want to keep Tannehil in the pocket we don't want him extending plays. Crosby will be our primary 4th rusher.

Should IC try to spread us out with 4 & 5 WR sets, I will bring Rock Ya-Sin, Trayvon Mullen, and a 3rd Saftey onto the field, along with Chinn playing the lone LB spot with our front 3 DL. Essentially having 3 RL #1s and a #2 CB in our secondary I feel bodes very well for our coverage.

Chubb and Elliot, but more so Chubb is/are very versatile as a running back and we need our front 7 in heavier sets to be on point with tackling, another reason Bush is a backup this week. Obviously the Running Backs will be utilized in the passing game, again, hence the reason for our personnel changes. I want to keep everything in front of us and hit hard. If a catch is going to be made the guy making

 

 

 

 

Ivory Coast

Motivation: Welcome Death Valley to the jungle… and send them packing home for the rest of the playoffs.

Offense
Primary Formation: 11 Personnel Single Back:

We will primarily operate out of 11 personnel for this game, with an emphasis on spreading out the Nightmare defense. Our three receivers will feature pre-snap movement in order to change the initial deployment and draw the defensive assignments out, as well as trying to see if we can tip the coverage, whether man or zone. We’re going to leverage Quinn Meinerz as our replacement interior lineman (if needed, though we expect Damien Lewis to return to form) and Josh Jones as our replacement tackle. In short yardage / goal line, we’ll also have Josh Jones as the 6th lineman for blocking. We’re also going to bring in Cam Newton on a few short yardage situations primarily as a runner.

Running Game Focus:

We’re going to lean heavily on Nick Chubb, but we have full faith his abilities, combined with our offensive line, to maintain a healthy ypc average and keep drives alive. We’re going to lean on the running game a bit more in this matchup, in the first half to pound the defense, wear them down, and open up opportunities for the passing game, and in the second half more emphasis on clock control. We’re going to be balanced running between the tackles as well as off-tackle and outside runs. Khari Blasingame will function as the fullback on a handful of I-formation snaps. We’re also going to bring out Cam Newton on a few short yardage (3 yards or less) situations on 2nd or 3rd down, primarily to serve as a direct snap runner but may also set up a pass attempt if we catch the defense lapsing in coverage.

Passing Game Focus:

As previously mentioned, we’re going to be leveraging a trio of receivers on most plays. We’ll have the offense move up to the line but before snapping we’ll leverage motions and offensive shifts to try and exploit the DVN defense. If we’re encountering more zone than man, we’ll leverage some trips with the TE and flood concepts on one side of the field; if we’re starting to see more man then we’re going to leverage rub routes and crossing patterns down the field, see if one of the defenders doesn’t get caught up in the wash. We’ll be taking advantage of our heavy emphasis on the run to catch the defense creeping, using some shotgun RPO concepts with Tannehill as well as deep shots out of the QB-under-center, single back playaction pass. We’ll have all our receivers moving in and out of the slots, so we aren’t tipping any routes, and we’re going to be aggressive targeting our playmakers. Fant will be used primarily to push the middle of the field and then sprinkle in some out-routes to mix it up a bit. Our running backs will primarily stay in to block (either without a playaction or with), about 75-25 with the smaller percentage featuring them leaking out the backfield as a checkdown.

X-Factor on Offense: Nick Chubb:

 We’re going to be looking to give Chubb 30+ carries this game, and we believe that he will be the key to wearing down the DVN defense, winning the game of field position and clock management.

 

Defense
Defensive Formation: 4-2-5 Defense:

With Death Valley featuring a 3 WR primary set on 83.33% of their games this season, we prepare with a 4-2-5 look to counter. Trevon Diggs will be locking down the slot in this formation, with Peterson and Terrell operating the boundaries. When Death Valley takes out a receiver (2 receivers or fewer), Peterson will come off, and Patrick Queen will come in for middle linebacker, kicking Lavonte David to strong side and Devin White to weak side. When DVN have four receivers, we’ll take off David and bring on Bradley Roby for the other slot position. If DVN goes five wide / uses their back to spread out, we’ll keep our dime package out.

Against the Pass: 70-30 Man-Zone balance; Cover-1 / Cover-2 / Cover-3:

We’re going to take advantage of our cornerbacks against their receivers, and we’ll play primarily man coverage. We’ll have some jamming at the line, but mainly we don’t want to give their receivers comfortable cushions – you won’t see us lined up more than 7 yards off at any point. When we feature man coverage underneath, each of the corners will take their man (no specific matchups, Diggs has slot along with Roby). White will have the primary running back, and we expect Kamara to return for this matchup, so if he splits out wide, White will follow him. David will have the primary TE; when he’s off (due to dime) White will get the TE or the HB, whichever remains. In a base 4-3 those two assignments would remain the same, with Queen taking on the second back / tight end. We’ll likely mix up the safety coverage with cover 1 deep and a rover in the middle zone to pick off Stafford, or throwing a cover-2 shell over the top, which will be leveraged more as the game winds down (if we have the lead and are working the clock, to prevent deep shots from happening more likely). Now, we mentioned the cover-1 with a rover in the middle from the safeties, but we’re also going to use that scheme while blitzing one of the linebackers. In these cases, whichever linebacker we use to blitz (mostly White, but it’ll vary), the safety that would be roaming the middle will instead take the assignment in coverage. This will give us a 5th rusher at times, without risking a zero-deep look for Stafford to exploit. When we operate in a zone coverage, we’ll use a mixture of cover-2, though mostly cover-3 looks. We’ll have Diggs taking one of the flats in zone, and seeing if we can’t bait Stafford into a pick-six. These flat zones will also be designed to take away any running back wheel routes or moving out of the backfield pre-snap. All in all, we’ll have at least one man helping deep in man, and in zone we’ll keep at least two back. Our defensive line will play the run on the way to the quarterback, and we expect Myles Garrett to put up several sacks. Defensive interior will maintain gap responsibility, but push the pocket back when it’s clear that it’s a passing play. Our edges will collapse from the outside and with the pocket pushed back Stafford won’t be able to step up or escape.

Against the Run:

We’re expecting to see the return of Alvin Kamara, and as such we’re going to have our linebackers be aggressive attacking downhill. We want our interior linemen to maintain their gap integrity, limiting the stunting and instead relying on maintaining two-gap integrity. On occasion we’ll have the line slanting to penetrate gaps, but we’re going to limit the movement up front, and rely on our players to fly to the ball, with our linebackers being amongst the fastest in the league. When Kamara moves to the slot / outside, if Stafford is alone in the backfield our line will pin their ears back and we’ll expect pass.

X-Factor on Defense: Myles Garrett:

We lost two elite edges, but we still have arguably the best edge currently out there. We will move Garrett on both sides of the line, and if he starts to dominate one of them, we’re going to continue to exploit it until DVN counters with chips and double teams, and we trust Garrett to continue to win matchups even then.

[RuskieTitan]

Going with Ivory Coast and the home field advantage here. Did you see Myles on Sunday? Beast!

[Jlash]

Can I ask where the Jalen Guyton at RB has come from? I believe you mentioned something like it last week and it confused me a little bit then. He looks like a bigger bodied straight line guy to me, and he ran the ball a whole 3 times in 3 years at NT. Break this one down for me @wwhickok so I can understand the game plan a little better.

[VigilantZombie]

10 minutes ago, Jlash said:

Can I ask where the Jalen Guyton at RB has come from? I believe you mentioned something like it last week and it confused me a little bit then. He looks like a bigger bodied straight line guy to me, and he ran the ball a whole 3 times in 3 years at NT. Break this one down for me @wwhickok so I can understand the game plan a little better.

LAC has used him their but not like a traditional RB, more of a Jet Sweep, in-motion toss type scenario.  I think listing him as a RB kind of muddies my intent. I'm basically using him as an extension of the running game via jet sweeps and reverses out of the backfield, but it would only be a few plays in which he does this, not a major element of my gameplan. 

[bcb1213]

Why is Devin White the number on LB and not Lavonte David. I'm confused  Also, it's going to be hard to bring Cam Newton in for short yardage when you didn't roster him.

On the other side.  Its really hard for me to see Zaven Collins having any impact as he's been literally benched in real life for the past couple weeks.  (ps Jerome Baker actually hasn't sucked lately).  Offensively, I love the offensvie plan outside one thing.  You could have easily chipped or slid the line towards Garrett. As good as Sewell has looked, he's been playing RT and idk how he'd do on the opoosite side yet (though i'd assume good).  Most weeks I can make a projection he would be fine, but Garrett is another level defender

ww, probably best to just list Guyton as OW if thats how you plan to use him moving forward.

With all that being said, Kamara is gonna have a field day in the passing game and Gallup should do well when matched up against Peterson.  I just don't see the other weapons doing much and garrett is gonna cause some havoc.  On the other end, the lack of LB really stings as IC plans to just run it mercilessly even though the passing game is going to mostly get shut down.  Going to have to go with the home team here in a defensive slug fest.  IC 16-12

[Jlash]

I like IC's game plan to play close on the WR's, it should help eliminate some of the quick passing DV plans to do. But for IC to be successful, their plan to get Chubb 30+ touches needs to be effective. I think DV's run defense is underrated as their 3 down lineman are fantastic run players and that'll free up their LB's to make plays. I think Stafford eeks out a couple big plays to his WR's along with some nice chunk plays to Kamara and sneaks a win out.

[RuskieTitan]

Ivory Coast suspends Cam Newton for failure to show up to the stadium on game day. Tannheill will take those snaps.

[Scoundrel]

So I gave this one a lot of thought today. I think relying on Chubb is smart most times but the last two games he hasn’t really looked much like himself but regardless of that he is a stud. But IC is going against one of the best run stopping fronts in the league and I think they need to be more two dimensional to win this game than they are coming out with here. I like the use of Kamara in the passing game and I think Stafford carries DV over IC there. I think the replacement of Bush with Chinn was smart. Chinn is a big safety who can cover ground quickly and with that front in front of him it will open things up for him to use his speed. Bush was a liability anyway. Love the starting of the two young safeties in the back end. McKinney and Holland are playing like two of the best young safeties in the league and I think they really help out the Secondary against a solid IC receiving corps. DV is a bit lacking at WR and that will hurt them against a good starting corner group but I think there is enough spreading the ball out here and dynamic use of Kamara to make up just enough of a difference against Devin White behind Stafford’s arm. A bit similar to the Singapore game in that Stafford doesn’t have the quality of receivers he has here as in irl but unlike Camden’s coverage there are some coverage flaws from IC that allow Stafford enough room to exploit that Brady wasn’t seeing in that other playoff game against Camden with his lesser receiving corps. All in all another close game that DV comes into the Jungle and gets the upset against the home team. And this isn’t even including the planning to use a player on offense that wasn’t even in the lineup. This is playoff ball. Gotta clean that up in the plan. 

[VigilantZombie]

@SirA1 @Ragnarok @WFLukic @Pickle Rick @PR @MD4L @Blue @MWil23 @EaglesPeteC

Care to weigh in here?

[EaglesPeteC]

1 minute ago, wwhickok said:

@SirA1 @Ragnarok @WFLukic @Pickle Rick @PR @MD4L @Blue @MWil23 @EaglesPeteC

Care to weigh in here?

I vote for Pedro 

[VigilantZombie]

1 minute ago, EaglesPeteC said:

I vote for Pedro 

Who

[EaglesPeteC]

2 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

Who

He will make all my wildest dreams come true 

[Pickle Rick]

DV here.  They get more stops on D than IC will.