BDL 2023 Week 3 - Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Hungary Hippos

[rackcs]

BDL 2023 Week 3

Match:  Ivory Coast Black Rhinos @ Hungary Hippos

Away Owner: @RuskieTitan

Home Owner: @PR

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]

Lineups

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

Ivory Coast Offense
QB - Sam Howell
RB - Miles Sanders
WR - Terry McLaurin
WR - Amon-Ra St. Brown
WR - Jordan Addison
TE - Evan Engram
LT - Trent Williams
LG - Damien Lewis
OC - Josh Myers
RG - Zack Martin
RT - Chukwuma Okorafor

------------------------------------

RB - Antonio Gibson
RB - Ezekiel Elliott
FB - Khari Blasingame
WR - Jalin Hyatt
WR - Chase Claypool
TE - Albert Okwuegbunam
OL - Josh Jones
OL - Quinn Meinerz

------------------------------------

Ivory Coast Defense
DE - Myles Garrett
NT - Teair Tart
DT - Da'Ron Payne
DE - Khalil Mack
MLB - Devin White
OLB - Alex Anzalone
CB - AJ Terrell
CB - Ronald Darby
S - Jordan Whitehead
S - Kyle Dugger
S - Jordan Fuller

------------------------------------

DE - Chase Young
DE - Will McDonald IV
NT - Christian Barmore
DT - Devonte Wyatt
DT - Keondre Coburn
LB - Patrick Queen
S – Lewis Cine
S – Ashtyn Davis

 

Hungary Hippos

QB: Geno Smith

WR: DK Metcalf

WR: Tyler Lockett

WR: Donovan Peoples Jones

WR: Calvin Austin 

TE: TJ Hockenson

LT: Garrett Bolles

LG: Matt Feiler

😄 Jake Brendel

RG: Brandon Schereff

RT: Brian O'Neill

 

RB: Brian Robinson

RB: Rachaad White

RB: Joe Mixon

RB: Dalvin Cook

WR: Donovan Peoples Jones

TE: Daniel Bellinger

TE: Ian Thomas

OL: Trent Brown

OL: Walker Little

 

Edge: Maxx Crosby

DT: Larry Ogunjobi

DT: Fletcher Cox

Edge: Will Anderson

LB: Ivan Pace Jr.

LB: Logan Wilson

CB: Roger McCreary

NCB: Jourdon Lewis

FS: Russ Yeast

SS: Harrison Smith

CB: Jeff Okudah

 

Edge: Jadeveon Clowney

Edge:Charles Harris

DT: Javon Kinlaw

LB: Zach Baun

CB: Tre Brown

CB: Kei'trel Clark

CB: Marcus Peters

S: Donovan Wilson

[rackcs]

Gameplans

Ivory Coast Black Rhinos

Motivation: Revenge for Nick Chubb.

Offense

Primary Formation: 11 & 12 (Single Back, Shotgun and Bunch formations)

Running Game Focus:

Miles Sanders is our primary back, with Antonio Gibson and Zeke Elliott providing Sanders with some breathers and spilling him on third and long. Khari Blasingame will operate as our fullback when we feel the need to pound the rock for short yardage as well as I-formation looks, and Josh Jones will provide the 6th OL support in goal line situations.

·         Establish the run early and often, setting up the play action pass

·         Leverage double team inside blocks to support the center and get to the second level (linebackers)

·         Use delays and counters to catch the defense off-balance

·         Feed the Sanders, then fleece the defense with Gibson and Elliott

Passing Game Focus:

We’re going to use pre-snap motion to allow Howell to read the defense and make adjustments at the line. We’re going to focus on keeping Howell upright, featuring chips and blocks by our tight ends and backs, primarily on the right side. Our receivers are fast and quick, and we plan on allowing Howell to dissect the defense, as we feel confident someone will be winning their route on every play.

·         Protect Sam Howell

·         Utilize the play action pass established from the running game

·         Focus on short and intermediate routes, leveraging crossing routes to allow for our quick receivers to separate and create space

·         Especially take advantage of the short crossing routes, our receivers have the agility and quickness to take the small reception and turn up-field

·         Take advantage of our athletic tight ends and shift them out for mismatch opportunities

·         Have a receiver threaten deep regularly and take the shot when the defense allows; otherwise keep one route deep to stretch and let us operate underneath

·         Against Zone we’ll utilize flood concepts against one side of the field

·         Against Man we’ll feature slants, rub routes, and stop-and-go routes

·         Against everything we’ll shallow crossing route them to death until they cheat up, then beat them deep

Defense

Defensive Formation:

The 4-2-5 alignment will be the primary alignment against three receiver sets. Payne and Tart will man the middle, Tart handling more of the nose duties with Barmore supporting him. Garrett and Mack start on the edges, with rotations to keep them fresh all game long. Devin White and Alex Anzalone are the off-ball linebackers, with White being the primary linebacker stepping up to the line. Our cornerbacks will be AJ Terrell and Ronald Darby. We’ll use cover 2 and cover 3 shells with our three safeties. 

 

Against the Pass:

We’re going to have our defensive interior focused on penetration and eliminating room to step up in the pocket. We’re confident our edges will collapse the pocket around their quarterback, and prevent him from being able to slide out of the pocket. We’ll sprinkle some wide 9 alignments with our edges on obvious passing downs (3rd and 8+, 4th and 5+), as well as throw our pass rushers on the field together. We’ll primarily use man coverage to play tighter to the receivers, trusting our defensive line to make quick work of their offensive line, and we will keep eyes on anyone trying to come out of the backfield

·         Pressure QB up the middle

·         Utilize A-gap blitzes with linebackers (Not blitzing often)

·         Always keep at least one safety over the top

·         Play tighter to the receiver, but not focused on jamming necessarily – we want to force contested catches throughout the routes

·         Use the wide nine alignment on third and longs (8+ yards)

·         Use Mack and Garrett inside on certain third and long packages

Against the Run:

We want to limit the damage done by their backfield, and will have the defense swarm to the football. If needed, one of the safeties will drop into the box for additional support, regardless of cover 2 or cover 3 post-snap. We’ve got the players to rotate in throughout the game, and really punish and wear down their backs.

·         Swarm to the ball carrier and secure tackles

·         Once ball carrier is secured, take opportunities to try and force fumbles

·         Utilize a safety in the box pre-snap to provide additional support against the run if needed

Hungary Hippos

Offense:  

70/30 Pass/Run ratio

Playbook: Air Coryell

 

Keys to the the game:

ICBR has two healthy cornerbacks. Air the ball out. 

Try to take advantage of the non-cb trying to play cb. There are reasons cbs and safeties are different positions. We will try to force Lockett or DK  on the non-cb by sliding them into slot and DPJ and Austin will have even weaker coverage as the rest of ICBRs are deep backups at best.

God damn ICBR got dealt a bad hand. Diggs out with a torn acl. Womack on IR. Newsome out this week. They only have AJ Terrell and Ronald Darby left trying to play CB this week. We expect ICBR to try to deploy safeties to cover, but only one in addition to his starters gets any sort of playing time. 

We will go into the spread this week with four receivers. We are going to target their glaring weakness. Terrell and Darby can only cover two people so all of the other two will be open on any other play. We will rotate DK and Lockett through the interior slot positions to find mismatches. We want Geno to sling it today. Hockenson will be flushed to Garrett's side of the field if Ruskie keeps playing Mack on the other. Mack is in the top two of most failed pass rushing attempts thus far this season. Old man be old. Hock will provide an extra chip to the edge rusher and will go out for a pass after. We will look for Hock in the seam in case they try to run a shell defense. This will buy Geno just a smidge more time in the pocket to find the open receiver.

Occasionally, BRob or White will come into the game for either DPJ/Austin or Hock as a dual threat in the running game or passing game. We want ICBR to respect the running ability of the team in 3 and 4 wide. At any given time the RB can be given the ball and they will have to beat the LBer. (If they are bringing up a safety this week I'm heavily pitying them)  This will also allow Geno to scramble freely as well as the defense will be spread out. 

 

Defense:

ICBR lost Rodgers and Chubb in two consecutive weeks. Now it is Howell (hasn't played bad by any means) and Myles Sanders?

Their receiving core is definitely respectable. This week, however, we get a revamped secondary to help cover the receiving threats.

Roger McCreary: Has allowed only 54 yards and receptions in two games.

Jourdan Lewis: Back to full health this week. Only allowed one reception last week.

Jeff Okudah the boom or bust. Former first round pick, but can he live up to the hype? We shall see.

As we believe ICBR will come out in their typical 3 wide concept we will primarily be in 4-2-5. On 2 TE sets, we will bring in a third safety for coverage. 

We respect the passing game, the running game is meh without Chubb. 

Thus our main goal is to stop the passing game. 

On the defensive front even though Ogunjobi is listed as the starter, we expect Kinlaw to be on the field frequently for passing downs. He has had a top 10 win rate with pass rushing this season and has racked up 10 QB hurries so far.

 

Pass Defense:

Cover 3 - Safety aligned towards McLaurins side of the field.

McCreary will be aligned with St. Brown. 

Okudah will be aligned with McLaurin.

Lewis will have the nickel in the Cover 3. 

Pace will stay mid as Wilson flushes out towards the TE side. Smith will slide forward off the snap and defend the area vacated by the LBer.

 

We will also feature Cover 3 Sky and Buzz to give Howell different looks.

Against 2TE we will run a 3 high safety defense with Wilson coming in to defend the zone as a third safety. Baun will come in if Wilson is a game day inactive.

 

Run Defense: 

With us running a primary Cover 3, it'll bring the SS into the box on most plays. Pace has been a run stopping machine thus far this season, Wilson and Smith also are solid run defenders so we see us limiting the defensive production here. Ogunjobi will come in in any short yardage plays to have an extra thick run defender on the line.

[Whicker]

NGL I am not a fan of “look at how good my players have been” in your gameplan. 
 

I have a ton of respect for Ruskie and what this ICBR team would have done in this league in the alternate universe where he wasn’t ravaged by ridiculous injuries, but at this point that secondary just isn’t gonna cut it for me. I think ICBR still has quite the offense even without Rodgers and Chubb which is a huge credit to them. They’ll score points. 
As you all know I’m a fan of the 4 wide, but I do think 0 RB is overly ambitious. Hungary is definitely better off than Greenland in this area though as they actually have RBs and have running in their plan, as well as of course they’re going against a decimated secondary. 

[PR]

4 hours ago, Whicker said:

NGL I am not a fan of “look at how good my players have been” in your gameplan. 
 

I have a ton of respect for Ruskie and what this ICBR team would have done in this league in the alternate universe where he wasn’t ravaged by ridiculous injuries, but at this point that secondary just isn’t gonna cut it for me. I think ICBR still has quite the offense even without Rodgers and Chubb which is a huge credit to them. They’ll score points. 
As you all know I’m a fan of the 4 wide, but I do think 0 RB is overly ambitious. Hungary is definitely better off than Greenland in this area though as they actually have RBs and have running in their plan, as well as of course they’re going against a decimated secondary. 

When you don't have name recognition you literally have to point things out. Otherwise it is "oh I haven't heard of him? Must be ****"

[bcb1213]

Hungary with the illegal roster is fun

[Whicker]

29 minutes ago, PR said:

When you don't have name recognition you literally have to point things out. Otherwise it is "oh I haven't heard of him? Must be ****"

Do it in comments not in the plan 

[Blue]

2 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

Hungary with the illegal roster is fun

No, they just listed DPJ twice.

I really, really hate voting for a team with a 4 WR base offense, but if they're running 30% of plays and the opponent has 2 healthy corners...like, I kinda have to give it to them. Feels bad for Ivory Coast and I think their front seven does a great job with the hand they're dealt, but come on.

[PR]

11 hours ago, bcb1213 said:

Hungary with the illegal roster is fun

@Scoundrel @SirA1 Please tell me you two didn't vote against me for accidentally listing a guy twice in a lineup? 

[PR]

10 hours ago, Whicker said:

Do it in comments not in the plan 

Yeah, that makes zero sense when people say "should've put it in the writeup" afterwards.

[TedLavie]

Look empty sets as base is a big no-no for me. But, Hungary does mention running plays and Hockenson chipping in for Garrett. So it's not as bad as I first thought. And, whilst I do think both Dugger and Whitehead can decently play in the slot (they do it IRL in around a third of the snaps), not only IC has 2 valid corners, they also don't have any bench safeties that play IRL. It's just too damning to recover, especially since Howell, who I like, was s*** this week. I tend to not get carried away by week-to-week IRL performances, but it's hard to predict IC winning a shootout this week to be honest.

I do feel sorry for Ruskie.

[Scoundrel]

38 minutes ago, PR said:

@Scoundrel @SirA1 Please tell me you two didn't vote against me for accidentally listing a guy twice in a lineup? 

Nope

[SirA1]

46 minutes ago, PR said:

@Scoundrel @SirA1 Please tell me you two didn't vote against me for accidentally listing a guy twice in a lineup? 

I don't think your patchwork OL can withstand the might that is the IC DL.

[PR]

51 minutes ago, TedLavie said:

Look empty sets as base is a big no-no for me. But, Hungary does mention running plays and Hockenson chipping in for Garrett. So it's not as bad as I first thought. And, whilst I do think both Dugger and Whitehead can decently play in the slot (they do it IRL in around a third of the snaps), not only IC has 2 valid corners, they also don't have any bench safeties that play IRL. It's just too damning to recover, especially since Howell, who I like, was s*** this week. I tend to not get carried away by week-to-week IRL performances, but it's hard to predict IC winning a shootout this week to be honest.

I do feel sorry for Ruskie.

Cine has 0 defensive snaps over 3 games and Davis has 10 to be exact.

[TedLavie]

Just now, PR said:

Cine has 0 defensive snaps over 3 games and Davis has 10 to be exact.

I know that, by the rules, they aren't considered out. But we're a 16 team league with 70 man rosters. If you're starting someone with 10 snaps in 3 games IRL, it's almost like starting an injured player for me.