BDL 2022 Week 2 - Cuba Smugglers @ Death Valley Nightmare

[RedGold]

BDL 2022 Week 2

Match:  Cuba Smugglers @ Death Valley Nightmare

 Away Owner:  @MD4L

Home Owner:  @wwhickok

 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

Edited September 18, 2022 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Cuba

QB: Tom Brady
RB: Dalvin Cook
WR: Justin Jefferson
WR: Mike Williams
WR: DJ Chark
TE: Mo Alie-Cox 
LT: Elgton Jenkins(Q) 
LG: Cole Strange
C - Connor Williams
RG: Ezra Cleveland
RT: Lane Johnson

RB: Travis Etienne
OW: Nyheim Hines
RB: Jamaal Williams
TE: Jelani Woods
TE: Hunter Long (O)
OL: Brian O’Neill
OL: Cole Strange

 

Edge: Rashan Gary 
DT: Zach Sieler
NT: DJ Reader
Edge: Maxx Crosby
WLB: Myles Jack 
MLB: Eric Kendricks 
RCB: Rasul Douglas
FS: Eric Reid
SS: Derwin James
NCB: Kenny Moore(Q)
LCB: Shaquill Griffin

Edge: Hasson Riddick
Edge: Alex Highsmith
DT: Lawrence Guy
DT: Zach Allen
DE: Rashad Weaver
WLB: Jerome Baker
CB: Martin Emerson
Star: Jalen Mills

 

Death Valley

QB: Lamar Jackson
RB: Derrick Henry
WR1: Jerry Jeudy
WR2:  Jahan Dotson
WR3(Slot):  Tyler Boyd
TE: Dawson Knox
LT:  Penei Sewell
LG:  Brandon Schreff
C : Creed Humphrey
RG: Alex Cappa
RT:  La'el Collins

Bench:

RB: Cordarrelle Patterson
RB: Breece Hall
WR: Corey Davis
WR: KJ Osborn
TE: Tyler Conklin
TE: Zach Gentry
OT: Matt Pryor
OG: Jonah Jackson(Q)

LE: Leonard Williams
NT:  Javon Hargrave 
RE: Cam Heyward
WLB: Kwity Paye 
LILB: Jeremy Chinn
RILB:  Zaven Collins 
SLB: Brian Burns
CB1:  Chidobe Awuzie
CB2: Carlton Davis
FS: Xavier McKinney
SS:  Jevon Holland

Bench:

CB: Anthony Brown
CB Darious Williams
NB:  Byron Murphy
Edge: Lorenzo Carter
LB: Jordan Hicks
LB: Cody Barton
INT: Calais Campbell
INT: Raekwon Davis

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Cuba

Intro

Feels good to be Week 1 winners. We played an upstart highly capable Lancaster team and got all we can handle. Against one of the best teams in the league and one of the championship participants in Death Valley, we will have our work cut out if we want to win.

 

Offense

This defense is a unique group capable of generating a pass rush within the interior line and at the edges with Brian Burns leading the way. Instead of dialing up heavy pass preference, we want to give Dalvin Cook and Travis Etienne more touches.

We will not sacrifice our passing game and will again begin to throw before setting up the run. Chinn and Collins are some of our favorite prospects at the position, but we think in both facets our skill position can take advantage of them in different areas. Chinn is a bit smaller for the ILB position and giving Dalvin some chances to isolate against him could lead to some big plays. We think getting bodies to the second level can create 4-6 yard carries and that balance will keep us ahead of the chains or in 3rd and less then two. Zaven Collins is more of a project in that we think he’s vulnerable to some play action targets that focus in the middle of the field. We are going to use Nyheim Hines more as a traditional WR in this game so if Collins is moved out in coverage we like some double move concepts that allow Hines to go deep, particularly in the redzone where Brady can throw something within the 15-20 yard range from the end zone.

Speaking of Collins in coverage, he is a primary influence in our wants to get our receivers involved. With only 3 active receivers, we are going to use Hines as a strict receiver and give his RB snaps to Jamaal Williams. We will make Jefferson a focal point of our passing attack and move him across formations. Our main goal of doing this is placing him in bunch sets. We will keep him on the boundary of those formations but next to Alie-Cox and Mike Williams. Setting him up next to those big bodies make pick plays easier to set up against the underrated Chidobe Awuzie, and our early goal is getting him and Brady connecting on short throws. The drag routes that get Jefferson into the middle of the field can eventually extend to crossing patterns on the same concept. In many ways establishing those picks allows us to get physical with Awuzie before allowing play action concepts to stretch Jefferson into the middle of the field.

Jefferson’s decoy sets are mainly when we put him in the slot. Whereas Brady used Hines motions to check man/zone concepts last week, we will pair him on shot gun concepts with DJ Chark. Allowing Chark to test deeper targets from Brady let’s us work Jefferson on more option routes and motioning him between both our starters. We like break concepts which free Jefferson to be creative as he begins to go into the 10-15 yard range. We like the idea of in cuts from the boundary and several back shoulder targets that come from wheel routes. We expect some form of shadow or safety help concepts and those opportunities should free up opportunities for other receivers.

Mike Williams is the other hot commodity for us at receiver. We want him going deep on a couple shots but serving as the opposite crosser from Jefferson when we aim to find Zaven Collins zone in pass coverage. If Holland is tasked with playing deep, our adjustment will be more play action screen simulations that fake targeting the RB but do so anyway to attract a safety coming down to free up the vertical throws. Brady is comfortable getting the ball to RBs and our belief in the RBs ability with the ball in his hands against two deep should get enough attention that allows Brady to eventually take deeper shots later in the game compared to the first half where he’s getting the ball out quickly.

 

Defense

It goes without saying Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are fully capable of executing a legitimate ball control offense that could win the time of possession battle decisively and being able to win in that area will have a major impact for our team. Having a run balance from our offense helps and frequently working longer drives will be an entire team victory.

As for stopping this mammoth of a running game, we want to focus on an inverted cover 2 on base downs. This accomplished a couple things; we are able to bring one or both Derwin James and Justin Reid into the box. Secondly, we are already aiming to keep Rasul Douglas in off zone coverage, so playing off the ball is right up with his familiarity. Shaquill Griffin is more hands on but our pass rush will be more important for our success as a team.

We just dealt with a run heavy offense last week and expect a similar gameplan from Death Valley. Having Lamar Jackson pose as a rushing threat is why we want safeties closer to the LOS. They are both committing to the boundaries and short passing game. 

We aren’t committing to it entirely but we want to blitz the LBs more then usual to try and penetrate the LOS so Derrick Henry does not have a head of stream. This is primarily done in the early stages with hopes our offense forces DVN to pick up the pace and become more pass oriented.

Dealing with a Jackson-Henry-Patterson back field is probably the hardest to stop this week. Instead of focusing on coverages, we’ll have Kenny Moore serve as a blitzer to get after RPOs but circle into the flats on his side in anticipation of the Patterson usage as a receiver. On those instances we will let Eric Reid go into the middle of the field with James serving as a roamer focusing on what’s going on behind the LOS.

We did not get many pass rush compliments last week but are hopeful our offensive work leads to our edge rushers getting opportunities to rush Jackson. Obviously, his mobility is a challenge within itself, but we want Crosby to get an opportunity to make some plays against his former team. With Gary serving opposite and Highsmith, Riddick, and Weaver serving as substitutes, we can put the pressure on any passer frequently. The depth is beneficial for no huddle sets and this week Gary and Crosby’s biggest task is setting the edge in anticipation of Lamar testing us to the outside and giving Kendricks/Jack holes to fill in our plans to contain Henry.

We want to use more then inverted cover 2 and will work some cover 6 sets as an alternate. This keeps our safeties deep and allows us to put personnel against the standard 3 WR sets.

 

 

 

 

 

Death Valley

Motivation: After a disappointing week 1 loss our team went through a rigorous week of practice. When we spoke yeeterday before the walk through, Derek Henry stood up and spoke with supreme confidence just three words; "I got this"

The big name presence is not going to be a factor here by Cuba today. Theyre in our house and they are goimg to feel a lot of misery.

 

OFFENSE

First of all we welcome back Maxx Crosby to Death Valley, where his day will be long and unsuccessful.

We are going to.focus on neutralizing their pass rush by running Derek Henry up the middle of the Cuba defense. We want to wear their ultra thin interior defensive line down quickly.

We are going to use Codarelle Patterson and Breece Hall as well to keep Henry fresh. Our offense will feature Split Back formations, 2 TE formations, 3WR, 4WR, Singleback, (obviously some of the personnel groups intermix)

Knox and Conklins #1 priorities today will be to run block, Gentry will also see time as a run blocker in Conklins stead.  Having said that, we will use the TEs to chip at the line and then break off on a shallow to intermediate route at times also.

Jeudy, Dotson, & Boyd will be our primary receivers in 3-Wide. 

Where 4 wide will come in more often than not is via an initial split back [more specifically 2 Back/3 Wide formation] look featuring Patterson and Henry. We will motion him into the slot Patterson to take advantage of mismatches against LBs or safeties.

We will sprinkle some actual 4 WR formations in there featuring Corey Davis, again, to keep the defense honest.

We are also goimg to use Patterson out of the backfield in 3Wide bunch formations as a receiver on screen and wheel route passes.

With how thin the Cuba interior line is, even if he is using Weaver there, we dont forsee much struggle among our offensive line.

Last week we ran a Zone Read offense. This week we are running more of a Power Run offense, focusing on interior runs but we will run outside with Henry, Patterson, Hall, and Wilson to keep the defense honest.

Last week we limited Jacksons opportunities to run, this week, if he drops back to pass and there is a safe lane, we want him to take it.  When their DL starts getting tired and they start bringing more guys into the box, we are gonna let it fly to Jeudy, Dotson, and Boyd (and whomever else might be on the field). We plan to utilize the full route tree but especially Deep Crossing routes, Intermediate out routes, Post Routes and Corner routes. We plan to attack the edges often, let the Linebackers play chase and put the pressure on the outside corners who have allowed 13 receptions on 18 targets this season.

We also plan to run a no huddle offense a lot of the time. We want to limit Cubas opportunities to substitute their already thin INT and LB positions as well as control the clock and T.O.P.

We want to limit Cuba's opportunities on offense.

Defense

In this game we are going to throw a lot of different looks at Tom 'Dinosaur' Brady.

We feel very comfortable with our defense and we don't feel that we have any glaring weaknesses at all.  With a very deep and talented defense we come into this feeling very good about how we match up to Cuba's offensd.

We are going to use our base 3-4, 4-2-5. We intend to use Nickel and Dime defenses. Our primary focus in this game is to limit the passing game. This is not siggestive that we are in anyway goimg to allow Cook to run all over us. However, Jefferson, Williams, Chark, and Moore should all be respected.

Tom Brady is not even slightly a running threat. Sure his snail *** has done it before and should he choose to we are gonna light him up like the Rockafeller Christmas Tree.

Our blitzing is going to be about 25% this week, Brady struggles under pressure. We will mix up the yhe locations we are blitzing from.

Getting back to  Our passing defense. In the 4-2-5 we are going to look like this:

Burns - Heyward - Williams - Paye
             Collins -- Barton

             Awuzie --  Davis

McKinney -- Chinn -- Holland

We want the Safeties to protect against deep passing, Chinn will play an intermediate middle field safety position to allow for the ability to read and react, to either drop back into deeper coverage or coverage receivers across the middle of the field.  We will also use the 4-2-5 for run defense where we are confident our Dline can overpower the Cuba Oline.

Our usage lf the 3-4 Defense will be used to defend both the run and pass as well, again, to give Tom Brady different looks. Having the extra Linebacker on the field will give us the power to stop a powerful running attack.

We are not ignoring the TEs who we expect will be utilized over the middle, perhaps an occassional seam route, or out routes, however with our defensive strategy, we feel comforable our coverage in place will be sufficient for containing them.

We will run a mixture of Zone and Man, with disguised blitzes and coverages.

We also plan to have some rotation on the defense at various positions (in relation to what we have on the bench) to keep guys fresh. Jordan Hicks will be utilized occassionally at both ILB &

If we see that Cuba is running a heavy rushing attack with their wide receiver corps missing some key components we will adjust accordingly and pull Javon Holland closer to the line of scrimmage, We will keep him at an intermediate distance in relation to the line of scrimmage to allow him to provide run support but also drop back into coverage should the quarterback drop back to pass. 

Our goal is to be constantly adjusting within our gameplan with the flow of Cuba's offensive attack. So rather than trying to plan for every possibility, we will start with the prescribed plan and adjust according to what Cuba is actually doing.

 

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by RedGold

[VigilantZombie]

No matter the outcome, good writeup this week @MD4L

[LAOJoe]

Not gonna lie. I looked at this matchup first and couldn't find a difference. I came back to it again and saved it for last and I still can't so I'm giving it to the home team.

[bcb1213]

"First of all we welcome back Maxx Crosby to Death Valley, where his day will be long and unsuccessful." is probably the biggest LOL of the week i've read so far as La'el Collins has been a turnstile as a pass blocker for Cincy this year so i expect Crosby to have lots of success

I think Cuba is going to find a success in the short passing game, especially when DV switches to man with the passing to the RB strategy against some really subpar ILB and Chinn having to cover WR.  

Cuba will initially do well in the running game with DV coming out protecting against the pass but I don't trust the Cuba interior to win their matchups long term and Z Collins for the LOL he is as a coverage backer can stop the run pretty well

I think Death Valley highly underestimates the Cuba interior as far as run stopping as Reader and Sieler are both plusses and that and Allen is actually solid enough even though that's mainly the only thing he brings to the table

On the flip side, playing more a cover three zone works here against Cuba wanting to attack more vertically

Both these qb are gonna be under fire in the passing game as Lamar is gonna see constant pressure from his right and Brady will see pressure right up the gut.  This in effect forces both of the QB into their worst performance attributes with Jackson having the slide left and Brady having to slide at all.

This is mainly going to be a defensive slugfest.  I think Jackson's mobility allows them to just move it a bit more consistently.  Give me DV 16-13

[VigilantZombie]

16 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

"First of all we welcome back Maxx Crosby to Death Valley, where his day will be long and unsuccessful." is probably the biggest LOL of the week i've read so far as La'el Collins has been a turnstile as a pass blocker for Cincy this year so i expect Crosby to have lots of success

I think Cuba is going to find a success in the short passing game, especially when DV switches to man with the passing to the RB strategy against some really subpar ILB and Chinn having to cover WR.  

Cuba will initially do well in the running game with DV coming out protecting against the pass but I don't trust the Cuba interior to win their matchups long term and Z Collins for the LOL he is as a coverage backer can stop the run pretty well

I think Death Valley highly underestimates the Cuba interior as far as run stopping as Reader and Sieler are both plusses and that and Allen is actually solid enough even though that's mainly the only thing he brings to the table

On the flip side, playing more a cover three zone works here against Cuba wanting to attack more vertically

Both these qb are gonna be under fire in the passing game as Lamar is gonna see constant pressure from his right and Brady will see pressure right up the gut.  This in effect forces both of the QB into their worst performance attributes with Jackson having the slide left and Brady having to slide at all.

This is mainly going to be a defensive slugfest.  I think Jackson's mobility allows them to just move it a bit more consistently.  Give me DV 16-13

 Your choice of vote aside I greatly appreciate the in depth response here.  I think that was excellent analysis and I too see this have a very competitive game

[Blue]

I think there are some major offensive line issues in this matchup for both teams. Elgton Jenkins looked bad at right tackle, counting on him to man the blindside against Leonard Williams is begging for trouble. Meanwhile, Cappa + Collins have been poor.

I'd probably go with Death Valley if Derrick Henry had been remotely productive this season, but Henry is getting 3.1 YPC. I know that's not all on him, but it's hard to look past that kind of non-production. Cuba isn't getting a ton of running room up front against that defensive line either, but I trust them to have better balance than DVN.

I do have to assume MD4L meant that he is starting JUSTIN Reid at safety, given Eric is A) not on his roster and B) hasn't been in the league since 2019.

[RTTRUTH]

This might be the toughest match I’ve voted on in two weeks. I liked parts of both game plans.

The commitment to keeping both safeties closer to the LOS, combined with Tom being Tom, ultimately helped me finally choose

[VigilantZombie]

13 hours ago, RTTRUTH said:

This might be the toughest match I’ve voted on in two weeks. I liked parts of both game plans.

The commitment to keeping both safeties closer to the LOS, combined with Tom being Tom, ultimately helped me finally choose

 I mean logically speaking, If he is selling out completely to stop the run I would think hes going to get seriously gashed in the passing game.

[RTTRUTH]

1 hour ago, wwhickok said:

 I mean logically speaking, If he is selling out completely to stop the run I would think hes going to get seriously gashed in the passing game.

Sure. Except the opening two parts of your gameplan had Henry claiming “he got this”, and running Henry up the middle. Butting that up against his gameplan seems to favour him shutting you down, at least until you change it up.

So again, once you do maybe you put up a good fight. But Brady has this annoying way of pulling out close games.

[VigilantZombie]

Just now, RTTRUTH said:

Sure. Except the opening two parts of your gameplan had Henry claiming “he got this”, and running Henry up the middle. Butting that up against his gameplan seems to favour him shutting you down, at least until you change it up.

So again, once you do maybe you put up a good fight. But Brady has this annoying way of pulling out close games.

Yes i am gonna run Henry. BUT I also am using quite a but of passing.

Stats definitely mattered more rhan anyrhing on this matchup though, that much was clear.

[Pickle Rick]

Big time matchup between 2 good teams.  I think ultimately LJ and company fades down the stretch behind some shaky o line play from DV, while Brady keeps his cool under similar pressure  

Cuba takes it 18-15

[VigilantZombie]

3 minutes ago, Pickle Rick said:

Big time matchup between 2 good teams.  I think ultimately LJ and company fades down the stretch behind some shaky o line play from DV, while Brady keeps his cool under similar pressure  

Cuba takes it 18-15

As a Brady Hater (you) i find it interesting that suddenly you love him. LJ didnt fade at all on Sunday.

[RTTRUTH]

18 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

Yes i am gonna run Henry. BUT I also am using quite a but of passing.

Stats definitely mattered more rhan anyrhing on this matchup though, that much was clear.

Yeah well voting just isn’t a good way to decide these things. You’ll never feel satisfied. I’m two weeks in and already know that.