BDL 2022 Week 3 - Raleigh Firebirds @ Cancun Kaiju

[RedGold]

BDL 2022 Week 3

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

[RedGold]

Raleigh
Offense

 

QB- Kyler Murray 
RB- Christian McCaffrey
WR- Davante Adams
WR- Robert Woods
TE- Mark Andrews
TE- Robert Tonyan 
LT- Laremy Tunsil
LG- Landon Dickerson
C- Mitch Morse
RG- Issac Seumalo 
RT- Jordan Mailata 

 RB- David Montgomery 
RB- Darrell Henderson
WR- Isaiah McKenzie
WR- Robbie Anderson 
G- Ben Powers (starter if Dickerson is out)
TE- OJ Howard 
Reserve OL- Patrick Mekari
Swing G/T- Jack Driscoll 

 

Defense

 EDGE- Danielle Hunter
DE- David Onyemata
NT- Sebastian Joseph Day
DE- BJ Hill
EDGE- Jermaine Johnson
LB- CJ Mosley
LB- Quay Walker
CB- Darius Slay
CB- Marcus Peters 
FS- Quandre Diggs
SS- Taylor Rapp

 EDGE- Brandon Graham 
EDGE- Samson Ekubaum
DT- Grover Stewart
LB- Rahsaan Evans 
SCB- Avonte Maddox
3rd outside CB- Ronald Darby
Depth inside/outside CB- Bradley Roby
3rd S- Julian Blackmon 

 

Cancun

 

QB Patrick Mahomes
RB Aaron Jones
WR Courtland Sutton
WR Elijah Moore
TE Kylen Granson
H-Back Kyle Jusczcyk
LT David Bakhtiari
LG Wyatt Teller
C Andre James
RG Zion Johnson
RT Sam Cosmi

 RB2 Rhamondre Stevenson
WR3 Chris Olave
WR4 Josh Reynolds
WR5 Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
TE2 Josiah Deguara
OL6 Yosh Nijman
OL7 Cordell Volson
OL8 Jake Hanson

 

DE Preston Smith
DT Jonathan Allen
DT Austin Johnson
DE Cam Jordan
LB Pete Werner
LB Ernest Jones
CB Steven Nelson
CB Jaylen Watson
Slot DB Jalen Pitre
S Kevin Byard
S Marcus Williams

 DE3 Gregory Rousseau
DE4 Kayvon Thibodeaux
DT3 Travis Jones
DT4 Rashard Lawrence
LB3 David Long
CB3 Nik Needham
CB4 Michael Davis
S4 Jalen Thompson

Edited September 25, 2022 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Raleigh

OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN

Against Cancun defense this week, the biggest challenge will be the phone lag we will get from the insane amount of diagrams Cancun will need to post to try and convince people they can stop our offense. 

 

But seriously folks, I think we have some decisive offensive advantages against Cancun’s defense this week. One thing I wanted to improve on from our first two weeks is featuring Mark Andrews more so this week our offensive base this week is 12 personnel. Cancun has a weak corner room but a very strong duo of safeties. With Davante Adams on the outside, one of the safeties is going to have to cheat over to his side (if for some reason they don't, I’m smashing that matchup). I am planning on flexing Mark Andrews out into the slot and out wide a lot especially out of motion. I want to put Cancun’s back 7 in conflict a lot. Having Robert Tonyan on the field will also allow me to flex Andrews and still take advantage of having a good pass catching TE in the seam. This will really stretch how Cancun is using their most valuable resource, their safeties and give me a clear matchup to exploit. Oh, yeah and then Cancun has a Christian McCaffrey problem. Using lots of bunch formations to the left with Adams, Andrews and Woods would force a lot of defensive resources to that side of the field. Then running screens and swings to the right with the best receiving back in the game is going to create some explosive plays.

 

Having base 12 and moving Andrews around will allow me to still have a TE inside to block to give me advantages in the run game. Cancun has a decent defensive line but nothing that I think is going to overwhelm my offensive line. Cam Jordan will the focus of most of my double teams and chips. I want a lot of read option looks and then attack the inside in the running game especially with Jordan Phillips out and Tim Settle questionable they are very banged up inside. I want to make Cam Jordan respect Kyler escaping on the edge and make room on the inside. 

 

Alternative looks: 22 personnel with Montgomery on the field replacing Robert Woods. So we have 1 WR, 2 RB’s and 2 TE’s. Cancun will have to respect the heavy run look but flexing Andrews and McCaffrey outside out of that look creates chaos because of the receiving ability of McCaffrey and Andrews and then still having Montgomery and Murray to run the ball.

 

In general, the multiplicity of my offensive weapons will be too much for that undermanned Cancun defense. 

 

DEFENSIVE GAME PLAN

 

Scheme hybrid 3-4

 

I wasn’t planning on being a 3-4 team when I built this defense but for the 3rd week in a row, I think it is our best look. The biggest crack in the Cancun offense is their offensive line especially the C, RG, RT. Having the 3-4 look will allow me to attack and plug holes in the run game and put pressure on Mahomes. We plan on lining Hunter on that side and blitzing from that side often. We can’t sit back and let Mahomes be comfortable. That is a recipe for disaster. On the back end, Mahomes has struggled the most in his career against cover 2 and two high safeties. We want to stop Mahomes from making the big play. That will be where we start our gameplan on the back end. We want to play press bail in cover 2 zone and also mix in some man. Slay will follow Sutton, Peters will take the other outside receiver (Moore or Olave) and Maddox will man whoever moves inside. Depending on how much they want to use Aaron Jones as a receiver will determine how much Maddox gets on the field over CJ Mosley. 

 

 

 

Cancun

OFFENSE

This opposing defensive front is nothing special. We’re running it down their throats this week with a heavy dose of 12 personnel. We will run, run, run the ball with Aaron Jones and Rhamondre Stevenson until Raleigh shows they can stop it. We feel we can also have a lot of success on screens to the back, using our athletic line to get blocks in space against linebackers and defensive backs. Jusczcyk is listed as an H-back but will be moving all over the formation early on, whether it’s on the line next to Granson or across from him on the other side of the formation or in the backfield as a lead blocker.

 

In the passing game, we will be using play action and motion to create favorable matchups and catch the defense off guard. In particular, we want to get Courtland Sutton moving pre-snap to keep Darius Slay from getting physical with him at the line. We will be focusing on comebacks towards the sidelines and corner routes with our outside receivers, with the idea of putting the ball in places where the safeties are unlikely to be able to get over and help and giving our receivers a one-on-one matchup with a corner in a tough position to defend the pass. There will be a few ins and slants mixed in to keep the secondary honest, but we will mostly rely on our tight ends and H-back to pick up yardage over the middle against a relatively soft linebacker duo. We will particularly attack Mosley’s coverage, as he is giving up an over 85% completion rate since the start of last season. If Marcus Peters starts, we’ll go after him hard too after his poor showing last week coming back from injury; he gave up a near-perfect 153.3 QB rating on throws against him.

 

If and when we get Raleigh to commit extra men in the box to stop the run, we want to move to a two back set out of the pistol with Jusczcyk and Jones/Stevenson in as backs and three receivers out wide. We will play Moore and Olave on the outside with Sutton in the slot to maintain a size advantage in the box. Jusczcyk will help us in a lot of ways that don’t show up in the box score, allowing us to use him as a lead blocker in space or pull him back to help in protection. The Raleigh pass rush doesn’t scare us at all, with their top three edge rushers combining for 3 QB hits and a sack through the first two weeks of the season so far, but Jusczcyk will help out in pass pro on whichever side Danielle Hunter lines up on.

 

DEFENSE

This week we get the Raleigh Firebirds, led by one of the most dynamic, and explosive franchise quarterbacks in the league. Wait...nevermind, led by Kyler Murray, who is coming off of 6 full consecutive quarters of abysmal play, then a half of improvisation and timely controversial defensive holding calls, while he runs around for 20 or so seconds playing hero ball the way that I used to play NCAA 2014 or Madden. Thankfully for Kyler, his stats really mask how truly awful those first 6 quarters of football were, as his team was thoroughly exposed and boat raced against Kansas City Week 1 and he was able to put up some nice garbage time numbers down the stretch after being down 37-7, scoring twice against an end of game soft zone defense. 

IMPORTANT STAT:

We have absolutely no reason to believe that Kyler Murray can consistently win from the pocket and will have to rely heavily on improvisation, his dynamic athleticism, and ability to extend plays. Kyler is a wildcard, so you really have no idea what you're getting play to play, let alone week in and week out. When he's on his game, he's hard to beat, but there is a blueprint that's been laid out to stop him. We are aware of his best weapons being Mark Andrews and Christian McCaffrey and David Montgomery out of the backfield.We anticipate them trying to take advantage of our Corners, and as a result, we will be utilizing a lot of S help for them, showing variations of Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 4 (Some man to the single WR field side, some match coverage, etc.), all of which will allocate safeties over the top to cap Andrews and other receivers on the outside. Due to Kyler's unique ability to extend plays and having to account for him in the running/scrambling game, we will be limiting man defense significantly.

We will be playing a 7/JAM on Andrews and forcing our DE to get hands on and denying a free release, with Pitre/Werner taking turns on him (Pitre slot, Werner box) in the underneath coverage, and Byard in the intermediate/over the top. Williams will be playing the true "FS" in our Cover 3, allowing him to roam as a ball hawk and capping all deep routes from WR.

We will be keying on Kyler in the zone read game and forcing him to hand off the ball, giving him "keep reads" in terms of run fits, but will actually be allocating 2 defenders to stop him (Apex, Mike LB). The Will LB will be an A gap plug, the end will crash hard on the dive. After he pays the price a couple of times, we anticipate them moving away from any semblance of a zone read game unless they want Kyler to take a beating. (Note the Cover 2 look to the field but the boundary being some cover 3 match). 

*Note* The Image here is for 3 down LB with a Jack. We will not align that way unless it's 3rd and long and have to take a "fat guy" off and add a DB (one of our safeties) in to match personnel.

Below you see the cloud concept with gap integrity on the inside, contain to the backside, and 2 unblocked defenders in a 4 man front.

We are going to go heavy contain with our DE and not actively attack him, but force him to win within the pocket. We will not be allowing our ends to get too far up the field to create creases, but will contain him and then slide from the outside/in. He's going to take some shots and we are going to get him off of his groove. When we do apply pressure, we will be doing so from his right from both the inside and outside, to force him to his left/the left side of the pocket (where our opposite DE will be playing heavy contain). This will force him to get rid of the ball quickly and have to stay within the pocket. We anticipate that means he will like Andrews and McCaffrey/Montgomery out of the backfield as his safety blankets.

From a pressure standpoint, we will be mixing in some pressures from the inside/left and showing a lot presnap while dropping into coverage, implementing slants, and disguising coverage.

We like this as a contain blitz from the left, forcing Kyler right while containing with the top side DE. It also shows man presnap while playing zone.

We like the look here as an interior pressure and overload left side blitz while still capping up top with the true FS (Box safety delay blitz). Also, peel rules apply for the safety, meaning if the running back flares, he's got him and the blitz is off (hot call).

Essentially, we look for Raleigh to get the ball to McCaffrey in the running game and passing game and Andrews often, especially in the Red Zone. We will NOT be letting Kyler beat us with his legs or from outside the pocket. We are allocating a safety over the top to DeVante Adams in Cover 2 and 4, or making him catch a lot of shorter volume passes in Cover 3.

With Schultz either out or very banged up we really aren’t worried about doing anything special against the TE’s. We want to funnel the pass game down to Jones and the TE’s rally and tackle. We think we’ll be able to put up some points, so keeping Mahomes from getting chunk plays and attacking Cancun’s weak parts of the line will keep the offense in check

Edited September 25, 2022 by RedGold

[Blue]

Andre James was a bit of a surprise inactive, so we'll move Zion to center and play Cordell Volson at right guard.

[MWil23]

Well I called and expected Andrews to be the focus and put into the slot a lot.  

[MWil23]

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

FFENSIVE GAME PLAN

Against Cancun defense this week, the biggest challenge will be the phone lag we will get from the insane amount of diagrams Cancun will need to post  

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

But seriously folks, I think we have some decisive offensive advantages against Cancun’s defense this week.

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

One thing I wanted to improve on from our first two weeks is featuring Mark Andrews more so this week our offensive base this week is 12 personnel.

I figured that's what you'd do

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

We are aware of his best weapons being Mark Andrews and Christian McCaffrey and David Montgomery out of the backfield. We anticipate them trying to take advantage of our Corners, and as a result, we will be utilizing a lot of S help for them, showing variations of Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 4 (Some man to the single WR field side, some match coverage, etc.), all of which will allocate safeties over the top to cap Andrews and other receivers on the outside. Due to Kyler's unique ability to extend plays and having to account for him in the running/scrambling game, we will be limiting man defense significantly.

We will be playing a 7/JAM on Andrews and forcing our DE to get hands on and denying a free release, with Pitre/Werner taking turns on him (Pitre slot, Werner box) in the underneath coverage, and Byard in the intermediate/over the top. Williams will be playing the true "FS" in our Cover 3, allowing him to roam as a ball hawk and capping all deep routes from WR.

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

Cancun has a weak corner room but a very strong duo of safeties. With Davante Adams on the outside, one of the safeties is going to have to cheat over to his side (if for some reason they don't, I’m smashing that matchup).

We will

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

We are allocating a safety over the top to DeVante Adams in Cover 2 and 4, or making him catch a lot of shorter volume passes in Cover 3.

 

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

I am planning on flexing Mark Andrews out into the slot and out wide a lot especially out of motion. I want to put Cancun’s back 7 in conflict a lot. Having Robert Tonyan on the field will also allow me to flex Andrews and still take advantage of having a good pass catching TE in the seam. This will really stretch how Cancun is using their most valuable resource, their safeties and give me a clear matchup to exploit. Oh, yeah and then Cancun has a Christian McCaffrey problem. Using lots of bunch formations to the left with Adams, Andrews and Woods would force a lot of defensive resources to that side of the field. Then running screens and swings to the right with the best receiving back in the game is going to create some explosive plays.

Pitre appreciation post

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

Having base 12 and moving Andrews around will allow me to still have a TE inside to block to give me advantages in the run game. Cancun has a decent defensive line but nothing that I think is going to overwhelm my offensive line. Cam Jordan will the focus of most of my double teams and chips. I want a lot of read option looks and then attack the inside in the running game especially with Jordan Phillips out and Tim Settle questionable they are very banged up inside. I want to make Cam Jordan respect Kyler escaping on the edge and make room on the inside. 

*Rousseau has entered the chatroom*

19 hours ago, RedGold said:

Alternative looks: 22 personnel with Montgomery on the field replacing Robert Woods. So we have 1 WR, 2 RB’s and 2 TE’s. Cancun will have to respect the heavy run look but flexing Andrews and McCaffrey outside out of that look creates chaos because of the receiving ability of McCaffrey and Andrews and then still having Montgomery and Murray to run the ball.

 

In general, the multiplicity of my offensive weapons will be too much for that undermanned Cancun defense. 

*Pitre and Werner appreciation post

[VigilantZombie]

Nothing makes me want to devalue a team like that kind of post

[bcb1213]

as bad as hanson is, i'm not sure zion johnson has ever played center in a real life game that counted

[Blue]

1 hour ago, bcb1213 said:

as bad as hanson is, i'm not sure zion johnson has ever played center in a real life game that counted

What exactly is Zion Johnson incapable of doing at the center position that would not be an issue at the guard or left tackle positions he has started multiple games at over the past three years

[EaglesPeteC]

Blue's level of desperation is reaching epic levels

[EaglesPeteC]

It looks like the bottom of my defensive game plan got moved to the bottom of Cancun's defensive game plan. 

 

With Schultz either out or very banged up we really aren’t worried about doing anything special against the TE’s. We want to funnel the pass game down to Jones and the TE’s rally and tackle. We think we’ll be able to put up some points, so keeping Mahomes from getting chunk plays and attacking Cancun’s weak parts of the line will keep the offense in check

[bcb1213]

57 minutes ago, Blue said:

What exactly is Zion Johnson incapable of doing at the center position that would not be an issue at the guard or left tackle positions he has started multiple games at over the past three years

You act like like anyone can just come in and just start snapping the ball 

[Blue]

33 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

You act like like anyone can just come in and just start snapping the ball 

Then it’s a good thing he showed he could at the Senior Bowl, isn’t it

[bcb1213]

4 minutes ago, Blue said:

Then it’s a good thing he showed he could at the Senior Bowl, isn’t it

no no, not snapping the ball during practice, actually doing it during a game where it matters

[Blue]

1 hour ago, bcb1213 said:

no no, not snapping the ball during practice, actually doing it during a game where it matters

A team has a backup come in and snap for a few plays like once a week in the NFL. Teams will have a tight end come in and snap the ball if the regular long snapper gets hurt. It’s not pretty by any means, but this is not a difficult skill for a guy who has done it before.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Blue