BDL 2022 Week 4- Rome Eternals @ Cancun Kaiju

[RuskieTitan]

BDL 2022 Week 4

Match:  Rome Eternals @ Cancun Kaiju

 Away Owner: @bcb1213

Home Owner:  @MWil23 @Blue

Vote for who you think would win the game.

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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 three 😁

[RuskieTitan]

Rome Eternals

B Justin Herbert

RB Najee Harris 

WR Amari Cooper 

WR Jaylen Waddle

WR Juju Smith Schuster 

TE Logan Thomas 

LT Garret Bolles

LG Michael Onwenu

C Mason Cole 

RG Chris Lindstrom

RT Ryan Ramcyk 

 

TE Cameron Brate 

OT/G  Braden Smith

C  Luke Fortner 

TE Dan Arnold 

RB Melvin Gordon

WR Josh Palmer 

WR Devin Duvernay

QB Ryan Tannehill 

 

Edge Matt Judon

NT Dalvin Tomlinson

UT Denico Autry

Edge Marcus Davenport

OLB De'vondre Campbell 

ILB Nick Bolton 

OLB Matt Milano

CB Marlon Humphrey

CB Jamel Dean

S Malik Hooker

S Kyle Hamilton 

 

Edge George Karlafitis

Edge Jaelan Phillips 

INT Shy Tuttle

INT Logan Halll 

CB William Jackson 

CB DJ Reed

CB Michael Carter II

S Andre Cisco

 

 

 

Cancun Kaiju

QB Patrick Mahomes

RB Aaron Jones

WR Courtland Sutton

WR Chris Olave

Slot WR Elijah Moore

TE Dalton Schultz

LT David Bakhtiari

LG Wyatt Teller

C Andre James

RG Zion Johnson

RT Sam Cosmi

 

RB2 Rhamondre Stevenson

FB Kyle Juszczyk

FB Zander Horvath

WR4 Josh Reynolds

WR5 Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

TE2 Kylen Granson

OL6 Yosh Nijman

OL7 Jake Hanson

 

DE Preston Smith

DT Jonathan Allen

DT Austin Johnson

DE Gregory Rousseau

LB Pete Werner

LB Ernest Jones

CB Steven Nelson

CB Jaylen Watson

Slot DB Jalen Pitre

S Kevin Byard

S Marcus Williams

 

DE3 Cameron Jordan

DE4 Kayvon Thibodeaux

DT3 Travis Jones

DT4 Tim Settle

LB3 David Long

CB3 Nik Needham

CB4 Michael Davis

S4 Jalen Thompson

[RuskieTitan]

Rome Eternals

Offense

This week we look to control the clock and dink and dunk our way down the field against a team that loves its zone and zone blitzes to the make up for a subpar corner room 

We roll out a more traditional 11 man look this week. We will he running hurry up to the line to get keep the defense from substituting.  We want to keep these older edge rushers on the field and tire themselves out for later in the game. 

Juju will be manning the slot this week and will be going in motion to hell determine the coverage.  For zone coverages we will be be using seams and floods to attack different levels of the field,  

 We also will he utilizing Harris out of the back field a ton in the flats getting him through ball in open fields as the hot route against any zone blitz look.  . If we see a lot of base zone we'll also use Waddle in a wr screen game with Juju and Thomas leading the way as blockers on the outside.  Lots of drag routes as well to just keeping working on it underneath, high percentage passes getting 5-6 yards at a time against any some look.  

If we are seeing more man coverage we plan on attacking vertically with Waddle and Cooperation having advantages on the outside. Juju will run posts to either split or their safeties or cause a one on one matchup on their perimeter. Harris will get some looks on wheel routed against man as well. 

The run game will be directed at Preston Smith if he is for some reason still starting.  We are gonna pull a guard and get to the second level.  We'll then work some counters to the opposite side to take advantage of an over pursuit defense.  We love our offensive line and think we can break some nice runs against a solid front. 

Palmer will see the field in four wide long distance.  We will also roll in Duvernay for some five wide looks to further  expose a light secondary group but it won't be a heavy part of the offense.  Gordon will get some looks when Najee needs a break but he is a workhorse back 

Brate and Arnold play TE with Braden at FB for jumbo packages at the goaline or for short yardage 

 

Defense 

We face one of the best qb in the league this week with Patrick Mahomes and a solid runnjng back in Aaron Jones 

Cancun likes to run out of the pistol to set up the play action pass. While we list a starting defense in 4-3, we will be matching up personnel as below.  When their assignment comes off the field they rotate with the player whose assignment is comes on the field. 

 

Humphrey gets Sutton

Dean gets Olave 

Reed gets Moore 

Campbell has the RB 

Milano has Juzyk 

Bolton has the TE 

Jackson 4th WR 

Carter 5 wide 

 

Both Dean and Reed have been playing out of of the their minds thus far this year so we feel that comfortable with them in these matchups. Our deep safety(hooker) in man is going to be keeping an eye on Olave first as he serves as the best deep threat for Cancun.  Humphrey vs Sutton should be a fun matchup on the other side.  Luckily all of our corners have a lot experience so they can shadow their assignment anywhere thru line up. 

Up front Tuttle will be the early down INT with Autry getting the Passing down work to play to these players strengths.  In long distances we're gonna push Davenport inside with Phillips at edge to give us some more speed against the mobile Mahomes.  Karlaftis serves as depth for when anyone needs a breather 

Our defense will be a majority cover one with Hamilton in the box on early downs to key the run game then either play robber underneath with Mahomes Spy duty.  . We like our edge defenders in the run game and Tomlinson is a human meat wall inside. We'll line him up with against Zion Johnson who has struggled recently to get an interior push.  We trust our LB to chase down Jones and Stevenson on any outside runs with the extra man up on early downs. 

As mentioned Cancun likes to run early then go of play action but a cover one defense doesn't allow that to happen.  We are gonna play a little more more outside than leverage than usually and force everything inside the hashes funneling to our LB and Safeties.  The corners assignments are just that and they have little run defense requirements.  While saying that we are going to use some cover three base and some blitz looks as well to. keep Mahomes honest on early downs and mostly quarters looks for long distances

 

 

 

Cancun Kaiju

Offense:

After the last couple weeks of emphasizing the run game, we are hoping Rome expects us to come out rushing against them too. We aren’t. Instead, we’re going to open up with heavy amounts of play-action, both under center and in shotgun, and no-huddle hurry-up offense at home, looking to take shots deep against what we believe is a very underwhelming safety duo. Kyle Hamilton has yet to make an NFL start and deep coverage is not his strong suit; at the other safety spot, Malik Hooker has not been an impact player in several years. Running hurry-up negates Rome’s ability to sub in players to keep their linemen fresh, and we’ll be looking for free plays if guys are slow to get on/off the field. With our center position a bit unpredictable, we’re giving Mahomes full control of line calls so he can adjust protection based on where Rome shows pressure.

Pre-snap motion will be a staple of our offense, especially early to identify how Rome wants to play coverage against us. Sutton will be the receiver in motion; if we see Humphrey is shadowing him, we’ll pepper Sutton with tunnel screens to get him going. If Rome opts for a Cover-2 shell, this will force their DBs to tackle a 6-4, 216 pound receiver in the open field. If Humphrey doesn’t shadow Sutton, we’ll move Sutton into the slot with Moore on the boundary Humphrey is playing, allowing Sutton to work the seam and middle of the field. If we see William Jackson on the field at all, we are going to target him relentlessly with deep shots; Jackson infamously struggles to turn and run with receivers, and we don’t believe either Rome safety is enough of a ball hawk to punish us for challenging them deep.

When we do run the ball, we will focus on sweep, toss, and stretch plays outside the tackles with a pulling guard clearing the way. We especially want to emphasize running behind the right side of our line, where our young guys have been great in run blocking, to make their lives easier in pass protection by wearing down the defense. Lastly, we want to mix in some formations with Juszczyk on the field as a fullback to help clear the way for Jones/Stevenson to run.

In the redzone, we know we can’t rely on the deep ball, so we are throwing in some unexpected plays out of unusual formations. We are defaulting to 13 personnel in the red zone, with Horvath, Juszczyk, and Schultz as tight ends/h-backs, Jones in the backfield, and Sutton as the lone receiver. We will continue to use motion, but using it to get Juszczyk/Horvath in or out of the backfield, Jones into the slot, or Schultz out wide. We hope that the motion will keep the defense off-balance and give us an idea of what their playcall will be before the snap. We will generally try to pass in the redzone, looking for Horvath, Juszczyk or Jones depending on the coverage matchups, with Mahomes having a run-pass option built into the redzone package as whole so he can take it in himself if he sees the opportunity.

Defense:

This week we get the Rome Eternals, led by the injured Justin Herbert and if Herbert is unable to go and they have to count on Ryan Tannehill, we welcome that opportunity. and a mediocre at best running game with Harris and Gordon. Cooper is a nice possession route runner on the outside and Waddle provides a unique threat with his ability to catch the ball deep and provide RAC opportunities in the short passing game. We don't feel as though Juju adds much, and the same could be said for Logan Thomas.

We anticipate a lot of passing from the Eternals, likely trying to spread us out in a lot of 3 and 4 wide sets, as well as possibly utilizing some 2 back sets with Harris and Gordon. We will be playing a lot of big Nickel and keeping 2 LB in the box with an apex/star player (Pitre) to maintain gap integrity and not be outflanked in the running game, as well as accounting for both as pass catchers out of the backfield.

Alignment and run fits:

Historically, Herbert has looked good against single safety looks, and shown progression in his second year against two safety looks, but Justin Herbert has struggled against Cover 2 in his impressive but young career.

The last 5 weeks of the season last year:

"In 114 reps against one-safety looks since Week 12, Herbert has thrown nine touchdowns, one interception, averaged 8.47 yards per attempt and taken three sacks. In 68 reps against two-safety looks, Herbert has thrown two touchdowns, five interceptions, averaged 7.19 yards per attempt and taken five sacks. The stats alone tell part of the story. It is absolutely an issue. The tape goes even further into the problem, showing hesitation, lack of anticipation, and ugly pocket awareness whenever the defense throws a two-safety look Herbert’s way." (Source: https://www.lafbnetwork.com/justin-herberts-cover-2-struggles-are-his-next-step/)

Since Herbert has excelled on 3rd Down in his career, our goal is to take advantage of our ability to rush the passer with our 4 Down DL and some other occasional blitzes in the Front 7 (Pitre, Werner, other ILB) with his propensity to hang onto the football too long as well as exploiting his above weaknesses. We will be running a lot of Cover 2, Cover 2 Match, and stay within a 2 high shell, deviating from our traditional rotation and single high look. 

In the diagram below, you can see a lot of switch concepts being neutralized to force turnovers.

We will also deviate from our exclusive zone coverage to some occasional man under with 2 deep zone, keeping Herbert confused pre-snap.

Here is a diagram of our base big nickel alignment and general base Cover 2 responsibilities. Notice Pitre in the slot aligned inside of the #2 slot WR to take away the inside throws and deny the RPO and seam:

From a blitzing standpoint, we like Pitre used occasionally while staying within our Cover 2 shell:

We also like the overload blitz concept with Werner and Pitre in tandem:

 

While we like these blitz looks, we will not be relying on them exclusively, but want to force Herbert to get rid of the ball quickly on 3rd and long situations, where we can make some tackles and get off of the field. If he continues to be confused, then we will take those sacks and/or forced throws into coverage, resulting in potential big plays and turnovers for us on our end.

[MWil23]

Cover 2 and cover 2/man match vs a quick hitting attack…we might not win but at least I schemed accordingly.

[LAOJoe]

I won $1 on my $1000 bet that Cancun would be the first team to comment something non-injury related on their own game thread.

[bcb1213]

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

Cover 2 and cover 2/man match vs a quick hitting attack…we might not win but at least I schemed accordingly.

You schemed how we thought you would so we are also happy. We'll take the one on one's in man vs your secondary with the underneath open and dump offs and screens vs zones 

[MWil23]

8 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

You schemed how we thought you would so we are also happy. We'll take the one on one's in man vs your secondary with the underneath open and dump offs and screens vs zones 

You schemed thinking I’d run cover 2 and chose quick hitters? That’s….something 

[bcb1213]

3 hours ago, MWil23 said:

You schemed thinking I’d run cover 2 and chose quick hitters? That’s….something 

4-5 yard dump offs, drags, flood routes underneath all day with screens against out manned sides .  We'll take what you're giving us   Trust the talent to make a guy miss for larger gains 

It does help that Herbert just lit up a cover two based defense as well by doing a lot of this 

Edited October 3, 2022 by bcb1213

[MWil23]

3 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

4-5 yard dump offs, drags, flood routes underneath all day with screens against out manned sides .  We'll take what you're giving us   Trust the talent to make a guy miss for larger gains 

IRL or in this league I'd take a 10+ play drive to beat me and take my chances tackling in a condensed sandbox.

3 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

It does help that Herbert just lit up a cover two based defense as well by doing a lot of this 

Ah yes, I forget sometimes that the Houston Texans are still in the NFL and haven't been relegated yet. 

I also learned today that Rousseau and Jonathan Allen are old.

[bcb1213]

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

IRL or in this league I'd take a 10+ play drive to beat me and take my chances tackling in a condensed sandbox.

Ah yes, I forget sometimes that the Houston Texans are still in the NFL and haven't been relegated yet. 

I also learned today that Rousseau and Jonathan Allen are old.

And we are fine with taking long drives all game, tiring out your defense while keeping ours fresh as we have the talent to dink and dunk to death

I'm 100% OK with you starting Rousseau over Cam Jordan 

Edited October 3, 2022 by bcb1213

[Blue]

1 hour ago, bcb1213 said:

I'm 100% OK with you starting Rousseau over Cam Jordan 

Rousseau’s been one of the best all-around Edge players in the league this year.

[bcb1213]

21 minutes ago, Blue said:

Rousseau’s been one of the best all-around Edge players in the league this year.

He's also a part of a defensive line that heavily rotates.  Dink and Dunk hurry up offense, he's gonna be out there much longer than he's used to.  Jordan, while old, does play virtually every snap

[Blue]

42 minutes ago, bcb1213 said:

He's also a part of a defensive line that heavily rotates.  Dink and Dunk hurry up offense, he's gonna be out there much longer than he's used to.  Jordan, while old, does play virtually every snap

It’s a good thing we also rotate our linemen, then!

It’s hilarious that you think running a hurry-up offense on the road is that easy, too. Gonna end up burning all three timeouts in the first quarter when you can’t get the third down playcall in clearly over the crowd noise.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Blue

[VigilantZombie]

13 minutes ago, Blue said:

It’s a good thing we also rotate our linemen, then!

It’s hilarious that you think running a hurry-up offense on the road is that easy, too. Gonna end up burning all three timeouts in the first quarter when you can’t get the third down playcall in clearly over the crowd noise.

 I'm not sure where he said it was easy but I will say this if he is running a hurry up offense another word is a no huddle offense how are you rotating defensive linemen?

 This is the genuine question since you guys are discussing it let's bring some clarity to what you guys are thinking here. I'm asking both of you so blue you say that you're gonna rotate blind in that BCB is apparently thinking that the hurry up offense is going to be easy.

 

So @Blueif hes running the hurry up offense how exactly are you going to be rotating defensive linemen?

 

@bcb1213 hes saying you think it's easy is that the case do you think there's gonna be opportunities for his defensive line to rotate?

Edited October 3, 2022 by wwhickok

[bcb1213]

3 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

 I'm not sure where he said it was easy but I will say this if he is running a hurry up offense another word is a no huddle offense how are you rotating defensive linemen?

 This is the genuine question since you guys are discussing it let's bring some clarity to what you guys are thinking here. I'm asking both of you so blue you say that you're gonna rotate blind in that BCB is apparently thinking that the hurry up offense is going to be easy.

 

So @Blueif hes running the hurry up offense how exactly are you going to be rotating defensive linemen?

 

@bcb1213 hes saying you think it's easy is that the case do you think there's gonna be opportunities for his defensive line to rotate?

If the offense is clicking on how it's supposed to, no he shouldn't have many opportunities

Also we are using almost the same lineup as we did all of last season so these guys all know the offense quite well so hand signals, and calls should be easier than teams with lots of turnover.