BDL 2017 Week 9: Seoul Dragons @ Charleston Dingos

[Whicker]

BDL 2017 Week 9: 

Vote for who you think would win the game.

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[Whicker]

Seoul Dragons

QB Alex Smith

RB Jay Ajayi

FB Patrick DiMarco

WR AJ Green

WR TY Hilton

TE Travis Kelce

LT Ronnie Stanley (Q)

LG Kevin Zeitler

C Alex Mack

RG Rodger Saffold

RT Ryan Schraeder

 

Bench RB Isaiah Crowell

Bench RB Chris Thompson

Bench WR Chris Hogan

Bench WR Tyrell Williams

Bench TE Jason Witten

Bench TE Gerald Everett

Bench OL David Andrews

Bench OL Donald Penn

 

RE Melvin Ingram

DT Gerald McCoy

DT Geno Atkins

LE Robert Ayers (Q)

WLB Nigel Bradham

MLB Demario Davis

SLB Ryan Shazier

CB Aqib Talib

CB Darius Slay

Slot CB Kendall Fuller

FS Marcus Williams

 

Bench Edge Anthony Zettel

Bench Edge Derek Barnett

Bench Edge Jason Pierre-Paul

Bench Int Shelby Harris

Bench LB Devon Kennard

Bench CB Robert Alford

Bench S Barry Church

Bench S Derrick Kindred

 

 

 

Charleston Offense:

QB1: Phillip Rivers
RB1: Melvin Gordon
WR1: Golden Tate 
WR2: Randall Cobb 
WR3: Rishard Matthews
TE: Jimmy Graham 
LT: Nate Solder
LG: Cody Whitehair
C:  Mitch Morse
RG: Brandon Brooks
RT: Mike Remmers

Bench:
FB: Andy Janovich
RB2: Demarco Murray
RB3: Aaron Jones 
TE2: Julius Thomas
WR4: Mike Williams
WR5: Kendall Wright
OL6: Kelvin Beachum
OL7: A.Q Shipley

Charleston Defense:

LDE: Derrick Morgan 
3T:  Malik Jackson
DT:  Leonard Williams
RDE: Shane Ray
WLB: Lavonte David
MLB: Myles Jack
CB1: Marcus Peters 
CB2: Brandon Carr
CB3: Stephon Gilmore -[Q]
FS: Byron Jones
SS: Micah Hyde

Bench:

SLB: Paul Poslusky
RLB: Thomas Davis
DE3: Mario Addison
DT3: Brandon Mebane
DT4: Johnathan Bullard
CB4: Steven Nelson
CB5: Ross Cockrell
S3:  Ricardo Allen

[Whicker]

Offense

 

We are going to pound the ball over and over in this game behind our beastly offensive line because that’s where our advantage is this week. Morgan and Spence outside are no match for Stanley and Schraeder, two top run blocking tackles in the NFL. If Stanley is out, then Penn starts at LT, which isn’t a bad option either. Williams is by far the top run defender on that Charleston DL, but he will face Mack this time so he won’t be able to be as disruptive as usual and we expect Mack can win most of his matchups there. Both our guards are athletic enough to go the second level and take on a LB while the other handles Malik Jackson, who’s not having a great year against the run, and so is Travis Kelce who can block an edge defender himself or can go block an outside linebacker or a box safety. We’ll have a balanced run game inside and outside, though we expect big gains running between Saffold and Schraeder and behind Stanley (or Penn).

 

Expect between 25 to 30 carries to Ajayi, with Crowell getting around 10 carries. Thompson comes in for obvious passing downs only this week. That heavy running game will also test Charleston depth, which isn’t good. Mebane is done, Addison and Mayowa are as bad in run defense as Charleston starters and Rey is still not 100%.

 

One aspect that we will keep from last week offense is QB runs. We will call some option plays, double or triple in 2RB sets and some shuffle passes to Kelce, to keep Charleston defense guessing.

 

In the passing game, we will mostly avoid the middle of the field since Charleston has good cover LBers and safeties and focus on our top wideouts. Peters should be matched up 1vs1 vs AJ Green which doesn’t scare us at all since Peters is pretty inconsistent. Plus, Peters is a great turnover machine, but we trust Alex to throw it to AJ only when he’s open, since Alex is a pretty conservative QB. Whoever is matched up vs Hilton will be heavily targeted as neither Carr nor Gilmore have the quickness and agility to cover Hilton 1vs1. On passing downs, we will use Chris Hogan outside with Hilton or Green going in the slot to get a better matchup than outside, or we will incorporate some plays to him inside where he can cross the field, catch the ball in stride and use his speed in the open field (the Albert Wilson role in KC).

 

Defense

 

Charleston is great at running the ball and weak at passing it. Therefore, we will do everything we can to shut down Gordon, Murray and Jones and let Rivers try to beat us. It starts upfront where our DL will play a disciplined one-gap scheme. Behind them, Demario Davis will have the first responsibility to take out Gordon in the middle, with Shazier and Bradham sealing the edges. We feel it should be enough to limit Charleston running game to minimal gains.

 

In terms of defensive rotation, we will have McCoy play 90% of the snaps, Atkins 75%, Harris 35% (like they all do IRL). Outside, Ingram plays 90% of the snaps, with Barnett rotating with him. Ayers gets 70% of the snaps and Zettel gets 30%. If Ayers is out, then Barnett starts and plays Ayers role, with JPP rotating with Ingram (basically Barnett role).

 

With a single safety high, we take risks in the passing game. But we are confident in our man coverage abilities to run this scheme. Talib and Slay should be able to shut down Tate and Matthews/Williams outside and Cobb will be handled by Fuller. Our corners will plays off man coverage to not put too much pressure on Williams, who will play deep zone. Shazier has the responsibility to cover Jimmy Graham while both Davis and Bradham will cover Gordon, though we will free one LB or two for some blitzes here and there.

 

Should Charleston go with a 2TE set, then Fuller is swapped with Church who will play in the box. In 4WR sets, Bradham is replaced by Alford. In empty formations, then Davis is replaced by Church and Bradham by Alford

 

 

 

Motivation: This week we'll be taking on the Seoul Dragons at home and we're going to play spoiler this week.

 

Charleston Offensive Strategy: We'll commit to the run, use a variety of looks on offense to find matchups against seoul, use our RBs and TEs heavily to give Seoul something different on each snap, Run the ball and dominate TOP.

 

The Passing Strategy: Golden Tate will more than likely get covered by Aqib Talib and we'll try to get Tate the ball against him in single coverage against him and trust Tate can win his matchups. Randall Cobb will be our no.2 WR and will more or less play out of the slot while rotating with Matthews on the outside, we'll feature them both heavily since Seoul's weakness on defense is their backup CBs. However we will be focusing on getting Graham the Ball since he's our best weapon on offense and should be able to get open against Seoul's LBs and Safeties. I'd expect Graham would command at least 10 Targets and could easily crack 15 if he gets open enough we'll also use a heavy dose of 2 TE sets to get THomas more involved since he's a decent matchup issue for Seoul we'll feature them on roughly 30% of the snaps. Melvin Gordon will of course be heavily involved as well and I'd expect he'd get 5+ targets if not more depending on how the game script goes, Phillip Rivers has rebounded from a bad start to the year and is playing very well. Trust me I actually watch his games because I'm a masochist or something like that, we'll focus on using 2 TE sets, using both of our RBs and 3 WR sets to pick apart Seoul's defense and make as many plays as possible against a solid but leaky defense. We'll also use some play action to take some deep shots against them as well and we'll commit to the run to keep this offense balanced and to keep Seoul's fierce pass rush out of the backfield and from collapsing the pocket with Blitzes. Also Mike Williams will play like 30 snaps or something to get him involved since I'm invested in him too much to just realize he'll eventually bust because his name is Mike Williams and he's a chargIR.

 

The Running Strategy: We're going to come out with a balanced approach to the running game this week by maintaing a 60:40 run to pass ratio, the loss of Joe Staley will hurt but Nate Solder is a solid replacement and we should be able to keep Rivers protected fairly well and open good sizes holes for my RBs. We'll use 2 TE sets to help out in pass protection and in the running game as well, Gordon will get around 75% of the RB touches and snaps and be the main workhorse for our backfield hopefully he doesn't have his knee explode this week. Demarco Murray will mix in as well and rotate with Gordon to keep him fresh, we'd also like to get Aaron Jones involved as well but it's hard to justify using him over our other stud RBs. We'll use a FB as needed and we'll rotate all our WRs quite heavily so we can find matchup issues against Seoul's defense.

 

TDLR: You're not gonna read this anyway so vote Dingos or else you're going in the Dingo pitt except Counselor and Whicker they're pretty cool. 

 

Charleston Defensive Strategy: Focus on limiting their passing game, Dominate the LOS, Put Pressure on Alex Smith, Force Turnovers.

 

The Defensive Passing Strategy: In the strange world where the reigning MVP QB gets benched for Alex "Game Manager" Smith, I don't know where I was going with that it's just weird to me. Marcus Peters will cover A.J green by shadowing him and getting help over the top on a decent amount of plays, Brandon Carr will cover the struggling T.Y Hilton though that's more on his IRL offense than anything, Stephon Gilmore will be our no.3 CB if he suits up and if not BDL stud Steven Nelson will be our no.3 CB. Byron Jones and NFL INT leader Micah Hyde form a terrific safety duo and should be able to pick off Smith at least once in this game if my CBs don't, We're mostly going to play Man Coverage with a mix of cover 2 zone and we'll dedicate our resources to shutting down Seoul's passing game since their running game is pretty meh. Travis Kelce along with Jason Witten form a very good TE duo and compliment each other very well I expect Seoul will feature 2 TE sets as their base offense this week and we'll counter that by putting our efforts on shutting that down when they're both on the field. Seoul possess one of the best O-lines in BDL but I possess one of the best D-lines in BDL with the return of stud pass rusher Shane Ray to bolster my pass rush and help knock the shine off of Alex Smith. My interior d-line led by Jackson,Williams will put tons of pressure on Alex Smith and force him to scramble we'll also rotate them quite a bit to keep them fresh along with the rest of my d-line and LBs. My LBs led by Myles Jack and Lavonte David should be able to help defend Kelce and Witten quite a bit whenever they're matched up with them we'll adjust our defensive gameplan depending on Seoul's base offense as well. Chris Hogan and Tyrell Williams are also decent weapons we'll pay attention too along with Chris Thompson in the passing game, but if he's in the game it should be obvious it's going to be a pass so my defense will be on the lookout for that. Alex Smith is a good rushing QB despite being white and in his mid 30s so we'll focus on keeping him in the pocket and then collapsing it so we can force some strip sacks out of his Tiny Tiny hands.

 

The Run Defense: While I'm not impressed by Seoul's RBs their o-line is nothing to sneeze and can make even the most medicore of RBs look like passable starters, Outside of Chris Thompson Seoul's RBs have struggled IRL but there are *insert excuses/reasons Seoul presents here* for that. My front seven is more than capable of putting pressure on Alex Smith and shutting down Seoul's running game and while I'd consider devoting extra resources to the run defense but with Seoul's impressive passing offense led by 2 top 5 weapons in the NFL we're going to focus on limiting that part of their offense. We'll control the LOS by maintaing our gaps and rotating our d-line heavily along with keeping my LBs clean so they can make plays. We'll play redzone, Nickel, Dime, and any another defense as it is required based on the situation or down and distance. 

 

TDLR: My season is over probably but I'm not gonna stop until my team knocks someone else out of the playoffs damn it, Also you know defensive things and all that hoopla about playing good defense.

[DingoLadd]

So am I allowed to point out the fact Stanley re-injured his shoulder in the ravens game or is that a no-no? Also how do we treat player ejections in BDL because A.J green is a dirty dirty player.

Edit: Alex Smith threw an INT. He is no longer a top 3 QB let this alternate reality where Alex Smith is a great QB somehow come crashing down. 

[pheltzbahr]

Seoul.  I mean how could Matt Ryan possibly lose this game?

[Ragnarok]

I think Seoul take this one.  Their OL looks good.  

[Scoundrel]

Seoul. More talent. Charleston doesn't have Ramsey so Aj doesn't get ejected. Shane Ray at end in a 4-3 is a run liability. That defense is fast but it isn't designed to take a pounding of 35-40 run plays a game. Seoul runs through them and tires them out behind a solid oline. Choosing to negate the passing game over providing more support in the run game plays into Seoul's game plan. 

[Xmad]

Seoul is the better team and should be able to grind out the win with the running game.

[Whicker]

I'd like to vote Carlton here for giving me props (and a solid gameplan), but Seoul really is the better team and had an equally good gameplan to match. I especially like their O-line in the run game and they should have plenty of success.

[PR]

Charlestons edge rushers both struggle against the run and are easily whipped. Edge to Seoul

[Jlash]

Seoul's commitment to stop the run in this one really puts the game on Rivers shoulders. 5 years ago maybe he pulls this out, not this time.

[bcb1213]

solid effort from Dingo, but the dragons win this one

[Hockey5djh]

I think Seoul putting a third LB on the field is a risk that paid off. I don't think Rivers has the weapons to do it himself.

[DingoLadd]

I guess I'm gonna have to feed myself to the dingoes now.