BDL 2023 Week 2 - Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Seoul Dragons

[rackcs]

BDL 2023 Week 2

Match:  Berlin Blitzkrieg @ Seoul Dragons

 Away Owner: @Ragnarok

Home Owner: @RedGold

 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

[rackcs]

Berlin Blitzkrieg
QB – Jordan Love
RB – Tony Pollard
WR – Drake London
WR – Garrett Wilson
WR – Brandon Aiyuk
TE – Dallas Goedert
LT – Kolton Miller
LG – Ben Powers
C – Corey Linsley
RG – Spencer Burford
RT – Tristan Wirfs

RB – Isiah Pacheco
RB – De’Von Achane
TE – Darnell Washington
WR – Romeo Doubs
WR – Jayden Reed
OL – Ed Ingram
OL – Mike McGlinchey

DE – Trey Hendrickson
DT – Quinnen Williams
DT – Derrick Brown
DE – Justin Houston
LB – Jordyn Brooks
LB – Tremaine Edmunds
CB – Deonte Banks
CB – Christian Benford
NB – Benjamin St-Juste
S – Antoine Winfield Jr
S – Juan Thornhill

Edge – Nik Bonitto
Edge – Zach Harrison
INT – Mazi Smith
INT – DeMarvin Leal
LB – Kyzir White
CB – Devon Witherspoon
CB – D.J. Turner
S – Camryn Bynum

Seoul Dragons
Offense

QB:  Derek Carr
RB:  Dameon Pierce
WR:  George Pickens
WR:  Zay Jones
Z:  Travis Kelce  (Q)
TE:  Pat Freiermuth
LT:  Donovan Smith
LG:  Joe Thuney
😄  Mason Cole
RG:  Alijah Vera-Tucker
RT:  Anton Harrison

Bench:  QB Anthony Richardson
Bench:  RB Javonte Williams
Bench:  RB Kenneth Walker
Bench:  WR Allen Lazard
Bench:  WR Rashod Bateman
Bench:  TE Trey McBride
Bench:  T Dawand Jones
Bench:  IOL James Daniels

Defense

DE:  David Ojabo
DT:  Dexter Lawrence
NT:  DJ Reader
Edge:  Sam Williams
WLB:  De’Vondre Campbell
MLB:  CJ Mosley
CB:  Trent McDuffie
CB:  Donte Jackson
NB:  Kenny Moore
FS:  Daxton Hill
SS:  Richie Grant

Bench:  Edge Joe Tryon
Bench:  Edge Dayo Odeyingbo
Bench:  DT Khalen Saunders
Bench:  DT Foley Fatukasi
Bench: LB Damone Clark
Bench: CB Adoree Jackson
Bench: NB Nate Hobbs
Bench: Saf Kerby Joseph

[rackcs]

Berlin Blitzkrieg

Offense
We want to run stretch plays all day long.  We will put our OTs and TEs against the edge rushers of Seoul and see who can move who.  Off of the stretch run, we will utilize cut backs and playaction.

Running Game
We want to attack the edges of this defense.  Pollard will get roughly 20 touches between the run and pass game.  Pacheco will get roughly 15 touches and Achane will make his debut and get roughly 8.  All 3 can catch, so we will use all three in both facets.  That said, we want to stay balanced on offense, so we want to hit 30 rushes total between all three backs.  If the defense starts flowing too fast in anticipation of a stretch run, we will make use of some dives and counters.

3 WR – 55% - Garrett/Aiyuk/Drake/Goedert/RB – Our base offense.  Garrett and Drake will be outside running every route.  Aiyuk will be in the slot running every route.  He will go in motion frequently and will be used as a blocker on run plays.  We will run both behind the motion and away from it to keep the defense guessing.  Goedert will do his thing and be a security blanket for Love.  We will take a couple shots to Goedert up the seam.

2 TE – 20% - Garrett/Drake/Goedert/Darnell/RB – We will use this set more than last week as we want to get extra blockers on the edges to attack Seoul there.  We will on occasion move both TEs to one side to really stretch out the Seoul defense.  We will also use this in short yardage and goalline situations.  We will make use of Darnell’s size in the red zone to score TDs and blocking abilities in short yardage to move the chains.  Between Drake, Goedert, Garrett, and Darnell, we feel confident about winning a jump ball.

4 WR – 15% - Garrett/Aiyuk/Drake/Doubs/RB – Spread offense for hurry up and 2 minute drill.  Drake goes into the other slot for a size option inside.  We trust our OL to keep Love upright and give him time to read the field.  The RB will typically assist in blocking before releasing as a delayed safety option.

2 RB – 5% - Garrett/Aiyuk/Goedert/Achane/Pollard – One or both of Pollard and Achane will move in and out of the backfield to force Seoul to show their coverage.  If they bring in a 3rd LB, we will throw, if they use a DB, we will run.

5 WR – 5% - Garrett/Aiyuk/Drake/Doubs/Reed – We want to throw something new at Seoul this week and test the depth of their secondary.  We will be in shotgun and will likely move the pocket to give our WRs a little more time to work open.

Defense
TL;DR – Cover Kelce, limit the run game, make someone else beat us.

We welcome back a couple of defenders as we get healthier this week.  We are going to run a bit more cover 1 man this week as we want to get guys into the box to get bodies on Kelce and give us numbers against the run.  We will also utilize our Cover 3 Zone looks with regularity to not be predictable.  We will use Cover 3 zone more often on early downs.

Defensive Line
With Stanley hurt, we are going to give Hendrickson every snap he can against Donovan to wreck havoc.  We trust Derrick and Quinnen to blow things up on the interior.  Seoul has a very good OG pair, but Mason is a liability.  Houston will get to use his experience against the rookie Anton.

We will rotate in Mazi and Leal with some frequency to keep our top two DTs fresh.  Trey and Justin will come off the field only when necessary.

LB/SS
Jordyn and Antoine will be bracketing Kelce.  Both will be up in the box to assist in the run game, but they will follow Kelce everywhere.  Tremaine will have the RB in man coverage.  On rare occasion, Jordyn will blitz leaving Antoine in solo coverage against Kelce.  Also rarely, Tremaine will come on an A Gap blitz with Antoine taking Kelce and Jordyn taking the RB.  In 2 TE sets, Kyzir will come in and have Freiermuth in man coverage.

Cornerbacks
Despite their youth, our cornerbacks had a pretty good week last week.  Deonte will have Pickens, Benford will have Cooks, and St-Juste will have Lazard.  In 2 TE sets, Benford will come off the field and St-Juste will have Cooks.

If they go with a 4 WR set, Witherspoon will come in for Brooks and take the other slot.

If Cooks is out, St-Juste will take whichever WR is in the slot for 3 WR sets and slide outside in 2 WR sets.

As stated above, we will play a bit more man this week.  We think our CBs are up to the task, young as they may be.

FS
We welcome Thornhill back this week and he slides back into his deep safety role in Cover 1 and Cover 3.  He will on occasion shade to the Pickens side as he is their most explosive option.

 

Seoul Dragons

Offense:

Formation/Scheme: 

 2WR/2TE(60%),  3WR/1TE(30%)   2RB/1TE/2WR(10%),
West Coast passing game, set up with zone rushing attack. 
Pass (60%), Run (40%)

Blocking:
In a shocking turn of events,  we are without Ronnie Stanley this week.   Donovan Smith fills in as vet presence and we still feel confident his play will improve throughout the course of the year.   Despite this, we will have Muth lined up alongside him to provide assistance with chips.   On the interior we are still confident in our guys, despite Berlin’s group.   Quinnen Williams will get the double team on the inside on passing downs.   The RB’s will also be provide a chip to the left side on their way to the flat.   We need a big week from Anton this week, giving him 1 on 1 assignments on the right side.

Passing game:
We are looking to go more vertical this week on the outside,   we want to take multiple deep shots per quarter to Pickens on the outside.  George Pickens, Zay Jones and Allen Lazard will look to stay on the boundaries this week, and we hope to find them on deep outs, comebacks, fly routes throughout.   Kelce will align from the slot and we will use him often in motion to help with coverage assignments.  Kelce will look to attack the seams of Berlins defense, with Muth providing an outlet via zip or drag after his chipping assignment.  We won’t ask much from our RB’s in terms of pass pro, they will be providing a chip to the outside while escaping to the flat as an outlet receiver.   We encourage Carr to use these RB’s and let them make plays after the catch.

Running game: 
Despite the Berlin front,  we are still confident we have the IOL and RB’s to attack anyone on the ground.  We will look to continue our 3 RB rotation, with each seeing 10+ touches this week through the ground/air.   While Berlin has the front to shut down the interior running attack, we again believe our IOL can hold their own and we want to wear them down throughout the game.   We will concentrate on inside zone’s and look to force pressure through all gaps inside each tackles shoulders. 

Redzone is Anthony Richardson Time.   We will look to go to a more 2 RB set up, with Kelce as motion man.   We will run Read Option from the formation, as well as some RPO’s.   RB’s will look to attack the interior of the Berlin DL, while Richardson has full authority to pull it if the Berlin D starts crashing.   

Goal #1 –  Get our RB’s touches on the inside via the rushing game, and outside in the passing game
Goal #2 -  Provide Donovan Smith some protection via TE and RB.
Goal #3 -  Attack Berlin’s outside CB’s 15+ yards down the field and let Kelce/Muth eat up the middle.

Defense:

Alignment/Scheme:

Base:   4-2 Nickel (65%)
Subpackage:  4-1 Strong Dime (35%)

Base:
DE: David Ojabo / Dayo Odeyingbo
DT: Dexter Lawrence / Khalen Saunders
NT: DJ Reader/ Foley Fatukasi
Edge: Sam Williams / Joe Tryon
LB: CJ Mosley
LB: De’Vondre Campbell / Damone Clark
CB: Donte Jackson
CB: Trent McDuffie
NB: Kenny Moore
FS: Daxton Hill
SS: Richie Grant

Subpackage:
DE: David Ojabo / Dayo Odeyingbo
DT: Dexter Lawrence / Khalen Saunders
NT: DJ Reader / Foley Fatukasi
Edge: Sam Williams / Joe Tryon
LB: De’Vondre Campbell /  Damone Clark
Rover: Richie Grant
CB: Donte Jackson
CB: Trent McDuffie
NB: Kenny Moore
FS: Daxton Hill
SS: Kerby Joseph

Coverage:

80% Zone, 20% m2m.   We look to go heavy zone coverage in our base defense this week.   We will look to mix between Cover 2 and Cover 1 Press, looking to hold Berlin’s receivers off the snap and jam the intermediate passing game.     3rd and over 7, we will look to mix between Cover 2 press man and cover 1 press man, with the SS filling the seam to the slot WR side on cover 1. 
In sub packages we will be going with a similar gameplan, with Grant sliding down in a Roving role, De’Vondre Campbell will slide to the Mike, and Kerby Joseph will slide in to replace Grant as SS.    In this formation we will have Grant and Joseph be interchangeable, to mix up the presnap looks we give to Love.

Man Coverage assignments;

Drake London – Donte Jackson
Garrett Wilson – Trent McDuffie
Brandon Aiyuk – Kenny Moore
Dallas Goedert -  Richie Grant/De’Vondre Campbell
Tony Pollard -  De’Vondre Campbell / CJ Mosley

Pass Rush:
Our Edges will look to attack Berlin from the OT’s outside shoulders,  while also rolling with some stunts off our DT’s.    We want to keep Reader and Lawrence fresh this week, so we will be rolling heavy rotation on the inside from our base formation.   We want to get Lawrence matched up one on one with the Berlin RG and attack the QB from the inside.  

Run Defense:
Lawrence and Reader will plug up the entire with ease this week against Berlin, with Mosley as the stack LB inside.   Our edges will play contain on the exterior, and look to force the running  back inside.  

Goal#1:  Contain Berlin’s WR’s off the snap and limit Love getting them the ball early.
Goal#2:  Keep Reader and Lawrence fresh early,  specifically Lawrence so we can get him matched up against Berlin’s IOL on passing downs.
Goal#3:   Use our 3 Safety looks in subpackages to confuse Love with multiple looks and alignments on the back end.

[Blue]

I don't think Seoul can keep up with Berlin's talent here.

[Scoundrel]

Went Berlin but barely. Seoul is better than the last two weeks votes are going. But I think that Berlin is able to hold up at tackle against this pass rush enough to give Jordan Love the time he needs to make plays. I think Pickens works Banks and Kelce eats. But it just isn’t quite enough this week.

[SirA1]

The rebuilt Berlin team is impressive again this week. 

Berlin 28 - Seoul 14

[TedLavie]

Closest game of the week so far from me. Besides the play of Dexter Lawrence and Quinnen Williams, I think both offenses function very well here. I think it's a bit of a shootout but in the end I went with Berlin because:

- I like their stretch run scheme more than Seoul inside zone

- I think their edge rushers can get a clutch sack more than Seoul's.

34-28 Berlin

(extremely weird to vote against Seoul btw)

[bcb1213]

I thin Pickens is going to go off against Deonte Banks while Berlin is definitely doing the correct thing going run heavy to the edges in this matchup. The Seoul LB crew is good enough to eliminate a lot of huge plays but I think they ultimately get worn down as a defensive unit late while Harrison allows a big sack on the last minute comeback attempt

Berlin 20-16

[Whicker]

I really like Seoul’s use of Kelce and pulling him out into the slot (he’s listed at Z which strictly means outside WR in my world but I’m going with the writeup) given Berlin’s decision to bracket and shadow him with an LB. I think Seoul does find some good success with their inside running with Brooks vacating the box. I also think Pickens and Kelce will have big days. I am unsure about the 2 QB system IRL but I like it on a purely theoretical level and think they are able to get some advantage from it here as a surprise. 
On the other side, I think Berlin made a good call with stretch run plays and I see them having some decent success, especially out of a double tight set. Their WRs are very good and would win overall against Seoul’s secondary. I am slightly confused at Seoul’s implication of playing zone in Cover-1 which as far as I know isn’t a thing. I’m going to presume they’re running primarily Cover-2 during their 80% zone plays and Cover-1 press and Cover-2 man for the remainder. 
It was tough to decide but I do think Berlin does ultimately have more horses than Seoul and would be able to sustain their gameplan for longer. I think Seoul very clearly wins on the ground with the Kelce play. Despite their good pass catching matchups however, I think they ultimately fall short in the pass game compared to Berlin. It’ll be a close game and I think I’d ultimately bet Seoul to beat the spread as an underdog, but Berlin pulls out a tougher-than-expected road victory 

[RuskieTitan]

Berlin stole ICBR's soul. They leverage it here to win.

[RedGold]

Gg @Ragnarok

[Ragnarok]

6 hours ago, RedGold said:

Gg @Ragnarok

You as well

[Scoundrel]

10 hours ago, RuskieTitan said:

Berlin stole ICBR's soul. They leverage it here to win.

Lol