BDL 2023 Week 2 - Raleigh Firebirds @ Gotham Gashslayers

[RedGold]

BDL 2023 Week 2

Match:  Raleigh Firebirds @ Gotham Gashslayers

 Away Owner:   @EaglesPeteC

Home Owner:   @Whicker

 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- Russell Wilson 

RB- Christian McCaffrey 

XWR- Courtland Sutton

WR- Michael Thomas 

TE- Mark Andrews

TE- Robert Tonyan 

LT- Jordan Mailata

LG- Landon Dickerson

C- Connor Williams

RG- Issac Seumalo 

RT- Andre Dillard 

 

RB- Chuba Hubbard

RB- Ty Chandler

WR- Tutu Atwell

WR- Quinten Johnston

WR- Darius Slayton

TE- Noah Fant 

Swing T- Andrew Wylie 

Swing Interior OL- Matthew Bergeron 

 

Defense

 

EDGE/Rush LB- Danielle Hunter

DT- Jalen Carter

DT- BJ Hill

EDGE- Josh Sweat

LB- Jerome Baker

LB- Shaq Leonard

CB- Darius Slay

CB- Sean Murphy Bunting

SCB-  Avonte Maddox

FS- Justin Reid

SS-  Budda Baker

 

EDGE/Rush DT-Brandon Graham

EDGE- Jermaine Johnson

NT- Alim McNeill 

LB- Quincy Williams

CB- Josh Jobe 

CB- Marcus Jones

S- Jayron Kearse

S Julian Blackmon

 

 

 

Gotham

QB: Dak Prescott
RB: Bijan Robinson
WR: Tyreek Hill
WR: Tee Higgins
WR: Christian Kirk
WR: Alec Pierce
LT: Jake Matthews
LG: Peter Skoronski
😄 John Michael-Schmitz
RG: Shaq Mason
RT: Taylor Moton

QB: Trey Lance
RB: Clyde Edwards-Helaire
RB: Elijah Mitchell
WR: Marquez Valdes-Scantling
WR: Adam Thielen
TE: Adam Trautman
OL: Kevin Zeitler
OL: Paris Johnson

 

LEO: Arnold Ebikete
DT: Chris Jones
NT: Michael Pierce
DE: Demarcus Lawrence
LB: Germaine Pratt
LB: Christian Harris
CB: Ahmad Gardner
CB: Kendall Fuller
CB: Tyson Campbell
S: Micah Hyde
S: Tre'von Moehrig

LEO: Nolan Smith
INT: Sheldon Rankins
INT: Grover Stewart
INT: Daquan Jones
DE: Myles Murphy
LB: Brian Asamoah
CB: Cordale Flott
S: Dane Belton

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by RedGold

[RedGold]

Raleigh

Week 2

 

OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN

Russell Wilson can’t be worse than Jones last week…..right? .

 

We want to set the tone offensively this week with the run game. The first half we will be a heavy 12 personnel team with Thomas and Sutton on the outside and Andrews and Tonyan at TE. We anticipate Gotham putting DLaw over Dillard at RT leaving an undersized EDGE player on the left side against 2 dominant run blockers in Mailata and Dickerson. We will hammer McCaffrey on that side and control the LOS with that match up. Tonyan will help double Lawrence and Chris Jones. By running to the outside we hope to make Chris Jones run who hasn’t been doing football activity all summer. I think we can control the flow of the game with that matchup and force Gotham out of their game plan.  

 

We will use RPO concepts off that heavy run look especially looking to work Andrews over the middle and in the seams vs Gotham’s weaker LB’s and safeties. We also want to get McCaffrey out of the backfield to also take advantage of those same matchups. And then targeting whoever is not being covered by Sauce. 

 

As the game progresses we want to get more 11 and move Michael Thomas inside and split the outside reps between Quinten Johnston and Tutu Atwell. Tutu will allow me to hit some big plays while QJ will be red zone and shorter scenarios. 

 

DEFENSIVE GAME PLAN

 

Attacking 4-3/Cover 4 press bail. Looking at the Cancun offense my plan is clear. Attack the interior of the offensive line. I want to consistently make Dak uncomfortable and push the running game to the outside where Shaq Leonard, Jerome Baker and Budda Baker can run and chase and hold gains to a minimum.

 

In coverage, Darius Slay will cover Tyreek Hill 

 for the most part, SMB will take Higgins  . We will stay with a cover 2 shell over the top to prevent the big Tyreek play. Avonte Maddox takes Kirk in the slot. Whatever mid TE then want to try and roll out there should be easily take care of by a combo  and my LB’s. We want to play a lot of press bail technique with the idea to pressure up the middle and bring an extra rusher getting into the receivers early and disrupting them early in the route is key and then bailing back into cover 4 to try and prevent big plays. Slay will not press Tyreek unless we roll the safety to his side. 

 

Front formations and rush plans:

 

4 man front 5 DB’s

Hunter-Carter-Hill-Sweat. Hill and Carter pushing up front with some loops and twists pushing Hunter and Sweat into the guards will be the major plan and then blitzing Baker or Leonard from the inside or bailing Maddox back to safety and make Budda Baker as the rush LB with then Leonard and Baker picking up the shallow coverage Bijan

 

5 Man front

Early down or short yardage. Either Maddox or an LB comes off and Alim McNeil comes on to play nose while keeping Hill and Carter on the field. Hunter becomes more of an off ball rush LB.This can free him up to rush at times up the middle behind the 3 DT’s. A more pass rushing wrinkle could be swapping Hill with Brandon Graham as well to all Graham to rush over a guard.

 

Nascar Package

On obvious pass downs, subbing out Hill with Brandon Graham and rushing one of Graham or occasionally Sweat from the inside against the guards.

 

3 Safety 

Subbing out either Maddox or Jerome Baker with Jayron Kearse and bring down Budda Baker as either the 2nd or 3rd LB. This could open up coverage and blitz flexibility with Budda.

 

3 DE Package

In high leverage rush situations and maybe some early down situations, Jermaine Johnson comes on the field with either Maddox or Jerome Baker coming off. Johnson takes over as the DE across from Sweat, freeing up Danielle Hunter, my best Edge rusher to hover and play LB and blitz from the interior behind Carter and Hill. 

 

 

 

 

Gotham

After a nice win against a tough division rival on the road, we look to continue with our momentum in our home opener against the Firebirds. This team may have gotten blown out last week, but we believe they are much better than the score indicates and are more than capable of beating any team on any week. We will be careful to not overlook them. 
 

Offense:

We will retain our spread offense and look to take advantage of light boxes and secondaries that aren’t generally equipped to deal with our WR group. 
We will seek to retain balance throughout the game with a heavy dose of draws to counter pass rush aggression. When running, unlike last week, we want to use more inside runs as we don’t fear Raleigh’s interior line as much as we did Aaron Donald. We will also use a couple of screens to Bijan Robinson to try and hit a home run. 
Our two main passing concepts this week will be flood and spacing. Tee Higgins (X) and Alec Pierce (Z) will remain outside with Christian Kirk in the slot and Tyreek Hill as the Y receiver and the primary on many plays.
In flood plays out of the spread, we will use many Y-crossers to get Hill onto the same side of the field as Higgins and Kirk. Out of the bunch, we will use more Y-curl and slants in combination with curls, comebacks, and corners from out other receivers. These concepts should flood any zone defense and give us a numbers advantage. Against man defense, we trust our WR route running and should get favorable looks on the side that isn’t flooded. 
In a spacing concept, we will have a pre-snap read to the weak side with an X-vertical and slot out. If there are just two defenders on this side pre-snap, then we expect either Higgins or Kirk to beat their man and to make for an easy throw. On the strong side, we will have an option cork route for Z. Against press, the Z receiver will run a corner route. Otherwise, they will run a curl. Hill will run an option tube route which is a seam route with the option to convert to an in route if he’s prevented from getting downfield. Robinson will run a flat to the strong side as a hot route and to hold the CB or LB against zone coverage. 
 

Defense:

The name of the game for us on defense this week is to put a cap on the amount of damage Christian McCaffrey can do to us. 
We will continue to use heavy man as we trust our CBs on islands in this one. Similar to last week, Ahmad Gardner will shadow the top Firebirds WR in Courtland Sutton. Kendall Fuller will play outside with Tyson Campbell taking the remaining spot. We will bring Tre’von Moehrig down into the box and he, Germaine Pratt, and Christian Harris will rotate responsibilities between Mark Andrews, McCaffrey, blitzing, and spying based upon play call. Micah Hyde will mainly play as a deep safety. 
On run plays, we want to be attacking the line of scrimmage and want our second line of defense to default to playing downhill. One exception will be whichever player would be responsible for McCaffrey in man coverage, whom we expect to of course key on McCaffrey’s movements and play more of a sideline to sideline game. We will likely get bitten by play action in this way, but we expect our corners to remain with their man and we expect our offense to make up for any kind of quick scoring that the Firebirds might get off of our aggression. 
Like all weeks, we will use substitutions to match up intuitively with offensive personnel. We will retain our man coverage and aggressive run blitzing strategy throughout regardless of personnel groupings. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by RedGold

[Whicker]

You can’t run a cover 2 and send an extra rusher and cover 5 receivers come on now

 

 

Also Skoronski out so Zeitler in

[EaglesPeteC]

With Budda out Jayron Kearse takes over that role 

[EaglesPeteC]

2 hours ago, Whicker said:

You can’t run a cover 2 and send an extra rusher and cover 5 receivers come on now

 

 

Also Skoronski out so Zeitler in

I mean good luck blocking tho…..

[Blue]

You may as well put Prescott on IR now if you're going to just announce to the defense that you're throwing constantly and forcing Robinson to make multiple players miss on every run.

[TedLavie]

I don't think any of these teams will score a lot of points. Dak will be under duress the whole game. But as good as CMC is, I think the lack of other options besides Mark Andrews at the disposal of Russ will definitely hinder Raleigh and his run heavy approach that Gotham expected. I do think they'll be able to limit the turnovers though while I wouldn't rule out Dak throwing a couple of picks / losing a fumble.

Raleigh 16-10

 

[EaglesPeteC]

19 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

I don't think any of these teams will score a lot of points. Dak will be under duress the whole game. But as good as CMC is, I think the lack of other options besides Mark Andrews at the disposal of Russ will definitely hinder Raleigh and his run heavy approach that Gotham expected. I do think they'll be able to limit the turnovers though while I wouldn't rule out Dak throwing a couple of picks / losing a fumble.

Raleigh 16-10

 

I will not stand for this TuTu Atwell erasure 

[TedLavie]

9 minutes ago, EaglesPeteC said:

I will not stand for this TuTu Atwell erasure 

It was more of a compliment of Gotham CB trio than a knock on your receivers

[SirA1]

I don't see a lot of scoring in this one either. Raleigh is going to have a brutal week finding healthy bodies soon in the secondary.

Gotham 13 - Raleigh 10

[Whicker]

2 hours ago, Blue said:

You may as well put Prescott on IR now if you're going to just announce to the defense that you're throwing constantly and forcing Robinson to make multiple players miss on every run.

Lol

[Whicker]

Don’t really care how the votes end up. He’s trying to play rush 5 cover-2 with bailing CBs he’s never defending me. I know who won this game regardless of outcome

[Whicker]

Like yes if you go strictly by his words in his gameplan he can defend me. Once people figure out it requires 12 defenders then maybe I’ll get votes when my pass catchers run open through the middle of the field all game every game 

[Scoundrel]

On 9/17/2023 at 10:02 AM, RedGold said:

Looking at the Cancun offense my plan is clear.

Pete still has PTSD from last week